PerformanceTest 11.1.1002

Overview

Benchmarking your computer is the only way to know your computer’s true capabilities, and there are quite a few tools that do this; one of the best benchmarking software is PassMark’s PerformanceTest, which has a wide variety of tests included in order to compute your computer’s speed precisely, plus gives you the power to create your own sets of tests. The results can be compared to those of other users and you can also check the effects of upgrades you make.

Installation

You don’t have to make any kind of configurations throughout the whole procedure, other than the typical ones. If you’re worried about malware infecting your PC during the installation then you’ll be glad to hear that the setup package clean from any type of malicious item and it’s not bundled with additional 3^rd-party software either.

The program can run under Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7 and 8 (32/64-bit) without problems.

Interface

If the program’s main interface doesn't excite you, then you’re not a true geek for sure. When you open it you can see in the main screen an animation of your computer’s motherboard and connected components (hard disks, graphics card, etc.). The mouse pointer is also replaced by a hand. There are 3 menu options in that animation (Run Benchmark, Manage Baselines and Preferences) and each one opens up a new window with the corresponding contents.

This is the main interface of the window, and there are 7 more tabs with different information and features: System, Summary, CPU Mark, 2D Graphics Mark, 3D Graphics Mark, Memory Mark and Disk Mark.

Pros

Standard test suites consist of the following tests:

• CPU Tests: These kind of tests focus on the computational abilities of the computer, like mathematical operations, compression, encryption, SSE, 3DNow! Instructions and more.
• 2D Graphics Tests: Tests include drawing lines, bitmaps, fonts, text and GUI elements.
• 3D Graphics Tests: These are quite heavy tests and really push to the limit your graphics unit. They include DirectX 3D graphics and animations.
• Disk Tests: Your disks’ speeds are tested here (read, write and access speed).
• Memory Tests: The efficiency of your RAM cards is tested by allocating and accessing memory.

Those are the standard suites, but there are 7 more advanced test suites: Advanced Disk, Advanced CD/DVD, Advanced 3D Graphics, Advanced Networking, Advanced Memory, Advanced Visualized Physics and Advanced DirectCompute. For more information regarding those tests please visit the program’s website: http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm.

The results of the benchmark tests are presented into an understandable form (bar charts). Then your computer is compared with baseline results from other systems (six baseline results are initially included but you can download thousands online). Your own results can be saved and uploaded of course.

Detailed information about your system is gathered and displayed.

Cons

If your system is not quite powerful then the program might crash during the benchmarking process.

Alternatives

GeekBench (paid) is a benchmarking software that is simpler (has fewer tests) but still very accurate and popular. AIDA64 (paid), apart from the benchmarking features, can also be used to overclock, monitor and fine-tune your computer. CINEBENCH (free) is another great choice too.

Conclusion

PerformanceTest is one of the best benchmarking software due to its rich list of tests it performs on your computer, providing accurate and trustworthy results that can be compared with other systems worldwide. It also makes a difference with its ability to create different sets of tests depending on your needs.