How Is The New Scoring System Similar To That Of Windows Vista?

The overall scoring methodology for Windows 7 has not changed from Vista.  There are the same five top-level WinEI scores, and each score  is computed using a set of rules. The overall score (Index)  is determined by the lowest sub-score.

So What's Changed In Windows 7?

a) The maximum score is now higher, to reflect the greater capabilities of newer components

For Windows 7, Microsoft added Level 6 to the WinEI scoring system and Level 7 for most components. Two factors determine the breaks between levels 5 to 6, and levels 6 to 7 :

User experience
Where possible, Microsoft placed the 'break' between major levels so the breaks align with notable differences in user experience. Gaming is one example where graphics performance and capability levels can make the user experience notably better. Memory size is another case in which increasing the amount of system memory yields a considerable improvement in the user experience.

Discontinuities in hardware performance
There are some components like the CPU where performance increases steadily across some metrics, and user experience generally improves continuously along those metrics. Here, the model places the level breaks where component characteristics cause the measured performance to step up - the canonical example is the number of processor cores, which correlates well with sequential read performance.

b) Tests were added for DX10 graphics

The new tests will run with WDDM 1.1 drivers, but not WDDM 1.0 drivers. WDDM 1.1 is the Windows 7 version of graphics driver functionality. These tests will exercise the level of graphics functionality expected for Windows 7 components.

c) Disk tests were added for random as well as sequential IO and for write flush policy patterns.

These tests provide a more comprehensive evaluation of disk performance in common usage patterns.

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