Vostro 1500 with 8400M has experience index of only 3.4??

Well...got my Vostro 1500 today! And I am impressed. It seems very nice.

First thing I did was run the Windows Experience Index

I have a 5.1 for my processor (2.2 Ghz)
4.5 for my memory (1gb now---I'll upgrade via third party ram to 4gb later)
4.7 for my harddrive (160gb/5400 rpm...not a bad score for 5400)

But my graphics is 3.4!?

(Gaming graphics is 4.2... I could have sworn it was lower but seems to have gone up since getting the microsoft vista updates)

I am surprised that the graphics number is 3.4 .... for some reason I expected it to be above 4!

What would it be with the 8600M GT? What about the gaming graphics number?

Will the 8600M cause the system to be louder (i.e. will it run the fan faster, which will cause more noise?) How does the 8600 affect battery life?

Can Dell send me out the 8600 video card and can I replace it? Or do I have to return this computer and buy a whole new one?

Thanks

(p.s. I won't be playing games with this....but I spent over $1500 on it...I certainly am willing to spend another $170 to increase my overall experience. Any advice is welcome.)

 

i believe you have time to return your system, and completely re-order a new one. waiting times included

no dell can't send you a 8600 , it's not upgradeable

if you don't really game, i wouldn't worry about graphics, but you did get ripped off on your laptop.

 

I think the graphics score is for your Windows Vista Experience (ie aero glass crap) once you install that ram it should shoot up

 

You realize that Windows Experience rating is basically worthless right?

 

That's also very true

 

My guess is that it's the 128 MB of memory on the graphics card.

For more about the WEI check out: http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/458117.aspx

Install the applications you're going to use and run them. Is the system responsive enough to meet your expectations? If it is, keep it. If not, return it. Don't let the WEI negatively affect your opinion of your new lappy.

 

I got a 5.1 on gaming graphics with the GT, but only a 4.3 overall due to the 5400 rpm hard drive.

 

And, my Latitude D630 with a 7400 4-mb cache and 7200 rpm hard drive with the INTEGRATED intel x3100 graphics nets an overall 3.7 windows experience score.

 

Good information. What did you get for regular graphics?

Thanks!

 

QFA... just see how it performs in Aero/regular use and in gaming - if it's good for your purposes, who cares what Microsoft thinks?

 

Here is a very interesting blog post on the WEI:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000678.html

 

... and D830's with NVS 140 are apparently scoring 3.2 - 3.4...

 

If you're not gaming or using 3D apps, your "overall experience" will be best with the x3100 integrated graphics, because that will give you the best battery life. Heat and noise may also be reduced compared to the dedicated cards.

 

the numbers are useless, especially that Aero score and 3D gaming score, for whatever odd reason Vista thinks my desktop 8600GT is at the pinnacle of GPU technology and received a 5.9 in that category.

 

Although what you are saying makes sense, I need to make sure my laptop is good enough for everything I do today, and everything I will want to do for the next two years. Hopefully some of these things will be so interesting I haven't thought of them yet.

No, I didn't. Leaving beside the question of gaming ...which I have little interest in, can you explain exactly why? It's a benchmark, all benchmarks are imperfect, as is everything. But I haven't seen any evidence that it isn't a good indication of performance of a machine under Windows.

 

I have the same card and am getting a 3.6...

 

Even with the intel gma x3100 in sony vaio FZ the windows experience score was 3.7. Nvidia 8400M GS is sick.

 

That's odd, I have a 8400GS in my 1420 with:

Graphics: 3.6
Gaming Graphics: 4.5

 

5.0. Not much difference.

 

I don't think it has anything to do with the graphics card. Or else they wouldn't have a seperate rating for graphics vs gaming graphics. Did you get home basic? Maybe they mean you didn't get home premium, so your graphics don't include aero glass and crap like that?

Like has been said, integrated graphics are getting better scores than that. If the graphics rating was based on your video card, that wouldn't make any sense.

btw- you can upgrade your gpu on the 1500 to the 8600m gt. It'll void the warranty though.

 

I was disappointed at this on my HP as well. I'm getting like a 3.3 or 3.4 for Aero experience. I have noticed that dragging windows around seems to be sluggish. I'm not a gamer, so that's the main thing that bothers me. I'm also running Vista 64 bit, so I was hoping it was just a driver issue. Maybe a future update will unlock some amazing performance?

 

I got 3.5 with X3100, 1.5G RAM, CPU 5470. Vostro 1400.