Can Vista's Performance Indices Replace Benchmarking?
Yes, the CPU Charts also include synthetic benchmarks - these were designed to specifically measure certain performance aspects of components. But synthetic benchmarks can be created with a certain focus in mind, resulting in test runs that may be less relevant, while real-world applications reflect what people actually use. The common attempt to create trust in synthetic benchmarks is finding industry-wide support, resulting in industry standard benchmarks.
Microsoft is in an excellent position to create an industry standard benchmark on a consumer level, because Vista will be the dominant operating system for new PCs by the middle of this year. A built-in benchmarking solution would not only allow users to assess and compare the performance of components and systems, but be a powerful marketing instrument for the whole industry as well. Microsoft developed a comprehensive but simple to understand rating scheme, called the Windows Experience Index. It includes both performance and feature evaluation, expressed as a single number; Microsoft would like to see performance indices on both hardware and software retail boxes. This would allow users can check whether their scores were good enough to run a software package they intended to buy, and to compare possible hardware upgrades to match or exceed the Experience Index required by the software.
The advantages of such an all-in-one benchmarking solution are pretty obvious, but how well does the Windows Experience Index really reflect real-life performance? As the name says, it is an experience index that was specifically designed for Windows Vista. We decided to check how the Vista results compare to our own in-depth benchmarking.
