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General discussion

Benchmark Program?

by satish_997 May 7, 2008 2:50AM PDT

What's the most common benchmarking program? What do you use, if any?

Discussion is locked

12 Posts
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For benchmarking what?
by John.Wilkinson May 7, 2008 3:55AM PDT

I know of no utility that benchmarks everything, and in fact not all components can be benchmarked, so what exactly are you looking to benchmark?

John

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general
by satish_997 May 7, 2008 4:35AM PDT

I assumed there was some kind of benchmarking tool that covered the all the major components such as CPU, RAM, and HDD to give an overall rating.

I just wanted to get a general idea how comparable the computer I built is to the cheaper one my mom just got.

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You could try Sandra.
by MarkFlax Forum moderator May 7, 2008 4:58AM PDT
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thanks!
by satish_997 May 7, 2008 6:11AM PDT

I'll give it a try.

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Benchmark Program?
by RichardSM May 10, 2008 5:53AM PDT

Hi

At best these programs are subjective I do not put much faith in them and the reason is. Unless you have the same computer to compare yours with I don't see the point. This stuff is for marketing mostly to sell name brand computers. If you built your own computer you did the right thing because you bought what you wanted to put in to it, Be happy with what you have and go on with your life. JUST don't get caught up in all this nonsense.........Rich

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Fresh
by llucyy May 9, 2008 12:12PM PDT

I always use FreshDiagnose, works well.

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Benchmark Program: EVEREST ULTIMATE: real numbers
by denkile May 9, 2008 2:13PM PDT

EVEREST ULTIMATE is my favorite benchmark and report utility
after trying the others: Sandra, PCMark, and several freebies.

EVEREST does everything...works for me.
_HDD, Disc Drives, even FLASH DRIVES !
_Direct link to site for drivers.
_Benchmark results in real (not pseudo) terms.
_Great CPU/RAM analysis (better than CPU-Z)
_Great custom reports to put in MyFiles.
_Burn-in/full-load feature and temp etc. monitor.
_Good upgrades and support.

It was improved about two editions ago.

Recommend: do the trial before you buy

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EVEREST ULTIMATE
by sith_killer_99 May 9, 2008 5:41PM PDT

I'm a big fan of EVEREST ULTIMATE.

I was looking for a good program for benchmarking, etc. a while back. I did a lot of research and found that Everest has a good reputation. I know a lot of folks who use it and it comes highly recommended.

I agree with the above post and recommend EVEREST ULTIMATE to anyone looking for a good program along these lines.

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Nod to Everest.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 9, 2008 10:35PM PDT

It's been a hope of mine that when members post they have their hardware and more details handy (or supply such in condensed form). This tool could fill in the blanks.

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This can become very complicated very quickly
by Dango517 May 9, 2008 5:48PM PDT

Most benchmarks are derived from specific tests using specific programs to gauge performance. For the home user more generalized resources can be obtained.

Vista contains a new feature..."Performance monitor and tools" that can be used to obtain generalized system performance data. Programs like this one can as well:

http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

This is some data about my PC derived from "Performance monitor and tools":

http://img84.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenhunter01may100327kt0.gif

My interpretation of this data would be that this information would provide a guide for hardware improvements on a PC system. I'd like to see my PC at or above a 5 rating on each of these tests. The scale is 1-6. My PC has two hard drives on it a 250GB SATA drive and a 40Gb IDE drive. When the SATA drive is tested alone the performance rating for the hard drive improves to 5.7.


Additional information about Performance monitor and tools:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/ab3b2cfc-b177-43ec-8a4d-0bfac62d88961033.mspx?mfr=true


Additional information about benchmarking:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmark_(computing)


The importance of system maintenance should not be over looked when determining system performance. The best PC hardware will do little to compensate for poor system maintenance. Too much, is far better then too little.

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Benchmarking: Microsoft Management Console: XP taskmgr.exe
by denkile May 10, 2008 4:03AM PDT

Thanks for this link.
Something to experiment with but
it is for Vista thou it may apply to XP.

For XP "Windows Task Manager" monitors performance
but does not give full-load, data-rate benchmarks.

Open Task Manager:
_Ctrl + Alt + Delete or
_RUN > taskmgr.exe or
_Rt Click Desktop > NEW > Shortcut > taskmgr.exe then
_Performance Tab > Options and View

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hmmmm
by Dango517 May 10, 2008 8:59AM PDT

It would helpful if you told us what you need the benchmark for. If your just trying to find out how good your PC is then PC Wizard will to the trick. Some video gamers might wish to see how well a specific game might function. A PC reviewer might wish too use these test to get some better then average performance information. So, what's your spin. When you start dealing with benchmark applications you need to test for a specific criterion. I said, "this gets complicated".

See this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hard-disks/average-read-transfer-performance,701.html

See "charts" this link.

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