benchmark programs

[M4LFUNCT10N]

Good free program?

[Excessive]

I think some of the benchmarks in Sisoft Sandra (http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a=) are free. but to get full functuality you need to pay.

If you are overclocking many people use prime 95 to stress test their systems. If you run it overnight and your system does not crash or have any errors, then its prety stable at that OC.

[M4LFUNCT10N]

Heard about Sandra on another board and I'm playing around with that one. I haven't messed around, but I don't believe my laptop has an overclockable bios. And I don't think it would be smart to overclock a cheap Celeron.

[dusk]

Over at http://www.futuremark.com/ they have a program called 3DMark2003 that measures game playing performance

edit - 3dmark2003 not 2004

[Itsmeee]

Sandra is nice for looking at individual components by themselves and easily compare them to other computers. It doesn't really show you exactly how your computer is actually running in real life. All you get is numbers though if you really look at them you can see where your computer can improve.

My preference is 3dmark2k3 (for dx9 based cards) or 3dmark2k1se (for non dx9 compliant cards). They actually help the consumer see visually how there computer will run in real life situations.

[ghrogels]

Originally posted by dusk
Over at http://www.futuremark.com/ they have a program called 3DMark2004 that measures game playing performance

um, doesn't everyone know about this?

guess not :(

[Itsmeee]

well not 3dmark2k4 :p

[M4LFUNCT10N]

Well, 3Dmark works. I was specifically trying to run some tests to figure out how much my ram upgrade helped the performance of my laptop. Suprisingly enough the ram tests in Sandra showed a negligable difference between 256MB and 512MB. But I guess what really matters is the games, not a test.

[Itsmeee]

deffinatly. Thats why sandra can be misleading unless you know a LOT more then me about what your looking at. :D