8400M GS and Windows Experience Index

genuinecreation · 08 Apr 2010

Hi All,

I have an HP 6915ee laptop with an NVIDIA 8400M GS video card. It has a windows experience index of 3.2:

Processor: 5.1
Memory: 5.1
Graphics 3.2
Gaming graphics: 5.2
Primary hard disk: 5.4

As you can see, my "Graphics" is quite low. Why would Graphics be significantly less than Gaming graphics? I would expect it to be the other way around as games are more intense than Windows Aero.

I also do notice that Windows Aero does not run AS smooth as some of the other computers I have used. Even my Dell laptop with an ATI x1400 felt like it ran smoother. Don't get me wrong, it runs pretty good but I feel it should be better, especially the smoothness of minimizing/maximizing windows.

I have tried updating to the most recent video card drivers but it doesn't seem to help. Anyone know if my score is what it should be or is something wrong?

Thanks for the help.

not so gray matter · 08 Apr 2010

This should teach you about the WEI scores:
Explore the features: Windows experience index

If you're sick of waiting for Aero to do it's thing, disable visual effects or disable aero.

Disabling Visual Effects
Start > Control Panel > System & Security > System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced Tab > Performance Box > Settings Button > Adjust for Best Performance

Disabling Aero
Start > Control Panel > Personalization > Choose a theme under "Basic and High Contrast Themes" instead of "Aero Themes"

Note: If you disable visual effects, it automatically disables Aero.

genuinecreation · 08 Apr 2010

I do not want to disable Windows Aero. I just feel I should be getting much better performance than this.. and I think the WEI score shows theres a problem. I have yet to see on any system a Graphics score that is lower than the Gaming graphics score.

Anybody know?

not so gray matter · 08 Apr 2010

Well I don't know whats causing the problem, but here is how both scores are decided:

MSBlog said:

Graphics Score

This score is intended to reflect how a system will run Aero (desktop composition) and playback Windows Media Video. It measures video memory bandwidth (in mega bytes per second) and converts it to a score between 1.0 and 5.9.

If the graphics hardware does not support DirectX 9 (DX9) graphics, then the system receives a graphics score of 1.0 regardless of driver type. If the system supports DX9, but does not have a WDDM Driver (Windows Vista Display Driver Model) the system will then receive a graphics score of 1.9 at the most.

In other words, either your system isn't running Aero properly for some reason. (Try a repair install)
Or the video memory bandwidth is lower than normal.

MSBlog said:

Gaming Score

The gaming score measures the frames per second the graphics card can handle for various textures.

Additional notes:

· If the graphics card does not support D3D 9 then it receives a Gaming score of 1.0.

· If D3D 9 is supported, the card is DX9 capable and has a WDDM driver, it will score at least 2.0.

· If the score is greater than or equal to 5.0 and the graphics sub-system does not support Pixel Shader 3.0 then the score is limited to 4.9

After researching a bunch of scores from people w/ 8400M GS cards, they tend to have scores in the 3-4 range for graphics as well.

Information

3.4 - N/A | 3.4 / 4.2 | 3.8 / 4.6
Source Of Scores

You've got an average gfx score and an above average gaming score compared to those in the thread linked above. My only suggestion would be to update your gfx drivers to the latest version.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/noteboo...7.16_whql.html