A benchmarking test, thus, by quantifying the performance of a system helps you make your next purchase decision, gauge the difference one made by overclocking the GPU or simply gloat about your personal computer’s prowess to your friends.
Benchmarking Have you ever compared how smoothly PUBG works on your friend’s phone vs your own device and determined which one is better? Well, that’s the simplest form of benchmarking. The benchmarking process is a way to quantify performance by running a computer program/test or a set of computer programs/tests and assessing their outcomes. This process is often used to compare the speeds or performances of software, hardware components, or even measure the internet connection. It is more practical and easier than staring at the technical specifications of a system and comparing it with the rest. Broadly there are two distinct types of benchmarks that are used
Application Benchmarks measure the real-world performance of the system by running real-world programs. Synthetic Benchmarks are efficient for testing individual components of the system, like a networking disk or a hard drive.
Earlier, windows came with an inbuilt software known as the Windows Experience Index to benchmark your system performance, however, the feature has been exempted from the operating system now. Although, there are still ways through which one can perform benchmarking tests. Now, let’s go over various methods to perform a benchmarking test on your computer.
Run Computer Performance Benchmark Test on Windows PC
There are multiple methods via which you can put a number to your personal computer’s performance and we have explained four them in this section. We start off by using the built-in tools like Performance Monitor, Command Prompt and Powershell before moving onto third-party applications such as Prime95 and Sandra by SiSoftware.
Run Computer Performance Benchmark Test on Windows PC Method 1: Using Performance Monitor Method 2: Using Command Prompt Method 3: Using PowerShell Method 4: Using third-party software like Prime95 and Sandra
Method 1: Using Performance Monitor
Launch the Run command on your system by pressing Windows key + R on your keyboard. (Alternatively, right-click on the Start button or press Windows key + X and from the Power User menu select Run)
Once the Run command has been launched, in the empty text box, type perfmon and click on the OK button or press Enter. This will launch the Windows Performance Monitor on your system.
From the right-side panel, open up Data Collector Sets by clicking on the arrow next to it. Under the Data Collector Sets, expand System to find System Performance.
Right-click on System Performance and select Start.
Windows will now gather system information for the next 60 seconds and compile a report to showcase. So, sit back and stare at your clock tick 60 times or continue working on other items in the interim.
- After 60 seconds have passed, expand Reports from the panel of items in the right column. Following Reports, click on the arrow next to System and then System Performance. Finally, click on the latest Desktop entry you find under System Performance to have a look at the Performance Report Windows stitched together for you.
Here, go through the various sections/labels to get information regarding the performance of your CPU, network, disk, etc. The summary label, as obvious, displays a collective performance result of your entire system. This includes details like which process is using most of your CPU power, apps using the most of your network bandwidth, etc. Recommended: How to Use Performance Monitor on Windows 10 To get a slightly different type of Performance Report using the Performance Monitor, follow the below steps:
Launch Run command by any of the previous methods, type perfmon /report and press Enter.
Again, let the Performance Monitor do its thing for the next 60 seconds while you go back to watching YouTube or working.
After 60 seconds you will again receive a Performance Report for you to check. This report along with having the same entries (CPU, Network, and Disk) will also have details pertaining to Software and Hardware Configuration.
Click on Hardware Configuration to Expand and then on Desktop Rating.
Now, click on + symbol below Query. This will open another subsection of Returned Objects, click on + symbol below it.
You shall now receive a list of various properties and their corresponding performance values. All the values are awarded out of 10 and should help you reflect on the performance of each of the listed properties.
Method 2: Using Command Prompt
Is there anything you can’t do using Command Prompt? Answer – NO.
Open up Command Prompt as admin by any of the following methods. a. Press Windows Key + X on your keyboard and click on Command Prompt (admin) b. Press Windows Key + S, type Command Prompt, right-click and select Run As Administrator c. Launch Run window by pressing Windows Key + R, type cmd and press ctrl + shift + enter.
In the Command Prompt window, type ‘winsat prepop’ and hit enter. The command prompt will now run various tests to check the performance of your GPU, CPU, disk, etc.
Let the Command Prompt run its course and complete the tests. 3. Once the command prompt has finished, you will receive a comprehensive list of how well your system performed in each of the tests. (GPU performance and test results are measured in fps while CPU performance is showcased in MB/s).
Method 3: Using PowerShell
Command Prompt and PowerShell are like two mimes in action. Whatever one does, the other copies and can do too.
Launch PowerShell as admin by clicking on the search bar, typing PowerShell and selecting Run As Administrator. (Some can also find Windows PowerShell (admin) in the Power User menu by pressing Windows key + X.)
In the PowerShell window, type the following command press enter. Get-WmiObject -class Win32_WinSAT
Upon pressing enter, you will receive scores for various parts of the system like CPU, Graphics, disk, memory, etc. These scores are out of 10 and comparable to the scores that were presented by Windows Experience Index.
Method 4: Using third-party software like Prime95 and Sandra
There is a multitude of third-party applications that overclockers, game testers, manufacturers, etc. use to gather information about a certain system’s performance. As for which one to use, the choice really boils down to your own preference and what you are looking for. Prime95 is one of the most commonly used applications for stress/torture testing of the CPU and benchmarking of the whole system. The application itself is portable and doesn’t need to be installed on your system. However, you will still require the .exe file of the application. Follow the below steps to download the file and run a benchmarking test using it.
Click on the following link Prime95 and download the installation file appropriate for your operating system and architecture.
Open the download location, unzip the downloaded file and click on prime95.exe file to launch the application.
A dialogue box asking you to either Join GIMPS! Or Just Stress Testing will open up on your system. Click on the ‘Just Stress Testing’ button to skip creating an account and get right to testing.
Prime95 by default launches the Torture Test window; go ahead and click on OK if you wish to perform a torture test on your CPU. The test may take some time and reveal details regarding the stability, heat output, etc of your CPU. However, if you simply want to perform a benchmark test, click on Cancel to launch the Prime95’s main window.
In here, click on Options and then select Benchmark… to start a test.
Another dialogue box with various options to customize the Benchmark test will open up. Go ahead and customize the test to your liking or simply press on OK to start testing.
- Prime95 will display the test results in terms of time (Lower values imply faster speeds and are thus better.) The application may take some time to finish running all the tests/permutations depending on your CPU.
Once completed, compare the results you had obtained before overclocking your system to gauge the difference overclocking caused. Additionally, you can also compare the results/scores with other computers listed on Prime95’s website. Another very popular benchmarking you could consider using is Sandra by SiSoftware. The application comes in two variants – a paid version and a free to use version. The paid version, as obvious, lets you access a couple of extra features but for most folks out there the free version will suffice. With Sandra, you can either run a benchmarking test to examine the performance of your entire system as a whole or run individual tests like virtual machine performance, processor power management, networking, memory, etc. To run benchmarking tests using Sandra, follow the below steps:
First, head over to the following site Sandra and download the required installation file.
Launch the installation file and follow the on-screen instructions to install the application.
Once installed, open the application and switch over to the Benchmarks tab.
Here, double-click on the Overall Computer Score to run a comprehensive benchmark test on your system. The test will benchmark your CPU, GPU, memory bandwidth, and file system. (Or if you wish to run benchmark tests on particular components, then select them from the list and continue)
From the following window, select “Refresh the results by running all benchmarks” and press on the OK button (a green tick icon on the bottom of the screen) to initiate the test.
After you press OK, another window allowing you to Customise Rank Engines shall appear; simply press on close (a cross icon at the bottom of the screen) to continue.
The application runs a long list of tests and renders the system almost useless for the time being, so only choose to run the benchmarking tests when you do not intend to use your personal computer. 6. Depending upon your system, Sandra may even take an hour to run all the tests and complete benchmarking. Once it is done, the application will display detailed graphs comparing the results to other reference systems. Recommended: 11 Tips To Improve Windows 10 Slow Performance We hope one of the above methods helped you perform or run computer performance benchmark test on your personal computer and gauge its performance. Apart from the methods and third-party software listed above, there are still a plethora of other applications that let you benchmark your Windows 10 PC. If you have any favourites or have come across any other alternatives then let us & everyone know in the comments section below.
