After increasing RAM size, Windows Experience graphics index rating went down

I own a Sony Vaio CB17 laptop with an Intel i7 processor and dual switchable graphics card: Intel HD and a Radeon 6630M.

Originally, the laptop came with 4 GB RMA (DDR3 1333), but then I thought it was not enough to play some games, so I decided to increase my RAM to 8 GB.

I installed a similar RAM, and now my laptop has a total of 8 GB RAM installed. I re-ran the Windows Experience assessment. Although it showed an increase in RAM subscore, the gaming graphics subscore declined from 6. XX to 5.1.

I thoroughly checked for any hardware problems, but found none. Can anyone explain to me what might have happened?

pea tea

Posted 2011-12-09T14:17:04.907

Reputation: 51

Answers

Did your new RAM have a slower speed? If I'm not mistaken, the windows index measures based on speed of the RAM, not quantity.

Aeo

Posted 2011-12-09T14:17:04.907

Reputation: 1 472

both the rams are of the same type- ddr3-4gb-1333-(9-9-9). these are the numbers same in both the rams. i dont know exactly what these numbers mean. – pea tea – 2011-12-09T14:33:22.840

My next question would be if the new RAM is dual-channel, but I'm not as clear on that myself... My understanding is, for 2 RAM sticks, they need to be dual channel, and for triple channel: 3... and if those don't match up you get a performance hit. But I'm not sure on this at all. – Aeo – 2011-12-09T14:36:24.413

you see i am quite happy that my ram memory subscore increased to 7.5. perhaps there is no problem with the rams. the problem is that gaming graphics index went down to 5.1 from 6.XX. as for your question, i have both the slots occupied by similar rams and am pretty sure that both the rams are of the same type(though the one that came originally is samsung and the other one is kingston) because i double checked the numbers. otherwise my system just wouldn't be showing that i have 8gbs' installed. – pea tea – 2011-12-09T14:51:15.327

Windows 7 Experience test considers the quantity of RAM. I run DDR2 ram in my slightly older MOBO. I increased my Corsair PC 6400 cl5 from 4GB to 8GB last week and my memory rating jumped from 5.9 to 7.2. I added more memory of the same speed. That's it.

NathanDavid

Posted 2011-12-09T14:17:04.907

Reputation: 11

Did you also change graphics drivers between the time the Windows Experience tests were run? There were likely likely some changes to your computer prior to installing the RAM, which changed your other scores.

Bigbio2002

Posted 2011-12-09T14:17:04.907

Reputation: 3 804

Your gaming graphics purely has to do with your video card and drivers and as better things on the market come out your score will go down the index is on a scale of 1-9.9 you cant get better stuff on the market and not change the scale. . .

John

Posted 2011-12-09T14:17:04.907

Reputation: 9