Copyright: PerformanceTest V2.0


Overview
PerformanceTest by PassMark Software

Overview

Passmark PerformanceTest is a software tool that allows everybody to quickly assess the performance of his or her computer and compare it to a number of standard 'baseline' computer systems.

This program is a little difference to another benchmark programs because it designed to be small enough that it’s possible to install from a floppy disk. This means you can take it with you when you go out shopping for a new or second hand PC. The other major advantage is the built in base line results that enable a reasonable comparison to be made between computer systems. Additional new baselines can also be downloaded from PassMark's Web site (http://www.passmark.com)

The results are presented as easy to read bar charts so that you don’t need to spend hours studying the number to know the result.

Timing for the tests is done using high resolution timers, which are accurate to approximately 1 millionth of a second on most PC’s.

Of course for a measurement to be accurate and fair several precautions need to be taken. Failure to take into account these factors will result in measurements that are inaccurate.


Test descriptions

Several test suites are built into the software. Each of these test suites contains a number of different tests designed to measure different aspects of your computer system. These tests can be run as a group or as individual tests. The result of each test is presented using a particular unit of measurement

The following test suites are currently available.

Maths test suite

Integer & floating point mathematical operations

Graphics test suite

Tests of standard two dimensional graphical functions

Disk test suite

Reading, writing files

Memory test suite

Memory allocation and access

MMX test suite

Tests of the MMX (multimedia extensions) within newer CPU’s

3D Graphics test suite

Tests the DirectX 3D graphics system

In general the tests are run for the amount of time specified in the field “Test Duration” Preferences dialog box . In cases where a long test period is required to obtain a more accurate result a multiple of this “Test duration” value is used.

The time required to set-up a test is never included in the test duration or the calculation of the test result.


Measurement units
Units of measurement

The result of each test is presented using a particular unit of measurement. In each case the higher the number, the higher the performance of the computer.

MBytes / Sec	MegaBytes transferred per second

Used to measure the amount of information transferred to and from a disk or memory.

Add’s / Sec	Millions of additions per second

Used to measure the number of integer or floating point mathematical operations. Also used for the MMX instruction tests.

Subs's / Sec	Millions of subtractions per second

Used to measure the number of integer or floating point mathematical operations. Also used for the MMX instruction tests.

Mult’s / Sec	Millions of multiplication's per second

Used to measure the number of integer or floating point mathematical operations. Also used for the MMX instruction tests.

Div’s / Sec	Millions of divides per second

Used to measure the number of integer or floating point mathematical operations.

Lines / Sec	Thousands of lines per second

Used to measure the number of lines that can be drawn in a window per second. This is a measure of the 2D graphics performance.

Images / Sec	Thousands of bitmap images per second

Used to measure the number of bitmap images that can be drawn in a window per second. This is a measure of the 2D graphics performance.

Shapes / Sec	Thousands of shapes per second

Used to measure the number of shapes that can be drawn in a window per second. This is a measure of the 2D graphics performance.

Frames / Sec	Number of different image frames displayed per second

Used to measure the performance of animation using the 3D graphics. High frames rates produce a smother more realistic picture.

Composite Average

This is an extra heading used for the summary section. It doesn’t really represent a particular unit of measurement as it is a combination (weighted average) of several other measurements.


Baselines

A baseline is a standard set of results from another computer. These baseline results can be used to determine how fast your computer is in comparison with other computer systems. Baselines are stored in files on the computer’s disk. These files end with the extension “.pt” and are normally found in the PerformanceTest installation directory. When PerformanceTest starts up the installation directory is scanned for Baseline files.

A number of standard baselines are available for selection from the Select Baselines menu option. After a baseline has been selected the results from your computer will be compared against this baseline system. See interpreting the results  for more information.

Baselines are selected for display from the “Select Baselines” dialogue window. New baselines can also be installed from another location so that they can then be selected. This allows you to load a new baseline that you have previously created or that you have received via E-Mail, etc..

PerformanceTest is backwardly compatible. This means that those baseline files created with version 1.0 of PerformanceTest can be used with version 2.0. The additional test results present in version 2.0 will not however be available in Version 1.0 baseline files.

There are two different types of baseline files. Licensed baselines files and Unlicensed baseline files. Files contained in the PassMark database of results are licensed and can only be used by registered users. Files supplied with the Shareware version are unlicensed and can be used by anybody. Files created by both the Shareware and Registered versions are also unlicensed.

Some information about the computer system that generated the baseline is held in the baseline file. For more details about the information stored with the baseline see the Baseline information menu option.

Adding new baselines

If new baselines are available they can be added to the Baseline selection window by copying them (by using Windows explorer for example) to the directory where PerformanceTest is installed. PerformanceTest will automatically include them in the selection list the next time it starts.

Baselines files must have a ‘.pt’ file name extension and PerformanceTest must be restarted before it searches for new baselines files.

The second method is to use the "Install baseline from file" menu option. This copies the baseline file to the PerformanceTest installation directory and adds it to the selection list.

Any baseline file saved to the PerformanceTest installation directory using the "Save as baseline" menu option will also automatically be added to the selection list.

Baseline files can be exchanged via E-Mail, found on the Web or be created by yourself using the SaveAs Baseline option in the File menu.

Downloading Extra Baselines from PassMark

If you are a registered licensed user of PerformanceTest, additional Baselines can be downloaded from PassMark’s Web site (www.passmark.com). PerformanceTest will not allow the use of these additional Baseline files unless the program has been registered !


Interpreting the results

Test Name

The name of the test suite and the individual test within the suite.

Baseline Name

The name of the baseline. This corresponds to the name of the baseline file on the disk. In most cases this name will be the name of a particular computer or particular CPU.

Test Result

The result obtained from the particular test for the selected baselines and this computer. The baseline results are shown in red. The results for this computer are shown in green.

Percentage Difference

This value shows the percentage difference in speed between this computer and the baseline computer. A value less than zero indicates that the baseline is slower than the computer under test, and a value greater than zero indicates that the baseline is faster than the  computer under test. Values less than 0 are displayed in red. Values greater than zero in green.

Measurement Unit (Scale)

This area displays the unit of measurement used for the suite. See Unit of Measurement for more information.

Bar Chart

The values obtained are displayed as a bar graph. The bars are scaled to the size of the window or the size of the paper when the results are printed.

Result range

As the values obtained from the tests can vary enormously between different computer system. PerformanceTest picks a range that enables the display of all the baseline results for a particular test. This means that the maximum possible value on the bar chart will always be slightly bigger than the largest result for that test. This maximum values is displayed at the right of the window.

Summary / Marks

For each test suite there is a “mark” value. This mark represents a summary of the test suite. These mark values only appear if all the tests in a particular suite have been run. They represent a scaled average of the individual results in the test suite.

PassMark Rating

For each computer displayed the "PassMark rating" is calculated. This is a weighted average of all the other results and gives a single overall result for the computer. It is only displayed if the results from all other tests are available. See the PassMark rating section


Menus
Menu Options

File

Save as baseline

Allows the current set of results to be saved as a new baseline. Various additional information is saved with a baseline. For a complete description of this information see the baseline information section . It’s also possible to enter some additional words into the notes field.

Save as image

Allows the main window (or it’s contents) to be saved in one of 3 different graphics file formats. Bitmap (BMP), GIF and Enhanced Meta file format (EMF). See the save as image dialog box for more information.

Export (as text or HTML)

Allows the current set of results to be exported as text of HTML.

html

A set of exported set of results in HTML format can be immediately inserted into a Web page or transferred to a variety of other applications that support HTML

txt

This writes out the current results to a text file. Each column of information is separated by a tab character.

csv

This writes out the current results to a text file. Each column of information is separated by a tab character.

Print

Displays the print dialog to allows the current set of results to be printed.

Exit

Exits from the application.

Edit

Copy

Allows the current set of results to be copied to the clipboard in an Enhanced MetaFile. Format. The results can then be pasted as a graphical image into other documents that support this format, eg. Word, Paint Shop Pro. If you are using an application that doesn't support this format try the "Save as image" or "Export" menu options.

Clear

Clear the results produced so far.

Preferences

This options allows the user to customize some aspects of the way PerformanceTool works. See the description of the preferences dialog box for more details

Test

Run all tests

Runs all the tests in all the test suites

Show PassMark rating

Shows the PassMark Rating for this computer.

Test suites…

The test details are described in the Test Descriptions section

Baseline

Select Baselines

See the section on the Select Baseline dialog.

Baseline information

See the Baseline Information section for more details

Install Baseline from file

This option copies a single Baseline file to the PerformanceTest installation directory and inserts the Baseline into the baseline selection list.


Contacting PassMark
Contacting Passmark Software

On the Web

You can contact PassMark on the web at

http://www.passmark.com

E-Mail

For technical support questions, suggestions

support@passmark.com

For sales & commercial issues

sales@passmark.com

See also, the Ordering information page.

For any other issues

info@passmark.com

FAQ

You many also want to check out the list of Frequently Asked Questions .


System Requirements

Windows 95 or 98 or NT

16Meg RAM

2 Meg of free hard disk space
(plus additional disk space, proportional to RAM, to run the Disk test)

DirectX software for 3D graphics test

MMX compatible CPU for MMX tests


Ordering and License
Ordering information

Price

US Dollars:	$16  (single user)

(orders may also be placed in Euro at the current exchange rate)

What happens when you order

After the order is accepted by our sales agent, a Registration Key will be returned (via E-Mail, Fax or normal mail). This Key is then entered with the User Name into the initial window. At this point the program then changes permanently into the licensed version.

What you get when you register

•	Free Technical support via E-Mail and Web

www.passmark.com/support

support@passmark.com

•	Free minor upgrades & bug fixes as they become available

www.passmark.com/download

•	Free access to new Baseline result files on our Web site as they become available.

www.passmark.com/download

•	The removal of the initial shareware startup window and any time restriction associated with the shareware evaluation period.

How to order (via our sales agent, ShareIt)

Online

If you would like to register PerformanceTest, you can do the registration online using a credit card via a secure connection on the Internet at

http://www.passmark.com/sales

Alternatively, you can go to

http://www.shareit.com

and enter the PerformanceTest program number: 106988.

Phone, Mail and Fax (U.S. Customers)

If you do not have access to the Internet, you can register via phone (US customers may order by calling 1-800-903-4152), fax or postal mail. US check and cash orders are accepted. Please print out the order form, and fax or mail it to:

ShareIt! Inc.

PO Box 844

Greensburg, PA 15601-0844

USA

Tel: 1-800-903-4152 (Orders only please!)

Tel. 724-850-8186

Fax. 724-850-8187

Phone, Mail and Fax (European Customers)

European customers can also register via phone, fax or postal mail. Please print out the order form, and fax or mail it to:

ShareIt!

Element 5 AG

Sachsenring 69

50677 Koeln

Germany

Phone:	+49-221-2407279

Fax:	+49-221-2407278

E-Mail:	register@shareit.com

(ShareIt can only handle issues relating to registering the software, for Tech. Support and other issues contact PassMark directly)

Phone, Mail and Fax (Other countries)

Take your pick of Europe or the U.S., whichever is the most convenient for you.

Other information

Confidentiality

All personal details supplied when placing an order will be strictly confidential. Online orders will only be accepted over a secure, encrypted connection.

Multi-user & Site Licenses

Contact PassMark software, asking about our attractive rates for Multi-user and site licenses.

sales@passmark.com

User Names and Registration Keys

Both the User Name and Registration Key must be correctly entered before the software turns itself into the registered version. Be careful because the Key is case sensitive (upper case characters must be entered in upper case and lower case characters must be entered in lower case). The User Name and Key should be kept in a safe place in case the software ever needs to be reinstalled.

Questions & more information

If you have any questions we would be happy to hear about them. Contact

sales@passmark.com


Order form for Fax or mail registrations
Order form

Registration form for PerformanceTest.

Print this form & mail or Fax it to ShareIt. See ordering information for more details.

Program No.: 106988

Last name:	___________________________________

First name:	___________________________________

Company:	___________________________________ (if applicable)

Street and #:	___________________________________

City, State:	___________________________________

Postal code: 	______________

Country:	___________________________________

Phone:	_____________________

Fax:	_____________________  (if applicable)

E-Mail:	__________________________________

How would like to receive the registration key/full version? (circle one option)

E-mail   -   Fax   -   Postal mail

How would you like to pay the registration fee? (circle one option)

Credit card   -   Wire transfer   -   Check   –   Cash order

(Checks must be in $US or a Eurocheque)

(Cash orders must be in $US or Euro)

Credit card information, if applicable. (circle one option)

Credit card:	Visa  -  Eurocard/Mastercard  -  American Express  -  Diners Club

Card holder:	________________________________

Card No.:	________________________________

Date of Expiration:	____________

Date / Signature ___________________________


Copyright and License
Copyright & License information

Ordering information

See the information on the Ordering information page for details about the different options available.

Copyright & End User license

This End-User License Agreement (“EULA”) is for the PassMark PerformanceTest software.

EULA is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or a single entity) and PassMark Corporation for the PassMark software product identified above, which includes computer software and may include associated media, printed materials, and “online” or electronic documentation (“SOFTWARE PRODUCT”).  By installing, copying, or otherwise using the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA.  If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, do not install or use the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

1. GRANT OF LICENSE. This EULA grants you the following rights:

•	A license is granted only after the payment of the license fee.

•	If no license fee has been pay the product can be used for evaluation purposes for a maximum period of 30 days.

•	After the license fee has been pay, you may install and use one copy of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, or any prior version on a single computer, or on a single removable disk. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT must NOT be installed on a network where it could be used by more than a single computer.

•	The primary user of the computer on which the licensed SOFTWARE PRODUCT is installed may make a second copy for his or her exclusive use on a portable computer.

0	2. DESCRIPTION OF OTHER RIGHTS AND LIMITATIONS.

•	Limitations on Reverse Engineering, Decompilation, and Disassembly.

You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.

•	The shareware version of the software may be freely distributed provided that no fee is charged and the product is distributed complete and intact.

3. COPYRIGHT.

All title and copyrights in and to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT (including but not limited to any images, photographs, animations, video, audio, music, text, and “applets” incorporated into the SOFTWARE PRODUCT), the accompanying printed materials, and any copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT are owned by PassMark or its suppliers. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright laws and international treaty provisions. Therefore, you must treat the SOFTWARE PRODUCT like any other copyrighted material except that you may install the licensed SOFTWARE PRODUCT on a single computer provided you keep the original solely for backup or archival purposes.

LIMITED WARRANTY.

PassMark warrants that (a) the licensed SOFTWARE PRODUCT will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying written materials for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of receipt, and (b) any Support Services provided by PassMark shall be substantially as described in applicable written materials provided to you by PassMark, and PassMark support engineers will make commercially reasonable efforts to solve any problem issues. Some states and jurisdictions do not allow limitations on duration of an implied warranty, so the above limitation may not apply to you. To the extent allowed by applicable law, implied warranties on the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, if any, are limited to ninety (90) days.

No warranty of any sort of offered on the evaluation version of the software, until a license fee is paid.

Additional information

For questions regarding the copyright, end user license contact, multi-user licenses and site licenses, contact.

info@passmark.com


Precautions
Precautions for accurate measurement

For a measurement to be accurate and fair several precautions need to be taken. Failure to take into account these factors will result in measurements that are inaccurate and misleading.

§	Stop all other applications before running PerformanceTest. This includes Internet connections, active desktops, stopping music CD’s etc…

§	Turn off virus checkers when running the disk tests. Most virus checkers don’t have a serious effect on performance, but some might.

§	Once a test has been started, leave the test to run without starting or interacting with other applications. i.e. Don’t touch the mouse, Alt-tab to other applications, etc..

§	How full the disk is can affect the read / write performance of a disk. The Position of the test file on the disk (inner ring or outer cylinder) can also effect the performance. The only way to avoid this problem is to only test newly formatted disks. To give an example compare the following results (in MB / Sec).

Test Name	Drive C:	Drive D:
Disk Sequential cached read	1.9	3.9
Disk Sequential cached write	2.3	3.8
Disk Random Seek + RW	0.4	0.6
In fact both Drive C: and Drive D: are the same physical hard drive split into two different partitions. Drive C: is almost full. Drive D: is almost empty. The difference is massive !

§	If the disk is fragmented this can badly affect performance (see the table above). Windows includes a utility for defragmenting the disk. Look up “defrag” in the Windows online help for more details.

§	Windows can sometimes to fire up a process that can interfere with the accuracy of a test. You may need to run a test a couple of times or over a longer period of time to get a accurate result.

§	Performance result can be dramatically worsened if Windows doesn’t have enough memory & needs to swap out to disk too often. Make sure you have enough RAM if you want get a real indication of the system performance.

§	In general, higher color depths mean slower screen updates are more color information needs to be transferred. When you compare your results to the baseline results try and use the same color depth. Otherwise your comparing apples and oranges, not apples and apples. Some video cards provide hardware acceleration at particular color depths and not others. Because of this increasing the color depth (e.g. 24 to 32) can sometimes increase the video speed.

§	Don't expect these tests to run twice as fast on a computer with two or more CPU's. They only run on a single CPU at a time.

§	Don't expect your expensive new server to wipe the floor with the competition. Servers are in general built for a purpose and don't have great 2D and 3D graphics (because they don't need it). Do pay extra attention to the Maths and Disk test results however.

§	Different versions of Microsoft's DirectX 3D software can have a significant impact on the results of the 3D test. Later versions seem to take better advantage of available hardware (eg 3D Now! and SMID / MMX CPU instructions) and produce higher scores. The latest version of DirectX can be downloaded from Microsoft.


Problems and FAQ
Problems and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. The results I get aren't what I expect

Check out the precautions section of this help file.

Q. PerformanceTest reports an Error like ddraw.dll unavailable when started.

Also, running the 3D graphics test on some systems may result in an error like,

“Error loading the 3D mesh required for the test…”.   or

“Error initializing DirectX..”

The 3D tests rely on having the full version of DirectX installed. (version 5, 6 or 7 are recommended). Note that currently only version 3 is available for Windows NT 4. This still seems to work OK however. Windows 98 has a good version of DirectX included.

This means that most problems will be experienced in early Windows 95 versions and early Windows NT versions.

The latest DirectX drivers are available free from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com

Q. Why aren’t the MMX tests available on my computer

MMX instructions only became available in later model Pentium Processors. If you don’t have one of these CPU’s then the test can not be run.

Q. The 3D graphics test for my computer reports figures that seem much much lower than the baseline result.

Most new computers now come with some type of built in 3D graphics hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration can make a huge different to the results. Some video cards provide hardware acceleration at particular color depths and not others.  In this case the results at different color depths would then look something like.

Color Depth	Frames / Sec
16	68
24	13
32	58
The low result of 13 indicates that the 3D rendering is being done in software rather than by the hardware in the graphics card. Try switching color depth.

Q. Clicking on the help menu option “PassMark Homepage” doesn’t work.

Possible problems are

Early versions (prior to OSR2) on Windows 95 don’t support a default browser. You will need to start a browser manually.

Your browser is not correctly installed

Q. The colors on the toolbar look strange?

Your computer may be set-up only to use a 256 color display. Changing the display depth from the Windows control panel to a higher value will fix the problem.

Q. Why are the MMX tests only mathematical tests and not multimedia tests?

Despite their “MultiMedia eXtension” name, MMX instructions don’t actually directly extend the Multimedia functionality of a computer system. What they do allow is the processing of a larger amount of data in a smaller amount of time (which of course can help some Multimedia applications do their work quicker).

In particular they allow a block of small integers (8 to 32 bit) to be simultaneously processed by a single CPU instruction. This processing takes the form of mathematical & logical operations. This is why mathematical operations are used to the MMX performance of the system.

Q. Why is the Processor speed in the ‘Baseline info’ only reported as an estimated speed

Due to the method used to determine the speed. There can often be a slight difference between the reported speed and the real speed. For some processor types (e.g. The Pentium Pro 200) the reported value can be out by a significant factor.

Q. I don’t need to do any more tests, how do I uninstall PerformanceTest

Use the “add / remove programs” icon in the Windows control panel.

Q. My License key doesn’t seem to work

Both the User Name and Registration Key must be correctly entered before the software turns itself into the registered version. Be careful because the Key is case sensitive (upper case characters must be entered in upper case and lower case characters must be entered in lower case). The user name must be exactly the same name as when the software was registered. There must also be no space or tab characters before the User name or Key.

The User Name and Key should be kept in a safe place in case the software ever needs to be reinstalled.


Maths Tests suite
Test suite - Maths

This suite contains two sub categories that contain 8 different tests in total.

For each of the integer tests, a larger array of random 32Bit integers are processed using the particular mathematical operations list below.

For the floating point test single precision floating point numbers are used.

The following tests make up the suite.

Addition

Subtraction

Multiplication

Division

Floating Point Addition

Floating Point Subtraction

Floating Point Multiplication

Floating Point Division


Graphics Tests suite
Test suite - Graphics

This suite contains a number of tests that exercise the standard Windows graphics functions. The results from this suite depend on the speed at which the video card can carry out 2D graphics operations and the color depth currently in use.

Line Drawing

Lines are drawn into window. The color is changed every 500 lines to enable the lines to been seen in the test window.

Painting Bitmaps

A bitmap image is painted into a window as quickly as possible.

Outline shapes

Two different shapes are drawn into a window

-	An ellipse

-	A square with rounded corners

The color is changed every 64 shapes to enable the shapes to be seen in the test window.


Disk Tests suite
Test suite - Disk

This suite contains a number of tests that exercise the mass storage units (Hard disk or otherwise) connected to the computer. By default drive C: is used but this can be changed from the Preferences Dialog.

For each test a file is created in the root directory of the selected file. The file size need to be large in order to get an accurate measurement. In the case where a slow drive is used on a computer with a large amount of RAM this test can take some minutes to complete.

There are a few issues to aware of when interpreting the results of the disk test. These are covered in the precautions section.

Disk Sequential Cached Read

A large test file is created on the disk under test. The size of this test file is proportional to the amount of RAM available, this stops the entire file being cached in RAM. The file is read sequentially from start to end. The amount of data read in each operation corresponds to the cluster size associated with the drive. (e.g. 32KB)

Disk Sequential Cached Write

A large file is written to the disk under test. The size of this test file is proportional to the amount of RAM available, this stops the entire file being cached in RAM. The file is written sequentially from start to end. The amount of data written in each operation corresponds to the cluster size associated with the drive. (e.g. 32KB)

Disk Random cached Seek RW

A large test file is created on the disk under test. The size of this test file is proportional to the amount of RAM available, this stops the entire file being cached in RAM. The file is read randomly; a seek is performed to move the file pointer to a random position in the file, 1 cluster is read or written then another seek is performed. The amount of data actually transferred is highly dependant on the disk seek time.

Using small files results in inaccurate readings, here's why..

This graphs shown the MB/Sec disk write rate over the period of time required to write 2000 clusters to a hard drive. Cacheing allows the rate to start very high then drop of as the cache fills and the drive can't keep up. In fact for writing large files cacheing can even cause a decrease in performance (compared to the uncached performance). The cache becomes an overhead in this case.


Memory Test suite
Test suite - Memory

This suite contains a number of tests that exercise the memory sub-system of the computer. (Random Access Memory- RAM)

Memory - Allocate small block

This test measures the time taken to allocate & free small zeroed memory blocks (around 100KB block size)

Memory - Cached

This test measures the time taken to read a small block of memory. The block is small enough to be held entirely in cache (if one is present)

Memory - UnCached

This test measures the time taken to read a large block of memory. The block is too large to be held in cache.

Memory - Write

This test measures the time taken to write information into memory.


MMX Test suite
Test suite - MMX

This suite tests the Intel MMX (tm) Multimedia extension instructions built into recent CPU’s. CPU’s before the Pentium 100 didn’t support this feature and this means that these tests will not be able to be run on your system.

For each of the MMX tests, a larger array of random 64Bit integers are processed using the particular mathematical operations list below.

No floating point tests are performed as the MMX instructions can only handle integers.

The following tests make up the suite.

Addition

Subtraction

Multiplication


3D Graphics Test suite
Test suite – 3D Graphics

At the moment this is just a single test that tests the performance of the 3D graphics on the computer.

The ‘Many worlds’ test creates 4 texture mapped spheres. Each sphere contains 296 vertices and 588 triangular polygons. The total number of polygons for the scene is therefore 2352. Each texture is 256 x 256 pixels with 256 colors. (giving around 260KB of textures for the scene)

On most computer systems the performance of 3D graphics in a window while using DirectX is fairly poor. Much higher frame rates are possible using full screen mode. (which is a test that will be added in a future version)


Preferences dialog box
Preferences

Disk drive under test

This field allows the user to select the disk used for all of the disk speed tests. The user can test several disks by running the disk test then changing the drive letter. The system attempts to verify the disk is assessable when the user clicks on OK. When a new disk is selected the disk tests results, for the computer under test, are cleared.

Test Duration

This is the base duration for which the tests will run. Values of 2 seconds to 60 seconds are accepted. In cases where a long test period is required to obtain a more accurate result a multiple of this “Test duration” value is used.

Suite	Test Duration Multiple
Maths test suite	1
Graphics test suite	1
Disk test suite (*)	N/A
Memory test suite	1
MMX test suite	1
3D Graphics test suite	3

The time required to set-up a test is never included in the test duration or the calculation of the test result.

(*) The duration of the disk tests is not affected by this value. The duration depends on the speed of the hard drive and the amount of RAM installed.


Baseline information dialog box
Baseline Information

Using this Window it is possible to view the configuration of the computer under test and the configuration of the baselines. The name of the baseline is displayed in the title of the window.

The next and previous buttons can be used to view the result from each baseline currently displayed.

CPU Manufacturer

Displays the name of the manufacturer of the CPU. This text in extracted directly from the CPU itself.

Number of CPU’s

Display the number of CPU’s installed in this system.

CPU Type

Displays the CPU type in text.

CPU Model

Displays the CPU model number.

Estimated speed

Displays an estimate of the CPU speed. Due to the method used to determine the speed. There can often be a slight difference between the reported speed and the real speed. For some processor types (e.g. The Pentium Pro 200) the reported value can be out by a significant factor.

Operating system

Display the operating system name.

Total physical memory

Displays the total physical memory (RAM) installed

Available physical memory

Displays the free physical memory when the baseline was saved. It should be noted that in many cases the disk cache uses any free available memory. This means that this figure will often be very low.

Color depth

Displays the color depth used when the baseline was created. The correspondence between color depth and maximum number of colors is shown below. In general, higher color depths mean slower screen updates are more color information needs to be transferred.

Depth	Max Colors
8	256
15	32768
16	65536
24	16777216
32	4294967296

Disk size

The size of the hard disk in the computer.

Notes

This is a free form text field that can be filled in when the baseline is created. Up to 300 characters can be entered in this field.


Save as Image

This dialog allows the main window (or it’s contents) to be saved as an image file which can then be imported into other application or placed on a Web page.

Image format

One of 3 different graphics file formats can be selected.

•	BMP. Stores the image in Bitmap format. Many applications support Bitmaps but as no compression is used the file size is very large.

•	GIF Stores the image in GIF87a format. Fewer applications support GIF’s and only 256 colors can be used. Powerful compression gives small file sizes and it is one of the standard image formats used on the Internet.

•	EMF (Enhanced Meta file format). Saves a scalable vector image that can be resized within other applications. File size is very small but only limited support is available in other applications.

Option – Visible section only

If this option is selected, the Window (including menu bar, button bar, border, etc) will be saved.

If this option is not selected, only the contents of the window will be saved. This option will also save any part of the window contents that is not currently displayed in the Window.


The PassMark Rating

For each computer displayed the "PassMark rating" is calculated. This is a weighted average of all the other results and gives a single overall result for the computer. It is only displayed if the results from all other tests are available. The value is calculated as follows.

Test Suite	Weighting
MMX	5%
Disk	23%
Memory	20%
3D Graphics	12%
2D Graphics	15%
Maths	25%
Total	100%
These weightings are based on the "average" computer usage and are intended to give the user of PerformanceTest an overall indication about how this computer will perform in general use. Needless to say this weighted average will be inappropriate for some users. Games player will think 3D is more important, Network admin types will be looking for disk speed. Feel free to roll your own ratings based on the individual test results.


Selecting Baselines

This window is divided into two section. In the bottom section all the available baselines are displayed. To display a the baseline results, select a baseline in the bottom window and click on the "Add" button. Multiple files can be moved at the one time. (use Shift and CTRL)

Various information is displayed about each baseline.

Name

This is the name of the baseline from the baseline file on the disk. The name will normally be the make and model of the computer or "Generic", if the machine was home built or not one of the  internationally recognized brands. The CPU model and speed is also often included in the name.

CPU Speed

This is the estimated CPU speed of the baseline computer, as extracted from the baselines file.

CPU Type

This is the CPU type text extracted from the CPU itself.

Color

This is the color depth. This is an important factor when comparing baselines. To be fair only compare the graphics performance of baselines using the same color depth.

Ver (Version)

This is the version of PerformanceTest that created this baseline. Older versions of PerformanceTest didn't have as many tests as this version. Baselines created by old versions of PerformanceTest can still be loaded but some results may be missing.

OS (Operating System)

The operating system under which the baseline was created. Internally Windows2000 is NT5, which is why NT5 can appear in this field.

RAM

The total amount of memory (RAM) in the baseline computer, in bytes.

Disk

The size of the disk in the baseline computer, in bytes.


Whats new - version history
What new - Version history

V2.0	1/Nov/99

Major release with a lot of improvements over version 1.0. A lot of these changes were a direct result of the feedback from users such as yourself. Keep the suggestions coming, (Mail them to support@passmark.com)

•	A button to run all the tests sequentially was added

•	When several disk tests are run, the test file is not recreated for each test. This means that the tests can be completed quicker.

•	The disk tests now read and write information in larger blocks. In version 1.0,  1KB blocks were used. In this version the cluster size is determined and all disk reads and writes are done a cluster at a time. The cluster size varies from computer to computer. The average is around 32KB. This makes the test closer to the real life. Transfer rates are still reported in MB/Sec.

•	The disk tests were redone. There were about 20-30% of computers that did strange things when the Windows cache was disabled. Some ignored the command,  some went to far and disabled the disk controller HW cache, etc..
The results were all over the place in some cases; so the test was dropped. We now use the cache but overload it so that we see the performance of the disk behind the cache.

•	An additional Disk Seek plus read and write test was added.

•	It's now possible to export the results in several "text" formats. This includes HTML, Comma separated values, and tab separated values.

•	Added a registration button on the tool bar.

•	Extra information is now saved with each baseline. This includes Drive size, Driver letter (eg. C:, D: ).

•	Some code was reworked to improve compatibility on early Windows95 machines. We have even run PerformanceTest on some old 486 machines using the original Windows95 (+Directx)

•	It's now possible to view baseline results without re-running all the tests.

•	Multiple Baselines can now be viewed on the screen at one time. Up to 20 computers can be compared to each other at a time.

•	The Select Baseline window was introduced to managed the addition and removal of baselines from the screen and display information about all the baselines available.

•	The graphics on the display was improved and graphs now re-size themselves to the window size.

•	The size of the notes field (in the Save as Baseline window) was increased to allow the user to add more information.

•	Some tests display information about their environment. The graphics tests display the color depth next to each baseline. The disk tests display the drive letter.

•	A problem with the Microsoft C++ compiler that caused inconsistent results for the MMX tests was worked around. The problem was to do with the alignment of 64bit numbers on the stack and caused some computers to report low MMX results.

•	The printing was improved to handle the differences between landscape and portrait. A page header and page numbers are also included.

•	The online help was updated and improved

•	Scrolling is now smoother. The Home, End, Page up and Page down keys now also work.

•	The save as image option was enhanced to save Bitmaps (BMP) and GIF files. This is a great feature for those that want to publish their results on the web.

•	The shareware trial period was increased to 30days. (from 15)

•	A single overall result figure is now calculated. We called this the PassMark Rating. It's a weighted average of all the other test results.

•	A menu option was added to directly access the PassMark baseline database on the Web. (you still need to be a registered user to use these additional baselines however)

V1.0a	3/June/99

Minor patch to correctly report speed for high end AMD CPU's

V1.0	16/May/99

First version released to the world.

Wins numerous awards, whoopee