# Windows Experience Index



## steelyglint (Nov 14, 2015)

*Windows Experience Index*

Just been having a bit of a poke about in this Windows 7 Ultimate and came across the 'Windows Experience Index'.

It rates processor, RAM, graphics, gaming graphics and primary hard drive. At first I was a bit disappointed that my GTX970 had only scored 7.9 and puzzled as to why my SSD had rated even lower at 7.2 - I've gone through disc cleaning several times and there's never been anything to clean up, same for defragging. I can't imagine a solid state drive would ever need defragging, but Windows 7 offers the option, so I tried it.

Anyhow, a little reading later and I found that 7.9 is currently the highest possible score - the range is 1.0 to 7.9 - so the GTX970 is actually pushing the 'Windows Experience Index' envelope.

Processor - 7.3 
RAM - 7.6
Graphics - 7.9
Gaming Graphics - 7.9
Primary hard drive - 7.2

So why is the SSD rated lower than graphics? I know I don't have the fastest CPU, so the 7.3 there is understandable; the machine is running on 8gb of RAM just now, but I have another 8gb stick to put in, so maybe that will improve the 7.6 rating there. Is there another kind of hard drive available that I missed when buying the parts, one that's faster or more efficient than the SSD?

I'm just puzzled because I thought I was being 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' and getting consumer 'state-of-the-art' components - especially graphics and SSD. Apparently got the graphics part right, but I seem to have fluffed it slightly with the hard drives (I can't imagine the SSHD would score higher if I swapped them over).

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## J Riff (Nov 14, 2015)

On older laptops, you can only get a 3 rating, because of the aero graphics stuff, but the PC runs fine with all those features turned off. I have 4 of them and 3 is the highest rating possible, so you are cooking with gas and probably shouldn't be concerned. )


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 16, 2015)

It's all a bit arbitrary and not entirely related to real world. If your machine can run the SW you need and isn't holding you back waiting for it, then it's irrelevant.


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## SilentRoamer (Nov 16, 2015)

Is your SSD Sata? If so that will be the reason it is lower on WEI. If your SSD was SAS then it would probably rate higher.

As Ray McCarthy says its pretty arbitrary.


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