PCMark 10 2.2.2704

Overview

There comes a time in every user’s life when they purchase a powerful system and decide they want to benchmark it and see what its true performance is. As a result, you need an adequate tool that will be able to get the job done and accurately measure your system’s performance. PCMark tests many aspects of performance, such as disk access, video and web speed. The results are then turned into a score which can be shown to all your friends for the mandatory bragging.

On the other hand, if you obtain a low score then you can justify the purchase of a new computer in front of your parents or your spouse. Let’s analyze the features of this benchmarking utility in this review.

Installation

Firstly, keep in mind that PCMark comes in three flavors. There’s a free edition that offers basic functionality and just one of the 7 main tests implemented in PCMark. The more beefed-up versions are the Advanced and Professional editions. The Professional edition of PCMark is licensed for commercial use. Regular users will probably want to start with the basic PCMark before deciding on the next step. The installation process is smooth as you just have to follow the steps in the wizard for a successful operation. It doesn’t come with adware/spyware or other installed programs.

Interface

The developers kept things simple and thus, the interface of PCMark is a joy to work with as it provides a great deal of functionality and is easy to use. Novice users will have no problems utilizing this software. The tabbed like interface has pretty self-explanatory categories such as Benchmark, Results, Logs and Help. The placement of the controls and buttons allow for a smooth navigation and even your grandma should find her way around PCMark!

Pros

Designed to take into account modern hardware such as CPUs with integrated graphics, solid-state drives and tablets/notebooks, PCMark is a powerful benchmarking tool. In order to measure the various aspects of your PC’s performance, the utility provides a total number of 7 tests. The PCMark test allows you to evaluate the overall system performance.

On the other hand, the capabilities of entry-level systems are measured by the Lightweight test, whilst the Creativity, Entertainment and Productivity tests measure common use performance. Lastly, the Computation and Storage hardware tests can be used in order to verify component performance. Several real applications and games are used by PCMark in order to replicate their behavior without any need for their installation. Keep in mind that your results are stored online by the Basic edition but you can always upgrade and export them as detailed XML files.

Cons

The basic edition of PCMark is just too “basic” as only the PCMark 7 test suite is included. What is more, at more than 300MB it is quite a big download.

Alternatives

Alternatives to PCMark include the following tools: Furmark, Heaven Benchmark, CINEBENCH and more.

Conclusion

All in all, PCMark provides enough features and benchmarking tests to make it a worthwhile purchase.