Monday 23 May 2011

SW for analyzing, testing and benching a Windows PC

I should get my new PC today or tomorrow so I've been looking at how to test and bench the thing. I plan on overclocking at least the processor, maybe the graphics card as well so I'd like to see how those affect. I list here my current list of SW I plan to install.

General purpose

  • SiSoft Sandra. Analyses the components and runs some tests.
  • PCMark Vantage. Analyses "normal use" performance, i.e. non-gaming.
  • Cinebench 11.5. Tests both CPU and GPU by rendering images using the Cinema 4D engine. Uses OpenGL.
  • CPU-Z and HWMonitor from CPUid. CPU-Z tells detailed information about the CPU and HWMonitor shows temperature for different components.
  • Afterburner to tweak the graphic card's settings.
CPU
  • 3DMark11. The classic 3D test program. DX11.
  • 3DMark Vantage. Tests DX10 performance rather than DX11.
  • Unigine Graphics Engine. There are a number of tests based on this engine, I will run at least HWBot Unigine Engine with Extreme Presets. Sanctuary and Heaven are also possibilities.
  • Crysis Warhead is a popular benchmark. Info.
  • Metro 2033. I own this game and this is popular because it has a very demanding graphics engine. The benchmark is downloaded with a DLC.
  • Mafia II. The demo includes the benchmark.
  • Stalker: Call of Pripyat. Another popular benchmark, as the benchmark is freely available.
Mass Storage

Most of these tools can also be downloaded from 3DGuru. I'm not going to optimize the system for these, i.e. no shutting off background processes etc. because my aim is to see how much faster the system gets and how much temperatures rise rather than try to compete.