Windows Experience Index

[Guest]

1) How accurate is it?

2) If one moves a piece of hardware from one (64-bit Win 7) system to
aother (32-bit Win 7) will the score for that hardware be identical?

Thanks,

 

[Bob I]

1. Accurate compared to what?
2. The drivers play a part in determining the score so no, not
necessarily identical.

AND the the Computer score is set to the LOWEST of the sub-scores. It's
a comparative number, if the "software" requires a computer score of 3
then upgrade the sub-systems that are less than 3.

 

[Guest]

1. Accurate compared to what?

In general I guess.

The context is that I pulled a low end modern pro card
(ati firemv 2260) out of one machine, and was thinking
of putting it into another which currently has integrated
graphics. I took a look at the WEI of the integrated graphics
and it was 4.8. The 2260 was just 3.8. So I wondered if
I should take that at its word, and not bother putting a
dedicated card in the 2nd machine.

 

[Bob I]

In general I guess.

The context is that I pulled a low end modern pro card
(ati firemv 2260) out of one machine, and was thinking
of putting it into another which currently has integrated
graphics. I took a look at the WEI of the integrated graphics
and it was 4.8. The 2260 was just 3.8. So I wondered if
I should take that at its word, and not bother putting a
dedicated card in the 2nd machine.

Could be the vid card doesn't support DX11, while the integrated graphic
does. Could be partly due to memory on the card is low but the
integrated has access to a big amount of system memory. But I would
hazard a guess that the card is just a little too "low end". So it's
just a middling card. Installing it may result in an improvement in some
software that relies less on graphics and benefits from more memory. But
that's a pretty "tightly controlled" result. And the WEI is more in line
with overall capability.

 

[Paul]

In general I guess.

The context is that I pulled a low end modern pro card
(ati firemv 2260) out of one machine, and was thinking
of putting it into another which currently has integrated
graphics. I took a look at the WEI of the integrated graphics
and it was 4.8. The 2260 was just 3.8. So I wondered if
I should take that at its word, and not bother putting a
dedicated card in the 2nd machine.

The description suggests it isn't a monster card. ATI must be
pretty ashamed of it, to give so few details. It's a "secret".

http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firemv-2d/2260-pci/Pages/2260-pci.aspx

From this, it looks like it is based on an RV610.

http://www.pcidatabase.com/reports.php?type=tab-delimeted

That's the same chip used on an HD 2400. I'm using this web
page, to get some statistics, for comparison to your
integrated graphics.

http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php

Memory Bandwidth: 6.4 GB/sec
Shader Processors: 40
Pipeline Layout: Super-scalar MADDx5
Texture Units: 4
Raster Operators 4

Maybe you can learn more about the existing integrated graphics
with a copy of GPU-Z.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

One benefit of a separate card, is the frame buffer refreshes are
on card, so no bus bandwidth is used when the graphics aren't being
updated. Integrated graphics are UMA (unified memory architecture),
and use system memory for a lot of things (including refreshing the
screen 60 times a second). There are exceptions, such as some ATI
chipsets that had a "sideport" memory chip, but nobody benchmarking
those, could tell the sideport memory chip was present or absent.
Due to its limited bandwidth, that memory chip feature was a waste.

If your integrated graphics chip was really old, it might be
worth upgrading. Or if you need the connector type provided
by the add-in video card, that might be worth something to you.

According to the ATI advertisement, they make cards with either PCI
or PCI Express edge connectors. If the card was PCI, I wouldn't
install it (bus bottleneck). If the card is PCI Express, then,
it's a coin toss (hard to make up your mind what to do).

Paul

 

[Guest]

The description suggests it isn't a monster card. ATI must be
pretty ashamed of it, to give so few details. It's a "secret".

http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firemv-2d/2260-pci/Pages/2260-pci.aspx

From this, it looks like it is based on an RV610.

http://www.pcidatabase.com/reports.php?type=tab-delimeted

That's the same chip used on an HD 2400. I'm using this web
page, to get some statistics, for comparison to your
integrated graphics.

http://www.gpureview.com/videocards.php

Memory Bandwidth: 6.4 GB/sec
Shader Processors: 40
Pipeline Layout: Super-scalar MADDx5
Texture Units: 4
Raster Operators 4

Maybe you can learn more about the existing integrated graphics
with a copy of GPU-Z.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

One benefit of a separate card, is the frame buffer refreshes are
on card, so no bus bandwidth is used when the graphics aren't being
updated. Integrated graphics are UMA (unified memory architecture),
and use system memory for a lot of things (including refreshing the
screen 60 times a second). There are exceptions, such as some ATI
chipsets that had a "sideport" memory chip, but nobody benchmarking
those, could tell the sideport memory chip was present or absent.
Due to its limited bandwidth, that memory chip feature was a waste.

If your integrated graphics chip was really old, it might be
worth upgrading. Or if you need the connector type provided
by the add-in video card, that might be worth something to you.

According to the ATI advertisement, they make cards with either PCI
or PCI Express edge connectors. If the card was PCI, I wouldn't
install it (bus bottleneck). If the card is PCI Express, then,
it's a coin toss (hard to make up your mind what to do).

It is PCIe. Connections are not an issue, both have DP (the
ati 2, the integrated 1 and a VGA). So with a coin toss I guess
I will not bother putting it in. The machine will not be doing
much hard core graphics (not that it could ).

Thanks all,
ah