WEI scores currently range from 1 to 5.9. Your computer is rated with an overall score, called the base score, and with subscores for each of five individual hardware components: processor, memory, graphics, gaming graphics, and primary hard disk. The base score is determined from the lowest of the five subscores, because your computer's performance is limited by its slowest or least-powerful hardware component.
The base score and subscores express the level of performance you can expect not only from Windows Vista itself, but from the programs that you run on it. That said, a base score of 1.0 doesn't mean that you have a bad computer or that you shouldn't use Windows Vista. It means that Windows Vista will run with basic functionality and that common productivity programs, such as those in the Microsoft Office system, will perform acceptably. A higher score represents a computer that's capable of higher performance and of running programs that demand more system resources.
As newer, faster hardware becomes available, Microsoft will increase the top end of the rating scale to allow scores of 6.0 and higher. That means the score you see today will have the same meaning at any point in your computer's lifetime. For example, even if the top end of the WEI range increases to 8.0, my computer's base score will remain at 2.2 if I don't make any hardware changes.
