How reliable is the Windows Experience Index?

Is this Experience Index... Aero thing reliable for comparing the gaming performance of a computer?

It's telling me that my 'Gaming graphics' is 5.8 but after putting my desktop 7800gt to the same tests (such as Crysis) as the new M8800 GTX, it falls a little short of the 8800 but the 8800, I believe, has a 5.8 for gaming gx as well.

 

It gives you a ballpark estimate. The 8800 is probably 3 times better than the 7800, so it was kind of off in that case.

 

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking too... thought the 7800's the desktop version and the 8800's the mobile version, but still I'd say it was way off.

 

To answer that question, no. Not really that reliable. It's pretty iffy.

 

You shouldn't judge a PC's performance by the experience index. Some people even edit it so they get a 5.9 on everything lol.

 

You mean a 9.9 lol

 

uhh i got 4.8 for ram with 2gb

and i'm getting 4.8 for memory with 3gb


therefore not reliable at all lol

 

The ram one is for the SPEED but not the SIZE.

 

Not reliable at all... For example...

My desktop had a E2160 800Mhz FSB with 2GB od DDR2 667 RAM which had a RAM score of 4.8. That 4.8 score was the same as my i1520 (specs in sig). I changed the E2160 to an E6750 with a 1333Mhz FSB and now the RAM score is a 5.9...

This is evidence to me that Vista is rating the RAM higher due to the higher FSB, but the RAM speed won't change with a faster FSB (as the FSB wasn't limiting the RAM).

The RAM index should rate the same unless the RAM was replaced with faster RAM or in a system that wasn't able to operate it at its rated speed.

 

its still pointless, speed or size.

2 gigs of ram at 667mhz is what it is. you don't need an experience index to tell you anything else about it.

 

To measure 3D performance, use something like 3D Mark or a game benchmark (average FPS)

 

I find it hard to believe the Windows Experience Index was ever suppose replace a performance benchmarking program. I thought the Index was there mainly to see if your computer would handle the Windows Aero interface. BTW, the interface is garbage. Vista Basic Theme FTW.

 

I think WEI was meant to gauge the "vista user experience" that one could expect from some given hardware configuration, and can also be used as a tentative indication of bottlenecks, in the event that the user would want to upgrade their hardware.

Not to say however that it shouldn't be taken with a grain of salt.

 

I think a bit of it is to make you feel good about your laptop having a high score , its not accurate but like 'surfasb' said I think its more about the aero interface and what 'Relativity17' is also saying.