Strange issue with Windows Experience Index

[hardhead11]

Hello,
I have a question about my experience index in Windows 7. My personal PC registers my ram at 5.7, while my office PC registers it at 7.5. Could this be a mobo or bios issue?

Home PC:
Momo: MB GIGABYTE|GA-H67A-UD3H H67 1155 R
CPU: I5 2500K
RAM: Kingston Blue DDR3 1333.

Office PC:
Dell with I7 860.

I don't think the problem is with the RAM itself, and I really don't know where to start.

Thanks!

 

[jprahman]

The score that WEI reports to you is the lowest component score out of the gaming graphics, graphics, storage, memory, CPU and storage test categories. If even one of those scores is low your entire WEI score will be low. Also, WEI artificially caps mechanical HDDs at a score of 5.9, so no matter how good your CPU, RAM, and video card is you'll never get a WEI score over 5.9 if you have a mechanical HDD.

Can you give more detailed information on both PCs? What type of hard drive, video card, memory capacity, memory frequency, etc.

 

[MSwhip]

Interesting develpment your posting has brought up. if what you sya is true then Miscosoft would be misrepresenting their WEI functions... as it states that the best ideal performance attainable is 7.9 (whatever concoction that number is made of) and nowhere in their statements say that they have capped the HD performance at 5.9 -no matter the real readings-
I have already reached 5.9 on their reading, and i have 2 mechanical drives inside e.g: a MAIN(Master) one 2 GB and a slave one 500GB both 7200 rpm.

So according to you then, the only way to for WEI to surpass the 5.9 index mark would be if I replaced the mechanical one/s for a SSD drive and this is better than for 5.9 then right?

Do you happen to know of any other independent means of measuring and comparing it with WEI does it exist to discover the real level of my PC performance? (I know of

I would appreciate you responding to this now.

Thank you

 

[hardhead11]

The score that WEI reports to you is the lowest component score out of the gaming graphics, graphics, storage, memory, CPU and storage test categories. If even one of those scores is low your entire WEI score will be low. Also, WEI artificially caps mechanical HDDs at a score of 5.9, so no matter how good your CPU, RAM, and video card is you'll never get a WEI score over 5.9 if you have a mechanical HDD.

Can you give more detailed information on both PCs? What type of hard drive, video card, memory capacity, memory frequency, etc.

It isn't the other scores that I'm concerned with. My CPU scores at 7.5, SSD 128 GB at 6.5, graphics at 6, etc...

The RAM is what's baffling to me. It scores 5.7 on a brand new Sandy Bridge mobo (GIGABYTE|GA-H67A-UD3H H67 1155 R). When I throw it in a Dell, it scores 7.5. I don't think the RAM itself is the problem. I'm wondering where to start troubleshooting the issue, whether it's BIOS settings or and actual hardware issue with the motherboard itself.

I'm at the office now so I don't have specific specs of the hardware, but I can tell you that the SSD drive is plugged into a 6gb/s SATA port. The mobo has a 16 GB RAM limit.

Here's my RAM: Kingston Technology HyperX Blu 4 GB Kit (2x2 GB Modules) 4 Dual Channel Kit 1333 (PC3 10666) 240-Pin DDR3.

I ordered this last night and may return the Kingston: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800).

If you still need hardware specifics, let me know.

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

Do you have the memory in the correct slots?

Slot 1 (closest to CPU) empty
Slot 2 RAM stick
Slot 3 empty
Slot 4 RAM stick

You don't state whether you are using the 2500K's processor graphics core, but I'm assuming you do because of your choice of mainboard. The reduced WEI numbers could be because of the processor graphics core sharing/reserving some of the system memory.

I definitely second the new RAM you ordered. The extra speed and amount of RAM will give you better performance overall, and your graphics performance will likely improve as well.

 

[jprahman]

MSWhip: Yes, the only way to get a storage score higher than 5.9 currently is to get a SSD or get a really powerful RAID array. Because the WEI score is the lowest sub-score the artificially capped storage score is often going to be the reported WEI score. I do agree somewhat with Microsoft in the sense that with HDDs you aren't going to be able to achieve the best possible performance unless you get an SSD. Although I also agree that it is disingenuous to artificially cap scores.

With that said WEI isn't a true system level benchmark, although it is portrayed as such. If you are interested in detailed performance benchmarks for you hard drive there are many tools available. One hard drive utility that I have used is HDTune and although it's not a strictly benchmark tool it does perform benchmarks and a trial version is available. IOMeter, CrystalDiskMark, PCMark Vantage are all tools that are specifically designed to benchmark systems and hard drives and are widely used, although I'm not sure if they are available for free.

HardHead11: Is it possible that your RAM isn't operating in dual-channel mode on the Gigabyte mobo or is running at a lower speed than it should? Try running CPU-Z to check what frequency, timings and channel mode the RAM is running at in each system to see if there is a difference.

 

[hardhead11]

In the BIOS, the RAM frequency shows 1332.

CPU-Z shows the following:

The RAM is in the correct slots and I am using the onboard GPU. I'll be sending this board back as well (due to the Sandy Bridge defect), and plan to get a P67 board along with an "average" video card. By the way, the CPU is OCd to 3.7ghz. That's the highest it will go with the H67 board.

 

[jprahman]

Yeah, CPU-Z isn't showing dual-channel operation.

Overclocked to 3.7GHz, on H67? I thought you could only overclock the CPU on P67? Or were you BCLCK overclocking?

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

CPU-Z doesn't show the Channels stuff on my Sandy Bridge system either, and I have a P67 board. The program just doesn't fully support Sandy Bridge or Cougar Point yet.

3.7GHz is the highest the Turbo ratios will go on that board with a 2500K CPU.