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Benchmarking tools are useful for diagnosing PC\r\nperformance problems or for quantifying a comparison between the performance of\r\ntwo machines. Given the usefulness of benchmarking software, it’s no surprise\r\nthat there are countless benchmarking utilities available on the market. This\r\ngallery highlights five such utilities.
Everest Ultimate Edition is more than just a performance benchmarking tool. \r\nThis utility also provides\r\na plethora of general information about your computer. It costs $39.95 (USD), but a free trial is available for\r\ndownload.
The software provides\r\ndetailed statistics about things like your operating system, your motherboard,\r\nand your storage.
The software can also\r\nperform 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.
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Additionally, the utility provides a really nice\r\nreporting engine that you can use to view and export a variety of report types.
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Here’s an example of a report summary in Everest Ultimate Edition.
You can save, email, and even print your benchmarking reports.
SiSoftware Sandra is a modular benchmarking and informational tool for the PC. It costs $49.99 (USD), but a free trial is available\r\nfor download. The software is also free for private or educational use.
SiSoftware Sandra can be\r\nused on domain networks or on standalone PCs.
The software uses a\r\ncollection of modules to evaluate hardware, software, and performance.
The software’s\r\nfunctionality can be further extended by adding additional modules.
Here’s a look at the Hardware tab.
Here’s a look at the Software tab.
The one thing that I found\r\namusing about this particular application was its power consumption metrics. I\r\nran SiSoftware Sandra on a virtual PC. As such, the software did not know how\r\nto accurately compute power consumption and therefore reported the virtual\r\nmachine’s power consumption at 65,496.25 watts.
PerformanceTest is yet another utility for compiling system information and benchmark performance testing. It costs $26.00 (USD), but a free trial is available\r\nfor download.
Here’s the information you can expect to see on the System tab.
PerformanceTest is similar\r\nto Everest Ultimate Edition in that it provides a number of established\r\nbenchmarks as a way of giving you a basis of comparison.
Here are the types of tests you can run in PerformanceTest.
You can follow the progress of a test while it’s running.
When the testing results\r\nare displayed, your computer’s performance benchmarks are displayed in green\r\nalongside the established benchmarks.
Perhaps the best feature of\r\nthis utility is that you can run custom tests.
There is even an option to\r\nrun scripted testing.
Fraps is really different from the other benchmarking utilities in this review.\r\nI chose to include it because Fraps is a utility that I personally use on a\r\nregular basis. It costs $37.00 (USD), but a free trial is available for download.
Fraps is designed to help you to benchmark the frame rate\r\nof DirectX applications. When playing a game for instance, Fraps displays a\r\nyellow number in the upper left corner of the window, indicating your current\r\nframe rate. This number dynamically adjusts as your frame rate changes.
The other really cool thing about Fraps is that it can\r\nrecord video and screen captures of DirectX applications. Hard core gamers\r\nsometimes use Fraps to make a movie of their game play so that they can upload\r\nit to YouTube or a similar video hosting service.
Here are the Fraps screenshots options.
Here you can see the yellow\r\nnumber that’s displayed in the upper left corner of the window, indicating the current frame\r\nrate.
Like most of the other utilities that I’ve reviewed, Fresh Diagnose is a tool for benchmarking performance and for compiling system information.\r\nHowever, there are a couple of things that set Fresh Diagnose apart. \r\n
The first thing that sets Fresh Diagnose apart is the\r\nprice. It’s free!
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The second thing that sets Fresh Diagnose apart is the\r\nlevel of detail that it provides. While many utilities provide information on\r\nCPU and disk architecture, Fresh Diagnose also provides granular operating\r\nsystem information. For example, the software provides information on fonts\r\nthat are installed, your system policies, and Windows Startup configuration.
The actual benchmarking capabilities are supposed to be available only to registered users. However, a bug in the program allows\r\nnon-registered users to launch benchmarks by using the Start command that’s\r\nlocated on the Benchmark menu.
Here are some of the options available with Fresh Diagnose.
* 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 for Fort Knox \ * 1999 - CIO for chain of hospitals \ * 2000 - Gave up the corporate rat race to work out of my home. I have been a full time technical author ever since. Visit my Web sites at http://www.brienposey.com and http://www.relevanttechnologies.com \
