Passmark benchmark

Passmark Score

Passmark is a popular system performance benchmarking tool. You can download the Passmark test from here . It is not a very big file ( just 11 MB) and hardly takes 5 minutes on a broadband network.

The performance test comes in two grades – 32 bits and 64 bits. Select the appropriate download for your system. The software costs $24 but is available for free for first 30 days. If you have only one system to evaluate, an evaluation copy is more than sufficient.

The software has a large number of confusing terms.

– Even though most people talk about passmark score, there are different tests in passmark software and it actually refers to the CPU Mark score.

– The software itself if called “Performance Test” – note Passmark test.

– While the actual software can be downloaded from www.passmark.com, the results are uploaded to www.cpubenchmark.net.

Following are the standard tests included in the Passmark benchmark tests

– CPU tests Mathematical operations ( Includes integer, floating point, compression, encryption)
– 2D graphics tests ( Includes Drawing lines, bitmaps, fonts, text, and GUI elements)
– 3D graphics tests ( Includes Simple to complex DirectX 3D graphics and animations )
– Disk tests Reading, writing and seeking within disk files
– Memory tests Allocating and accessing memory speed and efficiency
– CD / DVD test Test the speed of your CD or DVD drive

CD / DVD tests have become almost obsolete as it is rarely used.

Passmark Criticism

The passmark gives an overall score for a processor that gets reported on internet. The passmark score reported on internet may not accurately reflect the true processing power. If a CPU comes with an additional discrete graphics, the overall passmark score can inflate the result make it look better than it actually is.

The Overall Passmark score also inflates a result if the CPU is overclocked.

In spite of the shortcomings Passmark is still a great tool to compare two processors, if you know what you are comparing. It has a small footprint ( unlike the 3DMark 06).

Here is the screenshot of the Passmark for Core i3-350M – Intel’s dual core processor clocked at 2.26 GHz.

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