Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Importance Of Benchmark Software For Computer Systems

By Harriett Crosby


Benchmark software can be one or multiple programs that are meant for testing hardware equipment and computer applications, usually related to computer systems. A verification procedure may be necessary for various reasons, from which the most important could be determining the performance of equipment, or its state of functionality. There are different tools and utilities to help you evaluate the speed of your systems.

The technique mainly uses one or several tests and the obtained scores are combined for getting a final one. Examples can be many and an obvious one may be to verify the floating operations performed by a computers processor. Through a synthetic evaluation, hardware pieces are tested for knowing how they would behave in regular applications.

If you want to acquire a computer for games and other 3D applications that need good pieces of hardware, you can look at the scores that certain configurations have achieved using benchmark software. Game simulations that are made specifically for testing can be started. At the end of the evaluation, the obtained score could be like a measurement for the speed of your computer.

You can compare different scores from multiple systems and choose the computer that obtains the highest scores. The only inconvenient you can have when you want to buy a system that provides the most performance is money. Some programs are meant to mimic specific types of workload for different components in a computer. Sometimes, synthetic results can be unrealistic, but they can make you have an overall view on what a device is capable of.

Manufacturers can use benchmark software in their phases of development, especially when certain types of computer hardware are made for specific programs. It can be hard to have a realistic approach with software testing. But, you can obtain final results that are a sum of multiple smaller evaluations of different device functions.

Vendors of hardware components can have the occasion to adjust their products, for making them more suitable for the customer requirements. Just prior to the release of a new processor family, which usually has higher clock speeds, benchmarks can be used for revealing the enhancements that have been made. When the results obtained are below the expectations, the equipment may be tuned up, for meeting the standard results for new systems.

It is already known that different computers can obtain good scores in synthetic tests, but there could be a problem if they do not behave in the same way in real applications. There is a possible fix, which could be implementing faster mathematical formulas in compilers, in order to enhance the applications for a particular type of device.

Benchmark software has always been useful to determine the capabilities of a hardware system. The gaming industry is one of the domains that benefit the most from the use of synthetic tests. If you want to know what score your computer will obtain in 3D applications, all you have to do is install software meant for this purpose and make an evaluation of your hardware.




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