Windows Experience Index?

mdaudioguy

I pasted the Windows Experience Index from one of my desktops, below. Not a supercomputer by any means, but rather sufficient for my purposes.

I just can't figure out the difference between Graphics and Gaming Graphics... I have an external video card, but not a great one, so I'd think my score would be the other way around (I rationalize this thought, because I've been lead to believe that "gaming" requires higher-end hardware than what I have)... Can anyone help me understand this? It's basically the same with all 4 of my computers.

Amherst

Graphics refer to standard (2D), such as the web page you are now viewing or a spreadsheet for example. Uses minimal computations to produce an image.

Gaming Graphics (3D), refer to an image that uses much more video processing power, shaders and other heavy computational logarithms, to produce an image that gives the look of three dimensions.

Microsoft weighs this because the new Aero desktop is heavy on video processing.

mdaudioguy

Thanks, but that leads me back to why I asked the question in the first place. A computer's "score" is determined by the lowest subscore of the Processor, Memory, Graphics, Gaming Graphics and Hard Drive performance. With all of my computers, the lowest score is always in, apparently, plain old 2D Graphics. Why is this? In other words, my graphics system scores high enough to rate 5.2 in the more difficult to render 3D graphics, but can only manage a relative score of 3.4 in the simpler 2D graphics.

So, how does one go about raising their Graphics subscore? It would seem strange to me if both of these factors (Graphics and Gaming Graphics) were dependent on the same piece of hardware (graphics card). If that were the case, wouldn't they just merge these two factors?

EDIT: Windows says,

Each hardware component receives an individual subscore.

So, that leads me to believe that each has a separate hardware component...

Lost

Mine Shows a 7.3 in both tests and have this card:

http://xfxforce.com/en-us/products/graphiccards/HD%204000series/4890.aspx

What video card are you running?

Heres an article about 2d:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2d-windows-gdi,2539.html

mdaudioguy

Perhaps this attachment helps explain it. I think it implies that the Graphics subscore is probably dependent on the capabilities of the card, while the Gaming Graphics subscore is based on the amount of graphics memory available. Maybe?

P.S. It's a very, very basic card - I know.