How powerful is your Windows 8.1 device? Check your Windows Experience Index

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Back in the day, Microsoft had a neat little tool under settings called the Windows Experience Index (WEI). It rated the processor, RAM, graphics, gaming graphics and primary hard disk to give you an overall rating of your PC. It was a neat baseline tool used to compare and contrast different computers, with the higher overall score being obviously better. You could also diagnose your computer to see where the ‘weak’ spot was in performance.

That tool came out with Windows Vista and it disappeared in Windows 8.1, but there are a few ways to get it back. Scott Hanselman works on the Web Platform Team at Microsoft, but he also runs an informative personal blog dealing with technology. Last night he posted a neat little trick to get your results for the WEI.

Windows Experience Index ThinkPad8

The method involves running a command prompt, entering in "winsat prepop." and then using Powershell to view the scores. You can head to Scott’s blog for the full details (link below), and it should only take you five minutes of your time.

Or just use an app

If, however, you are on the lazy side or command prompts freak you out, you can just download a free app called ‘ChrisPC Win Experience Index.’ It does the same thing and even brings back the fancy looking user interface. It has an ad or two, but otherwise the software checks out. Download the app, run it and let it do its thing (link to the website is below).

*Note: for tablets or laptops, you’ll need to have the device plugged in for AC power before the test will commence

We ran the tests on our Surface Pro 3 (Core i5), Dell XPS 27 and Lenovo ThinkPad8. Here are our results:

  • Surface Pro 3 (Core i5) – 5.4
  • Dell XPS 27 (Core i7) – 5.0
  • ThinkPad8 (Intel Atom) 4.1

As you can see, none of those are particularly impressive, though I am shocked that the Surface Pro 3 beat out my Core i7 Dell XPS 27. That’s due to the graphics, although my Dell does have a dedicated graphics chip from Nvidia, so perhaps something is not reading correctly.

Windows Experience Index Dell

Why did Microsoft remove the WEI? Well, for consumers, the scores were kind of arbitrary and it’s not exactly clear that anyone was using the WEI in a productive manner. Sure, PC enthusiasts and geeks loved it, but it wasn’t exactly practical either.

The real question though is what’s your score? Let us know in comments, including what device you tested on along with its CPU!

Update: For those asking about my wallpaper, here you go.

Further reading and software download: Hanselman.com, Chris PC software

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

110 Comments
  • 1020
  • +sp3
  • 1020
  • IT'S OVER 9000!
  • Son of a...
  • God dammit vegeta...
  • Kamehameha!
  • King Hawaiian Sweet Rolls.
  • Dan Rubino's sweet ass!
  • It's over 9000!!!!!! edit: God damnit
  • which part dragged WEI on SP3 to 5.4? I'd assume it's Gaming Graphics too?
  • Yup, gaming graphics (5.4) followed by desktop graphics (5.9).
  • Sorry for the off topic, but can you please post the grey wallpaper from the surface pro 3?
    Thanks
  • I got 5.9 only because of my crappy spinning hard drive. The rest is between 8.1 and 8.4. Which is pretty decent on my machine. AMD FX 8320 Octacore Processor 8 GB Ram AMD Radeon R9 270X 1TB WD Hard Drive (Should Upgrade that sucker to SSD)
  • Love that wallpaper Daniel.
  • I think Microsoft removed WEI because the Windows 8 tablets would be getting lower and lower scores... Just a thought though!
  • ...and yet my SP3 beat my desktop ;) I think it was just something not many people used (or understood).
  • My desktop gets 7.9(win7) my HP ultrabook gets 5.4(win8.1).
  • my sp2 with 128gb 4gb ram got a D3D of 5.5.. Graphics and memory score was 5.9 others are ~7.2 and 8.15.   WHAT ACTUALLY IS D3D???
  • Also it was supposed to be tied to gfw label games but I had yet to see it listed on retail packaging much less gfw marketplace. Only place that its listed is if you click on a game icon in game folder that vista/7 create
  • maybe they didn't want to shame ARM chips. I imagine the tegra and snap dragon chips are worse than anything with intel you've had for a decade.
  • Well, the Intel Atom isn't too powerful either.
  • right. they fair better than ARM still. At least they did so with clovertrail, baytrail, and I suspect cherry trail. ARM is just slow and realistically doesn't have a hope to catch up while retaining its power levels and RISC design.
  • My aging Dell XPS 15z - Core i7 - 1.0 Definitely not detecting the dedicated NVIDIA chip.
  • I posted below for daniel but I'll reply here too. If you're using the ChrisPC program you need to go into the Nvidia Control Panel and add the program to the Manage 3D settings section. You may have to browse for the .exe. Once it's added, change the setting to use the Nvidia GPU and not the default integrated graphics card.
  • Thanks for the tips Shadow 024!  I was previously getting Graphics 5.9, and 3d Graphics 4.7 scores.   Once I added the ChrisWEI.exe to the Nvidia Control Panel, then it rated them 6.9 and 6.5 respectively!! Woo-Hoo!!
  • I have a SSHD and it has the lowest score of 5.9. WTF? Everything else is 8.2 - 8.6. >_>
  • That's not bad actually. Score would be higher if it was tested on windows 7.
  • Yup, SSD/SSHD can slow down things, surprising, right?
  • If you're using an SSD it should get more than 5.9. 5.9 usually is given to mechanical drives. Check that your BIOS has SATA set to AHCI, and check that you have the AHCI drivers installed. You need to also make sure TRIM is enabled by going to a admin command prompt, and typing: fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify if it returns a value of 0 it's enabled. Edit: I see you're using a hybrid. That score is probably right.
  • A hybrid drive is still mechanical, hence the 5.9.
  • SurfacePro2 - 5.2 (graphics subsystem of course)
  • Samsung Ativ Book 9 plus: Processor 7.3, Memory 7.6, Graphics 5.9, Gaming 5.2, Hard disk 8.1.
  • Curious which model you have. I have the Ativ 9 Plus NP940X3g-K01. I ask because my scored differed a bit, specifically, my memory was 5.9. compared to your 7.6.
  • "PC enthusiasts and geeks loved it"? I don't think so, since this is no real benchmark, e.g. it just takes the lowest score as the overall one.
  • Well, either no one loved it or it was consumers. My guess was only people who dug down deep were more of the geeky type, but it's true, I didn't do a proper poll ;)
  • But I have to admit, I was quite excited when they first introduced this feature and it's true, not many know about it. ;-)
  • I think it was supposed to be tied to gfw as a way of making system requirements easier to spot @ retail but ive only seen that info in the vista/7 games folder
  • I think it was also to show how your system would handle aero glass. The interface was very graphics intensive when it first appeared in Vista.
  • Janis91 says: "PC enthusiasts and geeks loved it"? I don't think so, since this is no real benchmark, e.g. it just takes the lowest score as the overall one.   It is not so much arbitrary scoring, it does select the lowest score to indicate which part of the computing device is the bottleneck performance wise.
  • Venue 8 pro gets 4.1
  • If you have SSDs that don't look like SSDs in Windows, manually running WEI on 8.1 is the only way to get Windows to not think they are spinning disks. If Windows doesn't think they are SSDs, it will attempt to defragment them, instead of trim them, and shorten their life
  • Thanks Herbert for the constructive comment. Can I have your email? I'll run by all our stories with you to see if they're too old for your likes /s Seriously. It's news to me. It's new to others. Not everything you're going to read in life is exciting or new.
  • Not everyone did, what's old news to you isn't to everyone. The sun is the center of the solar system, not you
  • Processor                            7.4
    Memory (RAM)                     5.9
    Graphics                              5.9
    Gaming graphics                   5.1 (base score)
    Primary hard disk                  5.9 Thats my WEI. On my.... Mac Mini (late 2012) btw :D And no... I never use that "other" OS on the device. I just like the Mac. :)  
  • ...still not good enaugh to run NFS Most Wanted 2012 smoothly though. Stupid GPU! :D
  • Thats no surprise since they switched to mxm video cards
  • What PC gets a 10 then? Those $20,000 gaming PCs?
  • guess so
  • Yep as long as you dont cut corners on parts
  • The highest is 9 point something (9.7?). It'll never become a 10 (unless you make it 10 by doing a hack).
  • Considering you'd need the absolute top-end parts, $20k is likely a little short still. CPU's alone - we'd be talking a dual-socket board with two Xeon E7-8890 v2's, having a price tag of ~$7k each. You might even need them overclocked as well, meaning a top-notch water cooling system would be needed at the very least. After that, you'd *of course* want a minimum of 3 Titan Blacks to back up your graphics performance - so at least another $3.5k there.
  • Ya know, I'd rather just have some cereal then have a high virtual score :P
  • I completely agree lol. A new car would also be another more practical alternative.
  • my shabby HP notebook with first gen core i3 and ati dedicated graphics gave a 4.9 suprisingly
  • I'm pretty sure there's an error with the ChrisPC app, I did my test for my 1st gen Surface Pro through Powershell and I've got a higher score than the SP3 here: CPUScore: 6.9 D3DScore: 6.4 (Not sure which graphics this is, I'm guessing gaming but it seems too high) DiskScore: 8.1 GraphicsScore: 5.6 MemoryScore: 5.9 WinSPRLevel (Overall Score): 5.6  
  • Interesting, will take a look
  • Same here SP1. Weird that its scoring higher than SP2 and SP3
  • Same here w/ 128G drive
  • LOL, 3.9 on my 4 yr old Dell Inspiron.
  • Surface Pro (1st gen): 5.6
  • Well that's odd, mine got a 5.0 (64GB model if that matters)
  • Acer Timeline X 4830TG 7.1, 7.4, 5.9, 6.4, 7.0 5.9 Overall  
  • My PC used to say 2.3 until I overclocked my video card then it jumped to 4.6
  • Desktop i7/16GB/ SLI graphics card(s) CPUScore              : 8.6
    D3DScore              : 8.3
    DiskScore             : 8.05
    GraphicsScore         : 8.3
    MemoryScore           : 8.6
    WinSPRLevel           : 8.05
  • Show off.... Want to trade a score or 2 for my 3.3 Acer 501? LOL
  • or you can use WINAERO WEI TOOL which has a simpler design(no ads)... 7.8 , 7.8 , 8.4 , 8.4 , 5.9 :)
  • FX 6300 @4GHz, R9 270X  
  • 4.9 on my Dell Venue 11 Pro (i5, 128GB, 4GB RAM)
  • Dell Venue 11 Pro 5130
    CPUScore: 6.8
    D3DScore: 3.9
    DiskScore: 7.05
    GraphicScore: 4.3
    MemoryScore: 5.5
    WinSPRLevel: 3.9
  • It isn't very useful really, if I remember correctly my core 2 duo desk beats your i7 Daniels, and there isn't even an SSD lol
  • 5.8 on my Sony DUO 13
  • For your XPS 27 you need to go into the nvidia control panel and add the program into the Manage 3D settings section. If you don't, it uses the intel display driver. Edit: To be more specific, you need to tell the nvidia control panel to allow ChrisPC program to use the Nvidia GPU and not the integrated graphics.
  • Cpu: 8.6
    D3d: 8.4
    Disk: 8.15
    Gfx: 8.4
    Ram: 8.6
    SPR: 8.15
    Happy with that! :)
  • i7-4930K, 32GB, Radeon R9 270X
  • Custom? If so why didn't you go for the 780Gtx? :D
  • Do you get the same scores as with the WinAero tool? http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.220 I've been using that and it doesn't have any ads.
  • Dual octacore cpu with 40gb of ram and dual gtx 760 with ssd so plenty enough
  • it would be nice if one of the WPC guys can post pic of the SP3 scores along with telling us which SP3 also.
  • How come mine is out of 7.9??. . . Windows 7 home premium
  • That is the max score in Windows 7
  • I haven't been able to 8.1....keep getting error after restart, the goes back to 8.
  • i7,32gb ram,256gb ssd, gtx 770M SLI.
    CPU: 8
    D3d: 7.9
    Disk:8.15
    Gfx:7.9
    Mem:8
    Not bad for a laptop I guess.
  • Pentium D,4GB RAM DDR2,GT 520 2GB, 160GB HDD CPU-5.1
    D3D-6.5
    Disk-5.9
    Gfx-5.5
    Memory-5.4 Overall-5.1, not bad for a PC bought in 2007 :P :D
  • Surface Pro 1 (Core i5) Pro 6.9 Mem 5.9 Grap 5.9 Gaming 4.9 HD 8.2  
  • Sad day when my desktop ties the SP3 both of them cause of graphics. I think that means its time to upgrade my gpu
  • thanks for my new lock screen background! *Edit: ran WEI #'s via command prompt a while back when I upgraded to w8 x86 ThinkPad SL410 core 2 duo T5870@ 2.0GHz, 4GB RAM (single channel), Intel GMA, 5400RPM HDD System Score: 2.9
    CPU: 5.4
    RAM: 5.4
    GPU: 2.9
    Gaming Graphics: 3.3
    HDD: 5.8
  • ThinkPad Yoga (Core i5, 512 GB 5400): CPU - 7.2 (7.1) RAM - 7.5 (7.5) GPU - 5.4 (5.9) GPU (for gaming) - 5.1 (5.4) - lowest score HDD - 5.9 (5.9) All scores out of 9.9. Scores in parenthesis are refreshed scores using ChrisPC WEI software. I am planning to move to an SSD so the last score will cerntainly change.
  • 64x WIndows 8.1 Pro ----------------------------------------------
    Processor                       8.1 ( I7 - 3820QM - 2.7GHz)
    Memory (RAM)                    8.1 (32 GB)
    Graphics                        7.8 ( NVidia Quadro K4000M, 4GB RAM)
    Gaming graphics                 7.8
    Primary hard disk               5.9 (1TB SATA)
    ----------------------------------------------
    Base score                      5.9   What in the hell does it take to get to 9.9?
  • 3.0 bitchesss..... On a 7yr old HP pavillion haha
  • Lenovo Lynx k3011 rates 3.3 3D was the lowest! Intel Atom processor 3.7 but I feel than my tablet is fast, maybe I am a super lower user :P
  • I apologise for the off-topic question, but can anyone tell me where to find that abstract wall paper on the Surface above?
  • i7 3770K, 16gb, GTX 760 OC, Samsung 830 256gb SSD CPU: 8.3  Mem: 8.3  Graphics: 8.4  Gaming Graphics: 8.4 SSD: 8.1 Overall: 8.1 Man I need a new SSD 
  • 7.4 on my desktop, if that's any good. I always felt like these ratings were pretty arbitrary, though.  
  • My 6 year old Dell Dimension scored 5.8
    It has the NVIDIA 7900 GTX video card, Dual core 3.4 Ghz, 4GB RAM, Barracuda HDD @ 7,200 RPM.
  • I get 4.6 on my 7-years old Sony Vaio laptop (2GHzCore 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 7200rpm HDD, disabled nVidia card (malfunctioning)). Makes me think twice before upgrading, if the Dell XPS 27 (Core i7) only gets 5.0... :-)
  • Processor 8.2 (I7 4800QM) Memory 8.2 (8Gb DDR3) Graphics 8.2 (Geforce GTX 870M) Gaming graphics 8.2 (" ") Primary HD 7.8 (Kingston 250Gb SSD) That''ll do for a laptop =)
  • i got 4.1 on a asus T100..... not bad for a tablet :P in my desktop i got  8.6 CPU (i7 4770k) 8.6 RAM ( Corsair 8Gb@1600Mhz) 8.4 Graphics (R9 280) 8.4 Gaming Graphics 8.1 SSD  (Corsair ForceGT 128Gb)
  • I've read somewhere that across different OSes (Vista, 7, and 8), the tool will give different results on the same hardware, that's why they nixed it.
  • Got a 5.5 on my Yoga 2 Pro, i7, 8GB, 256GB SSD. Of course Gming Graphics were the low score. But the SSD scored an 8.1, with the processer ringing in at 7.4. RAM was 7.6. For $1,199, works for me.
  • My WEI is 4.7 on My Dell VOSTRO 1550 2nd Gen Core i5 - 7.3 4GB RAM - 5.9 Graphics - 4.8 Gaming graphics - 4.7 128 GB SSD - 8.0
  • 5,9 on Windows Pro 8.1 running inside a VM on Parallels, @ Macbook Pro 15.4" 2011 - Processor: 6,8 (Core i7) - Memory: 5,9 (3GB allocated to the VM, 16GB total) - Graphics: 6,6 - Gaming Graphics: 6,6 - Hard Disk: 8,4 (Kingston SSD 240GB) 
  • Last week I would be capable of running the test on Boot Camp, but since I changed to the SSD, it's too small to have a partition exclusive to Windows :D  
  • nice
  • mine is 5.3, beat that
  • I got 3.6 cos of gaming graphics. Other scores were quite good. Best was 6.7 on processor. But considering I am using a budget laptop that only cost me £70 from a neighbour, am certainly not complaining. Most of my other scores were in high 5's except graphics at 4 and 3.6 not too bad I guess.
  • 4.5 on an acer p3 (i3 model) - desktop graphics is this low :/ but the gaming graphics is pretty cool (6.1.:D)
  • Processor 8.5 RAM 8.5 Graphics 8.1 Hard Disk 8.2 i7 Desktop with 4yr old graphics card
  • Here's mine...  Processor 8.5 Ram 8.5 Graphics 8.7 Desktop Graphics 8.7 Primary hard drive 8.2 Windows 8.1 -- Core i7-4790K, MSI Z97M-G43, 32GB DDR3-1600, GTX 970 4GB, Samsung 480GB 850 EVO ... no overclocks currently... Disappointed by drive speed a little bit, had thought about getting an M.2 drive instead of the SATA3. I know this post was from over a year ago, but I just put this system together, and it isn't the latest/fastest available.