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Developer

Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

By Brien Posey January 23, 2014, 1:49 PM PST

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Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Benchmarking tools

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Benchmarking tools

This gallery is also available as a TechRepublic article.

Benchmarking tools are useful for diagnosing PCrnperformance problems or for quantifying a comparison between the performance ofrntwo machines. Given the usefulness of benchmarking software, it’s no surprisernthat there are countless benchmarking utilities available on the market. Thisrngallery highlights five such utilities.

iStockPhoto
2Everest1.12314.jpg
2Everest1.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

1. Everest Ultimate Edition

1. Everest Ultimate Edition

Everest Ultimate Edition is more than just a performance benchmarking tool. rnThis utility also providesrna plethora of general information about your computer. It costs $39.95 (USD), but a free trial is available forrndownload.

3Everest2.12314.jpg
3Everest2.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Everest Ultimate Edition Summary

Everest Ultimate Edition Summary

The software providesrndetailed statistics about things like your operating system, your motherboard,rnand your storage. 

Figure A
Figure A
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Everest Ultimate Edition Menu

Everest Ultimate Edition Menu

The software can alsornperform benchmarking tests for your memory, CPU, and FPU. It even provides a number of established benchmarks so that you can see how your system stacks up.

Figure B
Figure B
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Everest Ultimate Edition Report Wizard

Everest Ultimate Edition Report Wizard

rn

Additionally, the utility provides a really nicernreporting engine that you can use to view and export a variety of report types.

rnrn

6Everest5.12314.jpg
6Everest5.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Everest Ultimate Edition Report Summary

Everest Ultimate Edition Report Summary

Here’s an example of a report summary in Everest Ultimate Edition.

7Everest6.12314.jpg
7Everest6.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Everest Ultimate Edition Report Memory Read

Everest Ultimate Edition Report Memory Read

You can save, email, and even print your benchmarking reports.

8SiSoftware1.12314.jpg
8SiSoftware1.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

2. SiSoftware Sandra

2. SiSoftware Sandra

SiSoftware Sandra is a modular benchmarking and informational tool for the PC. It costs $49.99 (USD), but a free trial is availablernfor download. The software is also free for private or educational use.

Figure C
Figure C
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

SiSoftware Sandra Home tab

SiSoftware Sandra Home tab

SiSoftware Sandra can bernused on domain networks or on standalone PCs. 

10SiSoftware3.12314.jpg
10SiSoftware3.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

SiSoftware Sandra Tools tab

SiSoftware Sandra Tools tab

The software uses arncollection of modules to evaluate hardware, software, and performance. 

11SiSoftware4.12314.jpg
11SiSoftware4.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

SiSoftware Sandra Benchmarks tab

SiSoftware Sandra Benchmarks tab

The software’srnfunctionality can be further extended by adding additional modules.

12SiSoftware5.12314.jpg
12SiSoftware5.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

SiSoftware Sandra Hardware tab

SiSoftware Sandra Hardware tab

Here’s a look at the Hardware tab.

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Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

SiSoftware Sandra Software tab

SiSoftware Sandra Software tab

Here’s a look at the Software tab.

Figure D
Figure D
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

SiSoftware Sandra Overall Score

SiSoftware Sandra Overall Score

The one thing that I foundrnamusing about this particular application was its power consumption metrics. Irnran SiSoftware Sandra on a virtual PC. As such, the software did not know howrnto accurately compute power consumption and therefore reported the virtualrnmachine’s power consumption at 65,496.25 watts.

15PerformanceTest 1.12314.jpg
15PerformanceTest 1.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

3. PerformanceTest

3. PerformanceTest

PerformanceTest is yet another utility for compiling system information and benchmark performance testing. It costs $26.00 (USD), but a free trial is availablernfor download.

16PerformanceTest2.12314.jpg
16PerformanceTest2.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

PerformanceTest System

PerformanceTest System

Here’s the information you can expect to see on the System tab.

17PerformanceTest3.12314.jpg
17PerformanceTest3.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

PerformanceTest Summary

PerformanceTest Summary

PerformanceTest is similarrnto Everest Ultimate Edition in that it provides a number of establishedrnbenchmarks as a way of giving you a basis of comparison. 

18PerformanceTest4.12314.jpg
18PerformanceTest4.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

PerformanceTest Tests

PerformanceTest Tests

Here are the types of tests you can run in PerformanceTest.

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Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

PerformanceTest status

PerformanceTest status

You can follow the progress of a test while it’s running.

Figure E
Figure E
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

PerformanceTest results

PerformanceTest results

When the testing resultsrnare displayed, your computer’s performance benchmarks are displayed in greenrnalongside the established benchmarks.

Figure F
Figure F
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

PerformanceTest PassMark Advanced Disk Test

PerformanceTest PassMark Advanced Disk Test

Perhaps the best feature ofrnthis utility is that you can run custom tests. 

22PerformanceTest8.12314.jpg
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Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

PerformanceTest PassMark Disk Thread test

PerformanceTest PassMark Disk Thread test

There is even an option tornrun scripted testing.

23FRAPS1.12314.jpg
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Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

4. Fraps

4. Fraps

Fraps is really different from the other benchmarking utilities in this review.rnI chose to include it because Fraps is a utility that I personally use on arnregular basis. It costs $37.00 (USD), but a free trial is available for download.

24Fraps2.12314.jpg
24Fraps2.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Fraps FPS

Fraps FPS

Fraps is designed to help you to benchmark the frame raternof DirectX applications. When playing a game for instance, Fraps displays arnyellow number in the upper left corner of the window, indicating your currentrnframe rate. This number dynamically adjusts as your frame rate changes.

Figure H
Figure H
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Fraps Movies

Fraps Movies

The other really cool thing about Fraps is that it canrnrecord video and screen captures of DirectX applications. Hard core gamersrnsometimes use Fraps to make a movie of their game play so that they can uploadrnit to YouTube or a similar video hosting service.

26Fraps4.12314.jpg
26Fraps4.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Fraps Screenshots

Fraps Screenshots

Here are the Fraps screenshots options.

Figure G
Figure G
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Fraps display

Fraps display

Here you can see the yellowrnnumber that’s displayed in the upper left corner of the window, indicating the current framernrate. 

28FreshDiagnose2.12314.jpg
28FreshDiagnose2.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

5. Fresh Diagnose

5. Fresh Diagnose

Like most of the other utilities that I’ve reviewed, Fresh Diagnose is a tool for benchmarking performance and for compiling system information.rnHowever, there are a couple of things that set Fresh Diagnose apart. rn

The first thing that sets Fresh Diagnose apart is thernprice. It’s free!

rnrn

Figure I
Figure I
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Fresh Diagnose Fonts

Fresh Diagnose Fonts

The second thing that sets Fresh Diagnose apart is thernlevel of detail that it provides. While many utilities provide information onrnCPU and disk architecture, Fresh Diagnose also provides granular operatingrnsystem information. For example, the software provides information on fontsrnthat are installed, your system policies, and Windows Startup configuration.

Figure J
Figure J
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Fresh Diagnose Processor Benchmark

Fresh Diagnose Processor Benchmark

The actual benchmarking capabilities are supposed to be available only to registered users. However, a bug in the program allowsrnnon-registered users to launch benchmarks by using the Start command that’srnlocated on the Benchmark menu.

31FreshDiagnose5.12314.jpg
31FreshDiagnose5.12314.jpg
Five Apps: Benchmarking tools for diagnosing PC performance

Fresh Diagnose options

Fresh Diagnose options

Here are some of the options available with Fresh Diagnose.

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Image of Brien Posey
By Brien Posey
* 1988 - Started teaching myself about computers \ * 1992 - Mainframe programmer for an insurance company \ * 1993 - Network Administrator for a different insurance company \ * 1996 - Author for The Cobb Group \ * 1998 - Network Administrator
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