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We scoured the Internet and racked our
brains to find the most appropriate (and
most free) CPU test for your machine. And
trust us, it wasn’t easy. Whittling down the
list of options to just those that are free
was difficult enough—there’s not much
out there that will cost you absolutely
nothing.
After picking through that small pile
of programs, we discovered an impor-
tant corollary that bears repeating: Just
because a program claims to be a CPU test
doesn’t necessarily mean the score it generates
is a proper reflection of your CPU’s perfor-
mance, particularly if you’re running a multicore
machine. (Single-core users have a bit more
leeway with their CPU benchmark choices,
as anything that taxes the CPU is going to hit
your one, lonely core.) The surest way to test
a benchmark’s effectiveness is to pull up the
Windows task manager while running a given
CPU analyzer. A true CPU test will completely
maximize the usage of all your cores.
Grab Cinebench and you’ll be pleasantly
delighted by its absurd ease of use and appli-
cable testing environment. The program runson everything from single-core to 16-core
machines. It’s a wonderfully future-proof little
benchmark that gives you an overall perfor-
mance score based on your computer’s ability
to render a 3D image in as little time as pos-
sible. You can even record your results to a
built-in database, a helpful way to keep track of
your scores when modifying your rig. If you’re
suffering any CPU performance loss as a result
of your tweaking, Cinebench will let you know.W
e run benchmarks at Maximum PC because we have to; there’s no
other way to determine the minute differences between systems
without a repeatable standard of comparison. But you don’t have
to be a reviewer to run a benchmark; in fact, regular benchmarking can give
you valuable insight into the status of your system. For example, benchmarks
are the best way to decipher whether the various performance-enhancing
applications you’re running on your PC actually do anything or whether that
latest batch of drivers hurt your gaming performance more than it helped.
The Maximum PC suite of benchmarks costs upwards of $1,000—a bit
out of the price range of users who just want to see if their machines are
up to snuff. But there are cheaper (and by that we mean free!) alternatives;
we’ll show you how you can use them to test your rig in the comfort of
your own home.Benchmark Your PC without
Breaking the Bank
The best way to see
if your tweaks and
upgrades have an
impact on your system’s
performance is to run
benchmark comparisons.
Here’s how you do it...
for free!
Score Your CPU
by DAVID MURPHY62 MAXIMUMPC december 2007
how (^2) ImprovIng your pc experIence, one step at a tIme
TIme hours:minutes
22:00
Cinebench’s built-in database keeps track
of all of your benchmark runs. Label every-
thing correctly so you don’t forget what
changes you’re testing!
wHat YoU need
a PC
CinebenCH
http://www.maxon.net
3dMaRk05
http://www.futuremark.com
CaLL of jUaRez
di ReCtx 10 deMo
http://tinyurl.com/2g6dhr
Hd taCH
http://www.simplisoftware.com
Cosbi oPensoURCeMaRk
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/
opensourcemark
PRiMe95
http://www.mersenne.org
PatienCe