Updated at: 09-02-2023 - By: Leo Hall
Want to see how your computer stacks up? Here is a simple method for conducting a benchmark analysis of your computer’s performance. Check out our brief manual here.

Users of earlier versions of Windows were shocked to learn that the much-loved Windows Experience Index had been axed in favor of a newer and more streamlined indexing system in Windows 10.

The Index has a devoted following of users who appreciate its usefulness and practicality as a reliable indicator of a system’s performance. In other words, an integrated performance-measuring benchmarking tool into the core of the Windows operating system.

Since Windows 10 doesn’t include this helpful utility, it raises the question of how to conduct a computer performance benchmark test or obtain a comparable statistic.

As a result, we compiled this tutorial detailing how precisely to evaluate your computer’s performance.

What Is Benchmarking?

During benchmarking, a piece of hardware is subjected to a battery of software tests that are meant to be representative of how it is typically put to use.

Thus, a laptop’s central processing unit (CPU) will be put through a battery of mathematical tests designed to evaluate how quickly it can encrypt or compress data. The speed at which a hard drive can record either a single extremely large file or thousands of relatively small files is a key performance indicator.

GPU (graphics processing unit; graphics card) benchmarks evaluate performance in a variety of situations, such as the number of on-screen objects, the complexity of their rendering, and the resolution at which they are rendered.

How To Run A Computer Performance Benchmark Test [W10]

In and of themselves, the findings are meaningless. But after putting two products through the same tests, you can start to make an informed decision about which one is the superior option.

How to Benchmark Your Own Hardware

Numerous apps exist that can perform the task if you want to give it a go and see how your equipment stacks up against the competition.

Geekbench is the most user-friendly program for rookies. This program is compatible with multiple operating systems, including MacOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Thus, you can evaluate how well different OSes perform side by side.

Geekbench ranks computer hardware primarily on how well it works with computers’ processors and memories. If you want to check out your desktop PC’s graphics card or hard drive speed in greater detail, you can use benchmarking software like NovaBench or PassMark, while AnTuTu is a good option for Android phones.

Keep in mind that there are a plethora of factors that can influence benchmark scores. The results could be influenced by even something as trivial as the battery life of your computer or mobile device.

Companies that take benchmarking seriously will typically take steps to reduce these potential sources of error. Don’t be shocked if your equipment, which has seen months of actual use, gives you different outcomes.

Common Benchmark Tests and What They Mean

The results of a benchmark test can vary significantly depending on the testing framework or methodology employed. You can learn more about the hardware’s performance by using multiple programs, as they will each test it in different ways.

Read on for an explanation of some of the most popular diagnostic procedures, as well as warning signs to keep an eye out for.

Processors

  • Most software employs a method known as floating-point mathematical testing, which checks the CPU’s ability to carry out a number of standard operations. Numbers with a floating point denote that the function makes use of fractional values. Separately, we also test the validity of integer tests that only use whole numbers. In most cases, the results will be presented in milliseconds, where a lower number indicates better performance.
  • Compression evaluations measure how quickly a processor can compress large blocks of data without compromising quality. The test results will most likely be reported in kilobytes per second (Mbps), where a higher value indicates a faster rate.
  • The performance of a single core in the processor is the focus of single-core tests, which are used by services like CineBench and PassMark. Due to the fact that many programs are still not written with multi-core CPUs in mind, having a strong single-core performance is crucial.

Graphics Cards

  • Tests of 2D graphics typically involve drawing, resizing, and repositioning lines, fonts, and other UI elements. In most cases, the higher and more stable the frame rate, the better.
  • Tools like Heaven Benchmark (whose test you can see in the video above) and 3DMark employ 3D graphics tests, a major test for gaming and graphics-intensive applications. As part of these tests, you may be asked to display a small number or a large number of 3D objects on the screen simultaneously. These evaluations are performed at a wide range of complexity settings, including detail, shadow, anti-aliasing, and more. APIs like DirectX and OpenGL are also frequently tested.

Hard Drives

  • Read and write speeds, as well as random read and write speeds, are typically the primary metrics for evaluating hard drives in benchmarking studies. Large files written to a non-fragmented hard drive are examples of sequential files. If the results are given in megabytes per second, a higher value is preferable.
  • Examining the drive’s responsiveness to random requests for large amounts of data is what random tests are all about. The speeds of random reads and writes will be much lower than those of sequential operations.

Smartphones

Most of the same components that are tested on desktops and laptops can also be tested on smartphones using benchmark apps designed specifically for mobile devices. However, they come with a few bonuses, such as:

  • This test, which is similar to those used for evaluating hard drives, establishes how quickly your phone can read from and write to an SD card or its internal storage. Similar to hard drives, its speed is expressed in megabytes per second (MB/s), with a higher value indicating increased efficiency.
  • Database IO: This metric is used by most smartphone benchmarking apps like AnTuTu to determine how quickly data can be read from and written to the device’s database. A device’s overall performance may suffer if its performance here is slow.

How To Run A Computer Performance Benchmark Test [W10]

How To Run A Computer Performance Benchmark Test On Windows 10

Run Windows 10 Performance Monitor Tool

Windows 10 includes its own performance monitoring tool, although it isn’t as comprehensive as the Windows Experience Index. We’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t meant to take the place of a benchmarking tool, but it does offer some insights into your system that could be helpful. Here’s how to launch the tracking software.

  1. To get started, right-click the Windows Start button to bring up a contextual menu, and then pick “Run” from there.
  2. Simply type “perfmon /report” into the empty Run field and click “Run” below.
  3. After 60 seconds of collecting data, Windows will generate a report using the performance monitor tool. Let nature take its course.
  4. After the process is complete, you will be presented with a summary of your system as well as the results of a battery of tests that identify and document any issues with your computer.
  5. To access the desktop rating, go to the “Hardware Configuration” section and then click “Desktop Rating.”
  6. To expand both the “Query” and “Returned Objects” sections, press the plus sign.
  7. Graphical evaluations of system resources such as CPU and disk space will be provided. The numerical value of the score, between 0 and 10, represents the efficiency of the system.

Run The Windows System Assessment Tool

The following technique is very similar to the one just described; however, it provides more information about the system’s performance with respect to the CPU, the GPU, and the memory. To use the program, please refer to the following instructions.

  1. First, select “Run” from the context menu that appears when you right-click the Windows Start button.
  2. To launch a command prompt, press Ctrl Shift Enter after typing “cmd” into the run field.
  3. Select “OK” when prompted with “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?”
  4. Enter “winsat prepop” into the Command Prompt window.
  5. Authorize the command prompt to conduct the test.
  6. When complete, you will have access to detailed information about how the system fared in each test category. Results from tests on the graphics processing unit are expressed in frames per second (FPS), while those on the central processing unit (CPU) are tallied in megabytes per second (MB/S), and so on.

Find Windows System Score

You can get a numerical value for your system’s performance, very similarly to how the Index does it.

  1. To get started, click the right mouse button on the Windows Start menu and then select “Search” from the drop-down menu.
  2. Once the field is empty, type “Windows PowerShell” into it.
  3. Select “Run as administrator” from the context menu of the top matching result. In its appearance, Windows PowerShell is very similar to the more familiar Command Prompt.
  4. In Windows PowerShell, enter “Get-WmiObject -class Win32_WinSAT” and press Enter.
  1. Each component of the system, such as the central processing unit, RAM, graphics processing unit, hard disk drive, etc., will be given a score and displayed in the final results. The rating is consistent with what was formerly provided by the Windows Experience Index.

Use Third-Party Benchmarking Software

If the built-in Windows 10 workarounds aren’t sufficient, you should look into a third-party benchmarking tool. Which one you use is a matter of taste; therefore, we suggest trying out a few different ones until you find one that works for you.

We give high marks to UserBenchmark for being user-friendly and allowing results to be compared to other systems, and to Catzilla for throwing everything it can at your PC to give you an accurate picture of what it can do when pushed to its limits.

Overclockers highly value Prime95 for CPU testing, and the ever-popular Sandra offers comprehensive benchmarking in addition to a host of other useful features.

We have chosen UserBenchmark as an illustration. You should restart the PC, exit all programs, and not use the machine while the benchmark is running. In this way, genuine, unaltered scores can be guaranteed.

  1. Click the orange “Free Download” button to get the most recent version of UserBenchmark.
  2. As soon as the download is complete, run the program by double-clicking the “UserBenchMark.exe” file. The tool is convenient because it can be used without any installation.
  3. When prompted, choose the subset of features to analyze.
  4. Select “Run” and proceed.
  5. Don’t interrupt the benchmarking process. Some time may pass. You can see how far along the process is thanks to the bar that runs across the top. This program will render several time-consuming images for the screen. In other words, you can relax; this is completely typical.
  6. The completed results will be displayed in your browser after a short while.
  1. Up top, you’ll find an overview of the whole system, with evaluations of its various parts presented in simple language. Below, you’ll find a comparison tool that provides ratings based on the experiences of other users, as well as benchmark scores for each component. A number of performance graphs covering the duration of the test are included below.

How Important Are Benchmarks?

Hardware performance can be estimated with the help of benchmarks; however, they should not be used in isolation. The value of a product can be easily evaluated by comparing it to others of a similar price, and they excel at demonstrating how performance improves from generation to generation.

How to Run Computer Performance Benchmark Test on Windows 11/10

Applying a standard or benchmark is recommended when there are strict criteria to be met. A suitable benchmark is a good solution if, for instance, you want to use your hardware for gaming, video editing, or some other purpose.

However, the performance differences are negligible for common computing tasks like browsing the web, using Facebook, or working in Microsoft Office, especially when other factors affect the speed of your computer.

Find the Best the Internet Can Offer

Perhaps you’ve gained a new appreciation for the purpose and utility of benchmarks in this article. What they can do for you when shopping for a new device is extremely useful, but only if you know how to make the most of them.

It’s never been less difficult to find your ideal match. Since there are numerous alternatives, you should explore all of them.