Benchmark Tool Advice

nheather · 18 Jul 2006 at 20:38

What is the best benchmark tool to judge the overall performance of a computer.

At the moment I'm trying to judge whether it is worth trading off memory speed for higher CPU speed or not.

It would be nice to be able to try the two and run comparative tests.

I can run individual tests but all that tells me is the CPU is better in one configuration and the memory is better in the other.

Thanks in advance,

Nigel

.::lawrywild::. · 18 Jul 2006 at 21:03

PCMARK05 should do you

nheather · 18 Jul 2006 at 21:38

Thanks,

I shall check that one out.

Cheers,

Nigel

Arthalen · 18 Jul 2006 at 21:50

SuperPi Mod is very memory sensitive, will allow you to juggle bandwidth vs. latency settings by using the 1 Million point test.

SiSoft Sandra has some pretty good memory tests as well, and has some reference scores to compare against in the software itself.

nheather · 19 Jul 2006 at 08:08

Arthalen

Thanks, I know about those - but what I was after was something that gives an overall judegment of the system rather than individual components.

My components and board restrict my options. So for example I have just tried the following

Config 1
======
CPU = 2.7G
Mem = 225M

Config 2
======
CPU = 2.8G
Mem = 200M

Now if I run individual tests all I know is that Config 1 has best memory performance and Config 2 has best CPU performance.

What I want to be able to judge is - what is the best overall config

Running PCMark it would appear that Config 2 is better by some margin - 4554 vs 4421

Obviously I have to put faith in PCMark but at least it is a measure.

Cheers,

Nigel

Arthalen · 19 Jul 2006 at 09:14

The original 3D Mark 2003 is a good test of overall system speed, if looped a couple of times to find your average score.

I also suggest Aquamark as well, as it reports individual scores for CPU and GFX but then combines them into an overall score.

I used Aquamark to find my sweetspot for CPU, Memory & GFX.

.::lawrywild::. · 19 Jul 2006 at 10:22

nheather said:
Arthalen

Thanks, I know about those - but what I was after was something that gives an overall judegment of the system rather than individual components.

My components and board restrict my options. So for example I have just tried the following

Config 1
======
CPU = 2.7G
Mem = 225M

Config 2
======
CPU = 2.8G
Mem = 200M

Now if I run individual tests all I know is that Config 1 has best memory performance and Config 2 has best CPU performance.

What I want to be able to judge is - what is the best overall config

Running PCMark it would appear that Config 2 is better by some margin - 4554 vs 4421

Obviously I have to put faith in PCMark but at least it is a measure.

Cheers,

Nigel

Oh well that's obvious, config 2, cpu speed is a lot more important than memory speed