Keep on benchmarkin' with Windows 7

Those of you who regularly read GCN Lab reviews probably know that a few years ago we standardized on the PassMark PerformanceTest Benchmark from PassMark Software. Some might say it was an unusual choice given that PassMark is located in Sydney, Australia. But the lab ran extensive tests of every benchmark product in the market before choosing the PassMark software.

Really, no other benchmark software gives as detailed a look inside systems. It lets us see not only that one system is faster, but why. Sometimes a computer that is generally slower might actually be better in a specific area,such as disk access or 3-D graphics, which would make it more attractive to a specific government agency, even if it’s slower overall.

We have been using Version 6.1 of the software for about two years and it’s been a real workhorse. It was even able to properly benchmark systems running Vista when the switch from XP was made.

However, Windows 7 is a bit of a different animal, apparently. It will require us to upgrade to PassMark PerformanceTest Version 7.0. We’ve done some initial testing with the 7.0 benchmark and it does work on systems running Windows 7. More importantly, it also works with systems that we previously benchmarked using Windows XP and Vista. And the numbers match up. So we are happy to announce that the lab will continue to use PassMark and that all of our previous scores are still valid. A notebook running XP with a PassMark score of 450 is still faster than a notebook running Windows 7 that scores 400. There is no need to adjust anything for it all to match up.

From a reader standpoint, nothing will change, and that doesn’t happen very often when benchmarks have to adapt to new operating systems. I suppose kudos go to PassMark Software, but also some credit probably needs to be placed in front of Microsoft for keeping the core functionality of older OS versions in their newest offering.

Anyone can download a trial version of the PassMark Benchmark software too. Simply go to www.passmark.com and you can use the same benchmarks we do in the lab for 30 days without having to pay. I would recommend it if you want to see how your current system is performing, and how well it does compared to others that PassMark keeps in an extensive database.

Posted by John Breeden II on Sep 30, 2009 at 2:05 PM