I recently bought my first own gaming PC, and the first thing I wanted to test after I got it was how well it compares to other gaming systems. I started searching and testing many Windows performance testing programs, but I quickly realized that only a few were good.
In this article, I’m going to write about three of my favorite performance testing programs and how to use them. I will not go into details on how to improve your results in this article, as this is a completely different topic, but you should definitely study it. When I tested my gaming PC, it was in the 43rd percentile, which was pretty pathetic for me.
After tweaking some of the BIOS settings related to XMP, overclocking, etc., I hit the 76th percentile! Thus, changing the settings of your equipment can significantly affect the test results. The results below are from a non-gaming PC, as I don’t have a gaming PC at the time of this writing.
Novapench
Novabench is a small performance testing program that allows you to test your computer in just a few minutes. I like it because it is very easy to use and gives simple and straightforward results. Once you download it, go ahead and install.
Run the program and click “Start Tests”. They also have a $ 19 Pro version that allows you to track temperature over time and more, but it really isn’t needed unless you’re an avid PC enthusiast.
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It runs six tests, which can take anywhere from one to several minutes depending on the speed of your system.
In the results window, you will get a Novabench score, which in itself doesn’t really matter, unless you test your PC several times before and after hardware upgrades, overclocking, etc. If you click on the View Performance Graphs and Comparisons button on the page below, it will load the webpage where you can get your percentile.
Alternatively, you can click on “Results and Statistics” at the very top, which will show all the recorded scores from highest to lowest. This is a good way to find out how far you are from the fastest and best computer that Novabench has tested.
UserBenchmark
Another really good program and site is UserBenchmark Just download the software and run the EXE to start the test. What I love about UserBenchmark is that it doesn’t even require installation.
Just click “Run” to start the tests. This will take a few minutes, after which the results will be displayed in a new browser window.
You will see an estimate of the performance of games, desktops and workstations. If you scroll down the page, you also get the overall percentile score and the component-specific percentile.
It’s worth noting that the overall percentile is calculated only for other computers with the same components. The PC tested above is not in the 72nd percentile of all PCs tested using their software. Thus, the above computer is in the 72nd percentile of all computers with the same components.
FutureMark 3DMark
Finally, another benchmark that you should use if you really want to do a properly demanding benchmark for a high-end gaming machine is Futuremark’s 3DMark benchmark. The basic version is free and includes four free benchmarks.
I suggest running it only on a real gaming or high performance workstation because the download size is a whopping 3GB! Mostly they are just large files to play high-resolution graphics for testing, but they take up a lot of space. You can of course run the test and then delete it to reclaim the seat.
After installing and running 3DMark, you will see that it downloads the Time Spy benchmark first. Just click “Run” to run the test. This test takes the longest because it is the most demanding test of the three.
When you’re done, you’ll get a grade that doesn’t say much until you compare it to other results. Click the Compare Results Online button to see your percentile score.
As you can see, this old computer is better than 4% of all results! My gaming computer was better than 91% of all results. That’s all. Hopefully these tests give you a good idea of ??how well your computer is performing overall compared to others with the same components. Enjoy!
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