About your computer's subscore

About your computer's subscore

The subscores are the result of tests run on the RAM, CPU, hard disk, general desktop graphics, and 3‑D gaming graphics hardware components of your computer. If your base score isn't sufficient for a program or Windows 7 experience, you can use the subscores to figure out which components you need to upgrade.

The base score is a good indicator of how your computer will perform generally. The subscores can help you understand your computer's level of performance for specific experiences:

·        Office productivity. If you use your computer almost exclusively for office productivity experiences, such as word processing, spreadsheets, e‑mail, and web browsing, then high subscores in the CPU and memory categories are important. Subscores of 2.0 or higher are usually sufficient in the desktop graphics and 3‑D graphics categories.

·        Gaming and graphic-intensive programs. If you use your computer for games or programs that are graphic-intensive, such as digital video editing programs or realistic first-person games, then high subscores in the RAM, desktop graphics, 3‑D gaming graphics, and CPU categories are important. A subscore of 3.0 or higher is usually sufficient in the hard disk category.

·        Media center experience. If you use your computer as a media center for advanced multimedia experiences such as recording HDTV programming, then high subscores in the CPU, hard disk, and desktop graphics categories are important. Subscores of 3.0 or higher are usually sufficient in the memory and 3‑D graphics categories.

 If your base score or subscores can't be updated

The following conditions might prevent Windows from updating the Windows Experience Index:

·        Running on batter power.‌ Windows automatically tries to conserve power when running on a battery alone. So if your computer is running on battery power, a performance assessment won't reflect its true capabilities. Plug your computer in, and then re-run the assessment.

·        Not enough free disk space. The Windows Experience Index assessment tool creates a test file on your hard disk. If there's not enough free disk space to create the test file, the assessment can't be complete. You can use the Disk Cleanup tool to free up disk space. For more information, see Delete files using Disk Cleanup.

·        The assessment is already running. If the Windows Experience Index assessment tool is already running, your scores can't be updated.

·        The display driver is older. If your computer is using an older version of the display driver, your scores might not be updated. For more information, see Update drivers: recommended links

·        No multimedia support. If your computer doesn't have multimedia support, your scores can't be updated.