Computer hardware test software explanation

In various computer newspapers and magazines, everyone has seen test reports on computer hardware. Often, these test reports will provide more or less test data. However, what does the data mean? I believe many of my friends have not understood it very well.
Below, the author will enumerate several sets of the most famous computer hardware testing software and test games based on his actual experience, explaining how they measure performance data and what the data represents.

(a) 3DMark 2000

3DMark 2000 is Madonion launched test software. As its name suggests, it is designed to test the 3D performance of a computer. Currently the latest version is version 1.1, users can download the trial for free from the Internet. The 3DMark 2000 rating is based on the two game demos included in it.

first game simulated helicopter flight demonstration fragments in the valley, and attack enemy aircraft experienced a situation. This scene is similar to a normal simulation game, so it can be used as a test display card to perform performance when running this type of game.

exemplary second game segment is similar third-person action game, there are various buildings, people and other objects within the scene and the light source. A large number of texture maps and varied perspectives make it more complex than the first demo.

3DMark 2000, respectively low, medium, or high definition (Detail), which performs two exemplary game segment. Finally, the generated 6 frame play frames (FPS; frames per second) are summed and multiplied by 12 to get the 3DMark score. We assume

fragment exemplary low, middle and higher resolution picture playback 40,30,20 frames per second, respectively, the calculated value 3DMark 2160. So as long as the running 3DMark score is greater than 2160, it can be said that the 3D game should be able to execute smoothly in this display mode.

3DMark 2000 uses the DirectX application programming interface (API) to support Hardware T&L (Transform and Lighting), and it is also specifically targeted at Intel's Pentium III and AMD's Athlon, Duron. Optimize for a better 3DMark score. Therefore, the performance value tested by 3DMark 2000 can represent the performance of the display card on the Direct3D API, and can be used to judge whether the display card is suitable for performing most 3D games. //This article comes from the computer software and hardware application network www.45it.com

(2) Winstone & Content Creation Winstone

Winstone and Content Creation Winstone are developed by ZDNet for computer testing. Software. Both work the same way, performing a variety of common software on the computer being tested and calculating the time required for execution as a basis for performance.
Among them, Winstone can be divided into Business Winstone and Hign-End Winstone. The former is mainly for the general commercial environment, so it uses Microsoft Office, Netscape Communicator and other software as the basis for testing performance; the latter is specifically used to test the performance of advanced applications, must be executed on the Windows NT or 2000 operating system. Business Winstone data can perform the performance of general commercial software on behalf of the computer; High-End Winstone data represents the performance of the advanced application on the computer.
Content Creative Winstone is aimed at the multimedia production environment, so it uses multimedia production software such as Adobe Photoshop, Marcomedia Director and Dreamweaver. From the data it tests, the performance of the multimedia program can be performed on behalf of the computer.

due Winstone and Content Creation Winstone two sets of software to run properly must be in English under the Windows environment. And the latest 2001 version does not yet provide network downloads, so domestic users may not be able to use them at home to measure the performance of their computers.

(3) Unreal Tournament

<<Unreal Tournament is a first person action game. Although it is not as sublime as <> in the player's mind, the <> operation is simple and easy to use, and is more suitable for beginners to participate than <>. Many people know

& lt; & gt; built demonstration file, the display can be used as a test card performance purposes. But people who know that <> have similar functions are less, because UT itself does not include model files. Therefore, first you must download the <> demo files from the Internet. The two most commonly used models are UT Bench and Thunder. After downloading, extract the files to the System folder under the UT installation location.

Go to the <> game and set the environment to test, including display resolution and number of levels. Then press the “`” button on the keyboard (below the Esc key, left of the number key 1) on any screen to open the System Console window.

Type "timedemo 1" in the window and press "Enter". Then type "demoplay utbench" or "demoplay thunder" and press "Enter". Finally, double-click the "Esc" button to switch to the game screen and wait for the sample file to load and play. After the playback is finished, press the “`” button again to open the System Console window, and you will see the screen speed of the demo file just played.

(4)Quake 3 Arena

<> Unlike the 3DMark 2000 test software and <> game described above, it is written using the OpenGL API that is custom used on workstation computers, rather than A common DirectX API on a personal computer.
It's easier to test hardware performance in <> than in <>. Because <> has its own sample files, players don't have to bother looking for and downloading on the Internet.

Likewise, the user must first set up an environment to be tested, including the display resolution and gradation number. Then press the "`" button on any screen to open the console window.
Type "timedemo 1" in the window and press "Enter". Then type "demodemo001" or "demo demo002" and press "Enter" again. <> The game will start loading the demo file and will return to the main menu screen after the playback. At this time, press the "`" button again to open the console window, you will see the speed of the demo file just played. Since <> uses the OpenGL API, its measured performance can be viewed as a performance metric when the display card is executing an OpenGL program (such as 3D Studio MAX) or a game.

Conclusion


In addition to the above test software or games, there are many software or games on the market that can also be used for testing hardware performance, such as: 3D WinBench, SiSoft Sandra software, <> games, etc. Different hardware is suitable for testing with different software or games. For example, the motherboard or system is best suited for testing with Winstone or Content Creation Winstone, and the graphics card is better tested with 3DMark 2000, <> and <> games.

Finally, I hope that after reading this article you can have a preliminary understanding of the software and hardware used in the test. In this way, in the future, when we read the relevant test reports, we can quickly grasp the meaning of the test results.