in your PC. Is it working? Benchmarking is a great way to take a
snapshot of your PC’s performance, and the best benchmarking software is
often free to use.
Whether
you want to assess how poorly, or how well, your PC is performing,
everyone can benefit from a good benchmark. Don’t wait until someone
else has to benchmark your PC for you in order to troubleshoot an issue!
General Performance
Benchmarking
software typically allows for overclocking or fan speed settings
changes. These options allow users to configure hardware changes through
software. Keep in mind, benchmarking your PC is a bit more complex than
simply running software.
How to Benchmark Your CPU and GPU Like a Pro
How to Benchmark Your CPU and GPU Like a Pro
Benchmarking allows
users to gauge hardware performance, troubleshoot issues, and compare
system setups. It’s commonly used among gamers. We introduce you to the
technical details and show you how the pros benchmark their systems.
Read More
1. CPU-Z
CPU-Z will provide users with a complete rundown of your PC’s hardware specifications, particularly concerning your CPU.
It
also provides specifications for your motherboard, RAM, and graphics
card, making it a great all-around program to visualize hardware makes
and models. You can even save a TXT file of the information via the Tools option.
2. HWMonitor
HWMonitor
not only visualizes the make and model of hardware components in your
PC, but it also displays certain parameters live.
parameters include power consumption, fan speeds, utilization
percentage, clock speeds, and temperature. This can be crucial, as
issues like an overheating component in your PC can lead to frequent PC shutdowns.
Why Did Windows Crash? A Troubleshooting Guide
Why Did Windows Crash? A Troubleshooting Guide
When Windows crashes,
keep calm and reboot. In most cases, it’s a singular event. If your
computer crashes again, however, consult this step-by-step
troubleshooting guide. Bookmark for future use.
Read More
HWMonitor’s
simple interface also makes all values easy to view and understand. Of
course, you can also save this information for further troubleshooting
via the File option.
3. SiSoftware Sandra Lite
SiSoftware
Sandra Lite is a fully-featured benchmark suite which is aimed at users
who are very well informed about the inner workings of their computers,
and for businesses which need to perform a detailed analysis on
multiple computers.
Want to test your computer’s memory bandwidth?
No problem. Want to benchmark network performance? Sure. Want to
benchmark your computer’s power efficiency? Yes, Sandra does that as
well.
Another
useful feature of SiSoftware Sandra Lite is its online reference
database. SiSoft Sandra will benchmark your component or online
connection and then compare your performance with other similar
processors to give you a better idea of how an upgrade may or may not
help you.
4. Speccy
Piriform’s
Speccy, from the creators of CCleaner, is a favorite among the gaming
community for its simple layout of a PC’s hardware configuration.
Once it’s open, Speccy will provide a thorough rundown of every component, and most drivers, currently available on your PC.
If
you click on the individual parameters on the left-hand side of the
window, you’ll get even more information concerning your specific
hardware including temperature, voltage, fan speeds, and more.
5. Fraps
Fraps
is the de facto FPS benchmarking tool in every gamers arsenal. Easy to
use and configure, Fraps will allow users to view and save their FPS
ratings over time.
How to Safely Overclock Your GPU to Gain FPS
How to Safely Overclock Your GPU to Gain FPS
Overclocking can make
your PC perform at clock speeds one generation above its release. If
done right, it’s safe and easy. We’ll show you how to get a GPU
performance boost for free.
Read More
CPU Benchmarking
CPU benchmarks not only
provide users with data concerning clock speeds and temperatures, but
they also compare your CPU’s performance with the performance of others.
Keep
in mind, it’s difficult to separate pure CPU benchmarks from pure GPU
benchmarks; both typically drive a PC’s overall performance. A PC’s
motherboard also largely influences the performance of the CPU, and a
cheap or older motherboard may even throttle your CPU’s performance.
6. CineBench
CineBench
provides one of the most thorough and trusted CPU benchmarks available.
It renders an image—rendering being a task largely undertaken by the
CPU—and compares it to other real-world tests in order to gauge your
CPU’s performance.
It’s as real-world as it gets: while other
benchmarks will test your overall PC performance or a combination of
your CPU and GPU, CineBench specifically tests all available processor
cores of your CPU. After the test is run, your processor will be graded
in points: the higher your points, the stronger your CPU’s performance
output.
7. RealBench
RealBench
is another example of real-world CPU benchmarking. It uses four tests,
all involving rendering in some capacity: Image Editing, H.264 Video
Encoding, OpenCL, and Heavy Multitasking.
You can upload your
finding to the RealBench website to compare where you stand with other
benchmarked hardware configurations. Possibly the best aspect of
RealBench is that it simulates a regular course load; no stress testing
to push your CPU to the max in order to gauge its performance. Although,
of course, stress testing is also an available feature in RealBench.
GPU Benchmarking
GPU
benchmarks are much like CPU benchmark: they will update the user on
the clock speeds, bus speeds, temperatures, and fan speeds of your GPU.
8. MSI Afterburner
Not
exclusive to MSI graphics cards, MSI Afterburner is the best live
monitoring GPU tool around. Afterburner allows users to overclock and
monitor their software in one program.
It tracks every parameter
you need to chart graphics card parameters: clock speed, temperature,
RAM usage, fan speed, and CPU usage (by core). You can also save and
activate overclock profiles at startup, so you’ll always be overclocked
at the outset.
9. Unigine Suite
The
Unigine suite has been the go-to benchmarking software for graphics
cards for years. If, for example, an overindulgent overclock has the
possibility to damage your GPU over the long run, Unigine engines will
make sure they benchmark and stress-test the GPU to ensure maximum
performance and stability. It also allows users to test varying degrees
of detail, so any GPU—budget or otherwise—can be tested using the
software.
10. FutureMark Suite
Similar
to the Unigine suite, FutureMark provides high quality benchmarking
software for your GPU. Downloadable through Steam, you can use a free
demo version of 3DMark’s paid software.
The 3DMark Basic Edition,
equipped with the DirectX 12 benchmark Time Spy, should more than meet
your needs. 3DMark scores are also some of the best indicators of GPU
performance around.
Benchmark Your PC the Right Way
There
are plenty of system benchmark software available online, most of which
do a poor job of truly revealing your component’s performance. The list
above is comprised of tested and trustworthy benchmarking programs which
IT professionals and casual users can both use to gather information
concerning a PC’s hardware configuration.
