[hot-fuzz]

Ive been playing around with Vista for a while now and come across an interesting feature.

If you click your "rating" in Computer - Properties you get a list of scores for individual processes of your PC.

Processor - P4 3.4GHz - 4.0
Memory (RAM) - 1791MB - 3.9
Graphics - Nvidia 5200 GeForce - 2.0
Gaming Graphics - 2.6
Primary Hard Drive - 400GB - 5.0

Giving me an overall score of 2.0 (takes the lowest apparently)

I have no idea what the top score is, but post yours up here and we can get a good idea of what a good spec for Vista is.

[Stiggy]

I have a Dell 9150

Processor - P4D 920 2.8GHz - 4.7
Memory (RAM) - 1024MB - 4.5
Graphics - ATi X600 - 4.1
Gaming Graphics - 3.7
Primary Hard Disk - 250GB WD SATAII - 5.4

So my base score is 3.7

[Singh400]

My overall Windows Experience Index is 4.2. I'm currently at college, so I can't give the individual scores, but I do remember my graphics scored 5.9.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz with HT (530)
RAM: 1024 MB (2x512)
GFX: nVidia 6800 256MB
SFX: Soundblaster Creative Live! 24-bit
HDD: 30gb (partitioned - I'm dual-booting with XP Pro)

Quick way to get to the score/sysprops is to press Winkey + Pause/Break

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Singh400

My overall Windows Experience Index is 4.2. I'm currently at college, so I can't give the individual scores, but I do remember my graphics scored 5.9.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz with HT (530)
RAM: 1024 MB (2x512)
GFX: nVidia 6800 256MB
SFX: Soundblaster Creative Live! 24-bit
HDD: 30gb (partitioned - I'm dual-booting with XP Pro)

Quick way to get to the score/sysprops is to press Winkey + Pause/Break

Here are the individual scores:

[hot-fuzz]

Oh crap, i really need a better graphics card.

And whats up with my RAM, i thought i had a set of decent stuff. 2 x 1GB sticks, obviously not as good as i thought.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Highlander1

Oh crap, i really need a better graphics card.

And whats up with my RAM, i thought i had a set of decent stuff. 2 x 1GB sticks, obviously not as good as i thought.

Anything above 1536 (1.5 GB) qualifies for high-end vista usage.

Atleast thats what it said in the help file.

[Stiggy]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Anything above 1536 (1.5 GB) qualifies for high-end vista usage.

Atleast thats what it said in the help file.

If you look at the few examples above already, the score must be based in the speed of memory access as well as the amount, or something weird like available virtual memory!

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Anything above 1536 (1.5 GB) qualifies for high-end vista usage.

Atleast thats what it said in the help file.

Ok I know where I got this from, I found it again in 5728. Just remembered it different...

<LimitApplied Friendly="Physical memory available to the OS is less than or equal to 1.5GB - limit mem score to 4.5" Relation="LE">1610612736</LimitApplied>

That figures as I've got a 1GB of RAM and much score is 4.5 for RAM (on 5600 & 5728)

[eternaldark]

My overall score for build 5472 was 3.2

Now for build 5728 its 4.0



not changed anything so quite happy so far

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by eternaldark

My overall score for build 5472 was 3.2

Now for build 5728 its 4.0



not changed anything so quite happy so far

They might have tweaked the equation that calculates the WIE base score. That would explain it.

My overall score remains the same as 5600 - 4.2.

[StephenR]

Are these scores out of ten? If so, my 2.9 is not too good despite the fact it seems to running like a dream so far on my 4 year old PC - complete with Aero glass. What kind of monster PC do you need to get a top score?

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by StephenR

Are these scores out of ten? If so, my 2.9 is not too good despite the fact it seems to running like a dream so far on my 4 year old PC - complete with Aero glass. What kind of monster PC do you need to get a top score?

No one really knows, everyone thought it was out of 5 to begin with, but then sub scores sometimes went up to 5.9 so that went out the window. Expect more information on the Windows Experience Index as Vista goes RTM.

Generally feeling is that it will be used along side system requirements as a more help guideline.

So for example, say your on Vista and your overall score is 3.5. Then you go to the shops and see a nice piece of software, along side the system requirements it would have something like:

Your system needs a Windows Experience Index rating of 4 or more to run this software correctly.

[Pbryanw]

Is anybody having a problem with the WinSat test whereby it freezes when it gets to testing your HD's? The only information I've heard about this is that it might be related to me having installed Vista on a secondary HD but, the strange thing is, the test worked on the Beta 2 version of Vista

[drummerjohn]

Where can I get this testing thing? I downloaded Vista Advisor and got no score just advice.

[Pbryanw]

Originally Posted by drummerjohn

Where can I get this testing thing? I downloaded Vista Advisor and got no score just advice.

It's built into Vista. If you download and install the Vista RC1 preview that's floating around the 'net, the first thing it does after you've installed it is run the test (Winsat) and gives your PC a score based on various categories. But, again, only if you install Vista.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Pbryanw

It's built into Vista. If you download and install the Vista RC1 preview that's floating around the 'net, the first thing it does after you've installed it is run the test (Winsat) and gives your PC a score based on various categories. But, again, only if you install Vista.

You can run WinSAT on XP too.

[Pbryanw]

Originally Posted by Singh400

You can run WinSAT on XP too.

You're absolutely right I assumed it was Vista only but it comes included with the new Vista Upgrade Advisor. That's what I get for not reading up on the subject

Anyway to use it in XP, first install the newest version of Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, (if you haven't already) then you need to open a command prompt. To do this go to start menu, go to run, type in CMD and press enter. Then using the cd command go to the folder Vista Upgrade Adviser is in (it should be "C:\Program files\Microsoft Windows Vista Advisor\"). Then enter this command for a fancy graphics backdrop - similar to what you see when you first install Vista: "Winsat aurora" (without the quotes).

You can then use this command to run tests on various parts of your OS and Hardware. For a full list of commands, and subcommands, for the Winsat command try this website. Unfortunately, I don't see a way to produce a lovely graphical presentation - with marks for each sub-section - like you can in Vista.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Pbryanw

You're absolutely right I assumed it was Vista only but it comes included with the new Vista Upgrade Advisor. That's what I get for not reading up on the subject

Anyway to use it in XP, first install the newest version of Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, (if you haven't already) then you need to open a command prompt. To do this go to start menu, go to run, type in CMD and press enter. Then using the cd command go to the folder Vista Upgrade Adviser is in (it should be "C:\Program files\Microsoft Windows Vista Advisor\"). Then enter this command for a fancy graphics backdrop - similar to what you see when you first install Vista: "Winsat aurora" (without the quotes).

You can then use this command to run tests on various parts of your OS and Hardware. For a full list of commands, and subcommands, for the Winsat command try this website. Unfortunately, I don't see a way to produce a lovely graphical presentation - with marks for each sub-section - like you can in Vista.

You can take any build of WinSAT from any build of longhron/vista and it will work on XP. You have the luxury of the winsat help file now, before I had to manually find the commands (before beta 1) using hexworkshop.

You don't need to install Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to get WinSAT.

Originally Posted by http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/archive/2005/04/26/412402.aspx

Microsoft also presented a new tool called WinSAT. A generic benchmark utility that will analyze a given Longhorn PC to determine what features of Longhorn can be enabled. The tools can analyze parts of the OS such as Direct3D performance, the compositing engine, Memory performance and Hard drive speeds. The results are stored in XML files an since the tool is maintaining a history of these files, other applications can parse these logs and make decisions for themselves what features to enable. The WinHEC version of Longhorn already includes the first alpha version of WinSAT and everyone is encouraged to try out this new tool. (just type “WinSAT.exe” from the command line in Longhorn). For this release you still have to be logged in as an administrator to run the tool. In later versions this will be allowed for limited users – if the general Enterprise Policy has not blocked the tool. One other very interesting thing is that this tool currently runs on Windows XP as well. Just copy the WinSAT.EXE to your XP machine and run it. I will give this a try right after WinHEC

[Singh400]

Just found the blog post by members of the Vista dev team on the subject of the WEI - http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/wi...es/458117.aspx

VERY good read.

[Barbarosa]

CPC - Athlon 4200x2 - 5.1
RAM - 2Gb - 4.8
HDD - 250Gb / 140 Free - 4.0
Graphics - 6600GT - 5.9

Overall Rating 4

CPU - P4D-2.8GHz - 4.8
RAM - 1GB - 4.5
HDD - 150GB RaptorX - 5.9
Graphics - ATI AIW X600 - 4.3
Gaming Graphics - 3.7

Overall Rating 3.7

Need a better video card? Looks great to me

Runnig tripple boot with XP and Vista2

[Stanley_Cooper]

Processor AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3700+ 4.2
Memory (RAM) 2.00 GB 4.9
Graphics RADEON X800 GTO 5.9
Gaming graphics 1023 MB Total available graphics memory 4.9
Primary hard disk 400GB 4.9

Overal rating 4.2.

I'm thinking I could do with a faster processor. Ah well.

Strange it comes up with this amount of ram for the gfx card especially when it's only got 256!.

Stan..

[anobium]

I cant get your way to work, do you have to run dos outside of windows it says this program is not recognised as an internal or external program?? my comand prompt always syays at c:\ documents and settings\my name

Core 2 Duo e6400 (Overclocked to 2.66 ghz - plan to do more later), Asus P5b Deluxe, 2 gigs PC5300 RAM, 7600 GT Factory overclocked video card, 320 GB SATA II hard drive, X Fi Fatal1ty.

[Singh400]

Still 0.3 points off the highest score yet - http://www.shareyourscore.com/

[chistery]

Just built my new PC...

got some tweaking to do on the memory by the look of it!

[Steve.J.Davies]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Just found the blog post by members of the Vista dev team on the subject of the WEI - http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/wi...es/458117.aspx

VERY good read.

The hardware vendors must love it - easy sales or what.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Steve.J.Davies

The hardware vendors must love it - easy sales or what.

Errrrrr no, Microsoft decide the scores. Not hardware vendors. And they regurarly keeping updating the underlying forumla. So the 8800 in a few years time could only score 2-3 instead of what it scores now (5.9)

[Uridium]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Errrrrr no, Microsoft decide the scores. Not hardware vendors. And they regurarly keeping updating the underlying forumla. So the 8800 in a few years time could only score 2-3 instead of what it scores now (5.9)

You don't think there will be plenty of people buying new hardware just to improve there scores....

As S.J.Davies said...

"The hardware vendors must love it - easy sales or what"

[guido]

Index Base Score 3.5

Modified Dell OptiPlex GX260

Processor (P4 2.8GHz): 3.5
Memory (PC2700 768Mb): 3.9
Graphics (Nvidia 128Mb 6600GT AGP): 5.9
Gaming Graphics (Nvidia 128Mb 6600GT AGP): 4.8
Primary Hard Disk (Maxtor 40Gb ATA133 ): 5.3

Also have Leadtek DVT1000T Freeview Card and Highpoint RocketRAID133 for 2 x 120Gb ATA133 striped drives for data.

Getting a bit long in the tooth now but still runs nicely. Linked to Samsung 215TW 21" monitor which is