topic Re: low windows experience index in PCs & Accessories

low windows experience index

martynrb — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 10:56:13 GMT

Why does my Vaio SZ5-VWN have a comparatively low Vista Windows Experience Index of 3.3?
It's a high spec machine, but uses nVidia shared graphics memory up to 335Mb so am I correct in assumption that Vista only looks at dedicated graphics memory (64Mb), and not total available when calculating this number?

Re: low windows experience index

rich912 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:56:56 GMT

Hi martynrb,

As I am sure you are aware the Windows Experience Index is governed by the lowest Subscore.

If you provided details of all subscores then possibly another SZ5-VWN user can compare and confirm or otherwise.

Re: low windows experience index

rcruth — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:01:22 GMT

i think 3.3 is generous considering how slow the system is on my new vaio which has a much better spec than my old thinkpad, but goes much slower. vista seems the problem! i would give it a satisfaction rating of 1 on a good day

Re: low windows experience index

broochie — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:18:54 GMT

My VAIO VGN-SZ2XP/C has a score of 3.4, l reckon if it wasn't for the upgrades it would have been way lower than that... maybe a 1.0 , btw it now has 2GB RAM(from 1GB) & a 160GB HDD 7200rpm(from 100GB 5400rpm)

Re: low windows experience index

Blencogo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:22:01 GMT

I wonder if Vista is measuring the lowest Graphics Experience Index available when the Vaio is in "Stamina" Mode and assessing the capabilities of the rubbish Intel GMA950 Graphics Chip? I could believe this could be about 3 to 3.5.

I would expect the nVidia GeForce Go 7400 Graphics to have a much higher Index.

Have you tried turning on the "Speed" switch and then manually recalculating the Experience Index?

Re: low windows experience index

Blencogo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:49:01 GMT

Of course, you can always change the Index to anything you like!!!

Go to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore and check for the latest .XML file.
Open it with Word or Notepad.
Navigate to Lines 12-19. They will show scores of your PC on various accounts.
You can just change the main one in Line-12 to whatever figue you want. For instance I changed mine to 9.9 !

Save the file with the same name. You may have to disable UAC.

That will make you feel better!!!! It may actually allow extra software to run - but I haven't tried that!!!

Re-running the calculation will create a new .XML file and put it back to normal.

:smileygrin: :smileygrin: :smileygrin:

Re: low windows experience index

martynrb — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:10:01 GMT

Thanks for the replies guys.
My experience with this particular machine has been much less than satisfactory, its performance is really not what I'd expected. I'd agree with you rcruth, and I'm beginning to wish I'd never sold my lovely S3XP.

On 'Speed' mode I get:
Processor 5.1
Memory (RAM) 4.7
Graphics 3.6
Gaming Graphics 3.2
Primary Hard Disk 4.5
So today I'm down to 3.2 .... gulp.

On 'Stamina' mode I get:
Processor 5.1
Memory (RAM) 4.7
Graphics 3.0
Gaming Graphics 3.1
Primary Hard Disk 4.5
Giving me a score of 3.0.

Re: low windows experience index

kee-lo_ — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:35:57 GMT

A lot of factors can lead to a low score, like slow RAM, integrated graphics cards and slow hard disk access. As it's not a desktop, this isn't changable, apart from a faster hard disk drive and faster RAM modules (depends if it can run at the full speed too).

Windows Experience scores really don't mean much, to me they're just a show-off point. If your machine is working well and is doing what you require don't worry about it, just enjoy the VAIO.