Better Computer - lower windows experience index score????

I use to have a Dell E1705 with 2.16 ghz duo core, 2 gigs of ram, and the 256 mb Geforce 7900 GS and this was my windows experience index score in vista


However, I (unfortuantly burned out that laptop) so I got a new one. Its the Inspiron 1720 with 2.4 ghz duo core, 2 gigs of ram, and 256 mb Geforce 8600 GT. And my score (especially for the desktop performance for windows aero) is significantly lower. It dropped from 5.9 to 4.5


I mean I wouldn't really care if it doesn't affect performance, but it does. I can see small (but noticeable) lags when I close a program and such. Both of these graphics cards are running on the same driver. So why does the 8600 GT performs so bad compared to the 7900 GS? And is there any way I can improve my performance/score?

 

WEI is a big fat piece of crap. It doesn't know dirt from ****.

 

Exactly.

Might also want to upgrade to laptopvideo2go.com drivers.

 

It doesnt test the performance of the video card, otherwise you would see some actual tests running, it just pretty much looks up numbers and assigns points based on that number.

If you want more accurate test for game performance run 3dmark06 or 3dmark05

 

Be glad my WEI is 3.5 lulz

 

I thought WEI was simply a random number generator !

 

WEI notwithstanding, you went from a card with 32GB/sec bandwidth, 16 ROPS, and 6 billion Pixels/sec fill rate to one with 2/3 the bandwidth, 1/2 the ROPS, and slightly more than 1/2 the fill rate. There's more to 3D card performance than shaders......

 

Nah, it reads specs and gives it an assigned number So it's not that random. lol

 

But is it true that that 8600 GT beats the 7900 GS?

 

The 8600m GT's raw performance is slightly under that of a Go 7900 GS.

 

And, compared to the 7900 GS, the 8600M GT is a bit limited by its 128-bit bus width [256-bit on the Go 7900 GS], which translates to weaker performance in larger resolutions.

 

FYI, if youre willing to desolder the heat pipe and swap them the two cards are infact interchangeable

 

I have dual 8800M GTX's.

Windows aero score is 5.9, if I enable sli it drops to 4.0...

Just gives you an idea of what to expect when using WEI as a benchmark...lol

WEI is a huge failure. Seriously, I don't know why microsoft even attempted to do something like this.

Without Sli, my WEI is 5.0 because I have 667 MHz ram in my laptop.

Really, who gives a crap. Just because I have slower ram doesn't mean my entire system is slower....This laptop would put most desktops that score 5.9 to shame.

Moral of the story, WEI means absolutely nothing, and microsoft is very ignorant for trying to implement something like this without real benchmarks.

 

Actually the 8600m GT performs a little bit better. But not much, though...

It only loses to the Geforce Go 7900 GTX which has similar to better performance in comparison w/a 8700m GT...

Nevertheless, the 8600m GT has at least one big edge over the Geforce Go 7900 GS: DirectX 10.

 

Well, yeah it can run DX10, but can it run smoothly is the better argument. It just barely has enough horsepower for DX10 games at the moment and I doubt "weaker" [in terms of requirements] DX10 games will come out any time soon. I heard AC runs pretty well on it though so maybe it's not as bad as I make it seem Besides, there's still the option of running in DX9 mode if worse comes to worse.

 

That was a JOKE !

 

in older games, the 7900 gs outperforms the 8600m gt... in newer games, the 8600m gt is faster. they are both pretty close regardless.

 

believing WEI is like believing its ok to leave your kids with the old guy that is in family guy. Plus its possible to hack WEI and give any score you want, a few people had to do it when there was a bug in WEI giving low scores for new equipment and it would not let them run a game because WEI was too low.

 

WEI can block you from playing a game? orly? I would call MS with some very fiery words if that had happened to me...

 

Yep I think its only something that happens with "made for windows" games like halo, shadowrun ect. I happen to have both games. If you do not meet the recomended wei score the game wont start. Shadowrun has some pretty high requirments too shame when the game is not really that graphically intense and probably the biggest waist of money on my part in a long time. Runs like crap on my high end system and for a multiplayer FPS I have never seen such an abomination when it comes to online gaming options and connectivity.

 

Just when you think Vista couldn't get any worse... you find out WEI can block gamers from gaming.

 

Current performance aside, theoretically DX10 should always outperform DX9 period. The main thing about DX10 is supposed to be efficiency. I think part of the reason it's not at the moment was because of poor support early on in its lifespan and bad driver support from almost every manufacturer for Windows Vista. I think as more people move to Vista, the drivers will mature a bit more, and more developers will code games with DX10 primarily, not as an afterthought, and DX10 will slowly overtake DX9 in terms of performance. Assassin's Creed may be one of the first games to start this trend.

I wouldn't rule out the 8600m's DX10 capability just quite yet since the 9-series hardware is essentially a copy of the 8-series, games are going to have to be written more efficiently if they want to look better since there isn't really any new hardware. If the emphasis of game development is more on efficiency, the 8600m can't be counted out. Just look at what companies like Blizzard are able to do with games that look pretty good and run on almost anything.