Windows 7 Low Aero Rating in WEI?

[Master Chief]

This has been bothering me for quite a while now. All my ratings have been okay and as expected, but for some reason my desktop performance for Aero is always much lower rated than anything. Everything gets around a 5 (4.9-5.1) yet Aero performance either gets a 3.1 or 3.2. My GPU is a NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS. I tried the test with 181.71 and 185.85 drivers installed, exact same results both times. Any idea why this could be happening (the low rating for Aero performance)?

 

[mp3sgt]

It might look bad at a 3.2. That is just the rating for how AERO wants to run. I have a desktop with ATI Radeon 3650 PCI-E and it is only 4.5. The 8400 series to my knowledge is not a Directx 10 part, so AERO is going to be lower because it cannot use DX10 overlays and D3D. Just how it is. Do not worry, whatever your 8400 could do before Windows 7 it will be able to do.

 

[tsmith]

Here is what I wrote to AMD support re: a low Aero rating.

"I am only getting a 3.7 rating for the "Desktop performance for Windows Aero" whereas the rating for "Gaming Graphics" is 5.8. Why such a difference? Shouldn't I be getting a higher Aero rating? Am I missing a setting somewhere? All of the other ratings (CPU, HDD, RAM) are 5.0 or better."

Their reply was the following.

"Normally, a rating for "Gaming Graphics" of 5.8 indicates a correct assessment. However, we have noticed that the Windows Aero rating may appear lower even though the actual performance is unaffected. We have documented the issue and have investigated preliminary results with Microsoft for similarly low ratings. In the interim, please confirm that the latest Catalyst 9.x is installed. In addition, install the latest motherboard (Northbridge) chipset drivers for MS Windows 7.
NOTE: These drivers are required and will affect the way that the motherboard communicates with the graphics card.
If you continue to experience the low rating for Windows Aero, we encourage you to report your observations to AMD Software Engineering through the Catalyst Crew Feedback Form.

Please encourage others who have experienced the issue to do so as well."