Low Windows Experience Index for SSD

[eneisch]

I have a late 2013 rMBP with 1 TB SSD. I installed windows 7 using boot camp. After installation I ran the windows experience index and was surprised to find the primary hard disk index was only 5.9. After installing windows updates the index rose to 6.6. I thought that a SSD should get a score of 7.9?

Anyone have any ideas why my index is low. I've been searching the internet for two days and have not been able to find any help. I see plenty of people stating their rating is 7.9. I have also seen some people saying their rating is only 5.9 but there are no solutions referenced.

Do I need to update a driver or something? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Gav2k]

I have a late 2013 rMBP with 1 TB SSD. I installed windows 7 using boot camp. After installation I ran the windows experience index and was surprised to find the primary hard disk index was only 5.9. After installing windows updates the index rose to 6.6. I thought that a SSD should get a score of 7.9?

Anyone have any ideas why my index is low. I've been searching the internet for two days and have not been able to find any help. I see plenty of people stating their rating is 7.9. I have also seen some people saying their rating is only 5.9 but there are no solutions referenced.

Do I need to update a driver or something? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Defiantly a driver issue

 

[Lipid]

Have a look here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1699002/
I made some deep testing and here are my thoughts: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18705715/

 

[eneisch]

Have a look here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1699002/
I made some deep testing and here are my thoughts: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18705715/

Thanks for the info.

Haven't tried anything else yet but re-ran the windows experience index for the hell of it. This time the drive scored a 7.3.

I wonder why so many get a 7.9 index without doing any additional tweaking? I wonder if my bootcamp installation was somehow incomplete. The installation of the Apple drivers off the USB drive went smoothly and reported successful completion. Device manager doesn't show any issues.

One thing I noticed is that I am using a generic AHCI driver from Microsoft dated 2009. Is everyone else using this driver?

 

[eneisch]

This is the benchmark test I ran on my 1 TB PCIe SSD. What does everyone think?

 

[Lipid]

4k rates and Access times are very poor. Try the tweak I've mentioned in the link above and rerun the benchmark. Do not forget to switch to the High Perfomance mode before.

Generic AHCI driver - yes, all latest Macs with Bootcamp use them. But the thing is not in bootcamp itself. The thing is in the ssd form-factor - it is no longer a SATA device, but a PCI-express now. There is no need for a specific driver for PCI-e devices in Windows.

And one more advice - just go for Windows 8.1, it handles this new type of ssds way much better than Windows 7 does.

 

[eneisch]

Thanks again!

I took a look at your posts, and while I understand how to do the tweaking, I'm not sure I understand what it exactly does. By always having the processor in the C1 state are there any potential issues such as reduced battery life or premature CPU wear/failure?

Just as an aside, I saw a post in the apple discussion boards that recommended resetting the SMC to improve Windows Experience Index score of the primary hard drive. Figured it couldn't hurt anything so I gave a try. WEI for primary hard drive is now 7.9. Not sure why this had any effect or if the index will go down over time.

 

[Lipid]

Yes, it will reduce your battery life, no it won't hurt or wear your CPU.

 

[Lipid]

Could you run the CrystalDisk Benchmark after resetting SMC and/or applying some tweaks plz?

 

[SaSaSushi]

There's definitely something wrong there. As a point of reference, here is my Windows Experience Index with my Late 2013 iMac (also Haswell), using not the internal PCIe SSD but rather a Samsung 840 EVO in a Delock Thunderbolt enclosure.

And here are my results with the AS SSD Benchmark

 

[Koos DH]

low windows experience index on windows 7 and 1TB SSD

Thank you lipid for the thorough research you did. I have the same issue of a windows experience index of only 5,9 for the disk subsystem with a mid 2014 rmbp and a 1TB SSD. However i run windows 7 ulitmate from bootcamp and the processor states can not be set as in windows 8.1 (or can it?)

Any idea of what i can do, otherwise i'll need to return the system. My colleague has a 2013 rMBP and with a 512 SSD and he doesn't have the issue.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Lipid]

My advice is - just install Windows 8.1 with the latest updates and let it go. I don't care about any benchmarks anymore, I just run 8.1 and everything is perfect. Except for the 'idle 30% cpu load'-thing - that's a present from Yosemite\EFI Update.. But the sleep-wake workaround fixes it, so everything is fine. Just don't think about these numbers and scores from benchmarks, they mean nothing. Think about how your system works as a whole. It works much faster than any pc-based laptop from 2013-2014 for this money and that's the point.

 

[lowendlinux]

Thank you lipid for the thorough research you did. I have the same issue of a windows experience index of only 5,9 for the disk subsystem with a mid 2014 rmbp and a 1TB SSD. However i run windows 7 ulitmate from bootcamp and the processor states can not be set as in windows 8.1 (or can it?)

Any idea of what i can do, otherwise i'll need to return the system. My colleague has a 2013 rMBP and with a 512 SSD and he doesn't have the issue.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

You'd really return an Apple computer for poor Windows performance? If that's the case then why not just get a Windows laptop with a PCIe SSD?

 

[Koos DH]

You'd really return an Apple computer for poor Windows performance? If that's the case then why not just get a Windows laptop with a PCIe SSD?

Unfortunately our workflow is such that we need very very good Widows machines as well. The only thing that came close to the rMBP is the Dell M3800. We travel a lot and lugging the other bricks around became such a hassle.

----------

My advice is - just install Windows 8.1 with the latest updates and let it go. I don't care about any benchmarks anymore, I just run 8.1 and everything is perfect. Except for the 'idle 30% cpu load'-thing - that's a present from Yosemite\EFI Update.. But the sleep-wake workaround fixes it, so everything is fine. Just don't think about these numbers and scores from benchmarks, they mean nothing. Think about how your system works as a whole. It works much faster than any pc-based laptop from 2013-2014 for this money and that's the point.

What kind of battery life are you getting? And is the system real world fast?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Lipid]

About 7-8 hours of average load usage. Chrome (most of the time), MS Office, Adobe Acrobat. Power plan is default Balanced without any changes.

Yes, the system is very stable and fast. No complains. I use 1680x1050 with no scaling or native 2560x1600 with maximum scaling depending on the program I'm working with.

 

[Koos DH]

About 7-8 hours of average load usage. Chrome (most of the time), MS Office, Adobe Acrobat. Power plan is default Balanced without any changes.

Yes, the system is very stable and fast. No complains. I use 1680x1050 with no scaling or native 2560x1600 with maximum scaling depending on the program I'm working with.

Thanks again. So bog standard windows 8.1 with the wake up fix? Nothing else? And you get 8 hour in the windows bootcamp. Wow. does windows 8.1 the do better with the power management of the rmbp? must do...

Thank you again for all the replies. you did help a lot!