PassMark PerformanceTest - What's New?

V7.0.Build 1013 - 15/March/2010

Added i3 to list of searchable CPU types in advanced baseline search
Fixed install to USB bug where CSS directory was not copied
Fixed problem where user could launch multiple client network tests at once
Fixed crash when trying to run advanced physics test without being able to render a 3D environment
Improved SMBIOS information gathering

V7.0.Build 1012 14/January/2010
Patch Release

Fixed bad reporting with more than 10 ram modules, only the first 10 modules will now be reported
Fixed incorrect value being exported for random string sorting in advanced multiple process test
Fixed loading of Pre-V6 baselines in the 64-bit version of PeformanceTest
Fixed blue screen crashes on certain CPUs when running Windows Server 2008
Fixed crash on start up on some systems with a large number of RAM modules (> 10 modules populated in SMBIOS)
Better support for detection of CPU speed on new 32nm i3 and i5 CPUs with turbo mode

V7.0.Build 1011 10/November/2009
Patch Release

Fixed a blue screen crash that affected certain CPU models

V7.0.Build 1010 29/October/2009
Patch Release

Fixed bug showing Windows 7 baselines as Vista baselines in baseline selection window
Allowed full results to be generated on DX10 systems without 4x AA
Fixed program crashing when loading pre version 6 baselines
Improved identification of some newer ATI Graphics Cards
Added description of /p option to help file

V7.0.Build 1009 6/October/2009
Patch Release

Improved CPU Information gathering, in particular for the core i5
Also improved CPU speed detection
Fixed issue in Win7 when using multiple monitors and running the 3D tests
Added i5 to list of CPUs in advanced baseline search window
Updated help file with better CPU test descriptions and correct 2D scripting commands

V7.0.Build 1008 9/September/2009
Patch Release

Better core detection for i5 Processor
Better DDR3 detection
Better warning message for a known issue with complex full screen 3D test on Win7 with dual monitors

V7.0.Build 1006 6/July/2009
Patch Release

Included Help files when installing to USB
Better CPU clock speed measurement
Fixed bug loading baselines in local folder twice when using /p
Changed error 5 from error to warning in DX10 test on Win7
Fixed a few misleading error messages

V7.0.Build 1006 12/May/2009
Patch Release

Fixed "Find Same CPU" not working for certain CPU types.
Stopped welcome window reopening at certain points when running in evaluation mode.

V7.0.Build 1005 16/April/2009
Patch Release

Fixed DX10 test to work on videocards that do not support 8x AA
Changed Passmark Rating calculation so that CD scores have a smaller impact and can only ever increase the overall score

V7.0.Build 1004 26/March/2009
Patch Release

Fixed a bug that allowed uploading of incomplete baselines.
Fixed a bug that was causing some types of old AMD CPUs to get extremely high scores.

V7.0.Build 1003 19/March/2009
Patch Release

Fixed a possible crash in the Medium/Complex 3D test.
Fixed an error in reporting the transfer speed in the advanced network test.

V7.0.Build 1002 4/March/2009
Patch Release

Fixed an error when running licensed from USB Drive.

V7.0.Build 1001 4/March/2009
Patch Release

Fixed crash on some systems when opening "print" menu option.
Fixed baselines info not displaying when selecting for display from the web download interface.
Fixed OS lacking 32/64-bit info in baseline search.
Fixed problem with installing a licensed copy of PT to a USB drive.

V7.0.Build 1000 25/February/2009
Major Release

New DirectX 10 3D Test (Requires Windows Vista and a DirectX 10 compatible video card)
Large improvements to the user interface, including near completely reworked main window.
Can now view the system information from multiple baselines simultaneously.
streamlined baseline selection dialogue
Increased the default size of the main window to go along with the graphical improvements.
Improved baseline search functionality.
Removed almost all restrictions in the trial version.
Increased the amount of system information gathered and displayed.
Improved copy options for quickly getting system information from PT to the clipboard.
/p option added to use the application directory instead of the user directory
Added EXPORTBASELINE script option to export .pt file
Overhauled most of the 2D test suite. Complex Vector tests and Image filtering tests now included.
Changed fonts and text test to have text which is more representative of a real document.
Increased intensity of "Windows Interface" test.
Increased the resolution at which 2d and 3d graphics tests are run to place more load on the video card.
Prime numbers test optimised.
String sorting test intensified to use more memory.
Image rotation test was moved from the CPU suite and added as part of the image filters in the 2D suite to show what is happening.
Added CPU Physics simulation test
Added Visualised Physics Test to advanced test suite. This is a customizable 3D representation of what the new physics CPU test is doing.
Increased unchached memory test from 4MB to 64MB as many CPU's have 4MB caches now.
Updated image export functionality.
Install to USB drive menu function.
Changed Passmark Rating calculation to limit the effect of a single extremely fast system component.

V6.1.Build 1018 22/September/2008
Patch release

Correction to a rare crash bug when saving a report or doing a HDD benchmark (when a physical disk is numbered greater
than 3).
ATOM CPU Hyperthreading and number of CPU's detection added.
CPU model number changed to include extended model information for newer CPU's.
CPU L2 cache sizes for newer Intel CPU models added.
Debug logging increased for CPU detection.
A startup problem for an unreleased CPU corrected.

V6.1.Build 1017 12/May/2008
Patch release

Removed some debug information to better reflect performance in particular Virtual environments.

V6.1.Build 1016 1/May/2008
Patch release

Improved the disk tests for compressed disk volumes.
Improved the CPU frequency measurement introduced in PerformanceTest v6.1.1013 for certain newer Intel CPU's.
Corrected a bug where PerformanceTest V4.0 baseline files could not be loaded into PerformanceTest v6.1.
Corrected a crash bug on startup for a rare BIOS configuration.

V6.1.Build 1015 16/Apr/2008
Patch release

Corrected a crash bug on startup for a rare BIOS configuration.

V6.1.Build 1014 2/Apr/2008
Patch release

Corrected a bug introduced in v6.1.1013 where the default number of CPU test processes was 1, rather than the number of CPU's. This resulted in much lower CPU scores if this default was not changed .

V6.1.Build 1013 27/Mar/2008
Patch release

Changed the startup of PerformanceTest to better support Virtual environments like VMWare.
Changed the mechanism to calculate the current CPU frequency as newer Intel CPU's (e.g. Core 2 Duo) that have been overclocked by lowered their bus speed multiplier may reflect a speed based on a higher bus speed multiplier. This does not impact the CPU benchmark scores.

V6.1.Build 1012 26/Feb/2008
Patch release

Implemented a work around for the error "the procedure entry point IsUserAnAdmin could not be located in the dynamic link library shell32.dll". This occured on systems with old versions of shell32.dll.

V6.1.Build 1011 28/Jan/2008
Patch release

Added searching for online baselines for AMD Phenom and Intel Core 2 Extreme.
Removed the restriction of only allowing a single instance of PerformanceTest to run at one time. This allows multiple Advanced Network tests to be run concurrently.
Minor changes to license management.

V6.1.Build 1010 4/Dec/2007
Patch release

Corrected the Multitasking test to run across multiple CPU cores.

V6.1.Build 1008 22/Aug/2007
Patch release

Corrected a software failure bug on startup on a few systems where the system OEM had not populated Baseboard information.
Corrected a software failure bug on startup (particularly Vista) where a DirectX function was causing software failures in "dsetup.dll".
In some cases where the system OEM has not populated Baseboard information, the display in the Baseline information window could be gibberish. This has been corrected.
The Fixed block size in the Advanced Network test is now used rather than the maximum block size.
The Intel Core 2 Quad has been added to the search function for downloading Baselines from the Web.
Quad core L2 cache now detected.
Included an option to skip the DirectX warning message on startup, either by specifying the existing command line parameter of "/i" or by selecting "No" to the DirectX warning the first time it is displayed.
Included a Vista specific warning message for Vista DirectX10 to help avoid confusion over the DirectX9.0c requirement for PerformanceTest.
In very very rare cases, the CPU clock speed could be measured and the result a clearly ridiculous value. This has been corrected.
Minor correction to the HTML export to better handle errors opening the output file.
The filename displayed in the error message when the exported text report file can not be opened has been corrected.

V6.1.Build 1003 1/May/2007
Patch release

Added the ability to throttle the UDP data throughput with the Advanced Network test.
Minor bug corrections.

V6.1.Build 1002 3/April/2007
Patch release

Resolved an issue where PerformanceTest would fail to start on systems with DEP enabled for all programs.
Corrected the Start menu help link.
Minor bug corrections
Ceased support for Windows 98 and ME. Please see our website for an older version supporting Windows 98 and ME.

WIN64 specific:

Corrected a bug where the number of cores reported on a Quad core system was incorrectly reported as CPU packages.
Improvement in Graphical user interface.

V6.1.Build 1001 28/December/2006
New point release

Support for Windows Vista.
- Previous versions of PerformanceTest required access to a range of resources that, under Vista, were only accessible when PerformanceTest was run with elevated privileges. The following changes have been made to address this. The changes have also been made to Windows 2000 and XP for a consistent user experience.
- Windows 2000, XP and Vista:
  - Files have been moved from the Program Files directory to the User Personal directory. Examples: Vista - "C:\Users\<username>\Documents\PassMark\PerformanceTest", XP - "My Documents\PassMark\PerformanceTest\". These include: The baseline installation directory, Download Baselines from Web, Upload baseline, all HTML report default directories, default Save As Baseline and image, default Export results and Export Results For Web, Debug logging and the CD burn test image.
  - PerformanceTest will now check both the Program Files and User Personal directory for the following files: a key.dat file (for running PerformanceTest from CD or USB drive), for installing baseline files and for installing Cascading Style Sheets for HTML report formatting.
  - Files have been moved from the Program Files directory to the User Application directory. Examples: Vista - "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\PassMark\PerformanceTest", XP - "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\PassMark\PerformanceTest". These include: The configuration file and temporary files such as statistics files for the Advanced tests.
  - For disk tests (standard, advanced and multiprocess), an option has been added to allow the User Application directory to be used for the test (as the user may not have access to any of the root directories to perform the test).
  - If the User is running Vista and is not running PerformanceTest with elevated administrator, some system management BIOS information will not be available (such as number of RAM slots). A button, "Get info", has been added to the Baseline information window to run a program to collect this information. The user will be requested to accept elevated administration for this operation.
  - The previous version of PerformanceTest did not collect the Video Card description on Vista. This has been corrected.
- All operating systems:
To provide the ability to automate quite complex testing scenarios, scripting of Standard preference configuration settings and test selection has been added.
To assist test automation, an option to suppress the main test warning and error messages has been added to preferences.
Increased the maximum number of CPU processors that can be tested from 10 to 64.
Added a new formatted text result report.
Browser based HTML help replaces the older style of Windows help.
The Baseline selection Window is now resizable.
The CPU type, rather than the manufacturer is now displayed in the Baseline selection Window.
Saved results are now all shown to 1 decimal place, and RAM is shown in MegaBytes rather than Bytes.
The 64-bit version of PerformanceTest better reflects current 64-bit application performance when compared to the previous versions of PerformanceTest, which reflected early 64-bit applications.
The set of baselines provided with PerformanceTest provide a wider spread of PC hardware technologies.
Additional system information is now available on 64-bit Vista systems as the Device driver PerformanceTest uses is now digitally signed.
The User Interface graphics and icons have been updated.
Bug corrections:
- During the 3D test, an error Window could have been obscured by the main PerformanceTest Window. The user may have thought that PerformanceTest had stopped responding.
- On the result graphs, a long CPU type description could continue off the Window. The CPU type is now split across 2 lines if required.
- "Install Baseline from Web" would fail if "Install Baseline from File" had been used beforehand.
- The Advanced Disk test could display the status "stopping", instead of error in an error case.
- If RAM slot information was not available, the device information for the memory test would show 0 of 0 slots.
- The PerformanceTest Version number inconsistently used "V6.0" and "6.0". The V is now ommitted.
- Some additional checks to ensure corrupt OEM populated SMBIOS data does not cause PerformanceTest to close on startup.
- The title bar icon for the Download from Web Window has been corrected.
- Corrected a bug where-by on rare occasions PerformanceTest could close when selecting Next or Previous on the Download from Web Window.
- The Download from Web Window error messages must be OK'ed before continuing.
- The main window is now updated to reflect any changes made in preferences.
- In all of the Save As Windows, a blank filename was accepted and saved as e.g. ".pt", this is no longer accepted.
- Selecting a Graphics file name to save would incorrectly set this as the default Baseline name to save.
- PerformanceTest would close when in the Save as Test Window, the filename was blank and a different type of report was selected. This has been corrected.

V6.0.Build 1013 1/September/2006
Patch release

Corrected a bug in V6.0 1012 where the CPU test would not run if the system did not have the latest Microsoft Runtime library msvcr08.dll (this should not have been required).

V6.0.Build 1012 29/August/2006
Patch release

Changes to the CPU tests to overcome a problem on some dual core systems where PerformanceTest could crash. This problem was reported mainly for AMD X2 systems. Error displayed: "access violation at 0x7c91084b".
Intel Core 2 and Intel Core Duo have been added to the Online Baseline search.
Correction to the uploading of a Baseline file where the filename is specified by the user (i.e. not the current results).
A baseline with a result of 0 can no longer be uploaded.
On startup in x64 versions of Windows, a PerformanceTest message window is obscured by the PerformanceTest splash screen. This has been corrected.
HTML help has been added for Windows Vista and Longhorn Server.

V6.0.Build 1011 28/June/2006
Patch release

Improvements to the Advanced disk test:
(i) Reduced the minimum file size from 1MB to 128Bytes.
(ii) Allow partial results to be graphed and exported.

V6.0.Build 1010 19/April/2006
Patch release

The Large RAM test could have failed on a system with a large amount of RAM that was fragmented. PerformanceTest will now continually attempt to allocate successively smaller amounts of memory and hence avoids this problem.
Under Windows 2000, XP and 2003 server, the system data (SMBIOS) was unavailable in rare circumstances. This has been corrected.
Searching for "Pentium D" and "TransMeta" CPUs has been added to the the Install baseline from Web.
When the OEM has not filled in the recommended CPU string, PerformanceTest now fills the string in with a little more detail.

V6.0.Build 1009 24/February/2006
Patch release

Corrected a bug where the 3D Terrain test could crash in build 1008.
Under certain circumstances the number of CPU cores was not reported in the HTML report. This has been corrected.
On systems with a very large amount of RAM or highly fragmented RAM, the large memory test would fail with no error message. This test now adjusts the test memory for this situation and reports an appropriate error if the problem still occurs.
When running PerformanceTest from CD, the Advanced CD test failed if the PerformanceTest CD was the CD under test.
When running PerformanceTest from CD, the Advanced test graphing function is not available, however a blank graph was just shown. An information message is now displayed.
The Advanced CD test could under certain circumstances report that it was 99% complete, when it was 100% complete. This has been corrected.
Corrected a bug with the Advanced Disk test graph, where the disk size was reported as 0MB for disks smaller then 1GB.
Some Pentiums (where the CPU does not support the reporting of the number of cores - this can still be a single core CPU), PerformanceTest indicates it can not detect whether Hyperthreading is supported.
Added a specific error message if the 3D Terrain test is run from a read only location (e.g. a CD) and DirectX fails to create the terrain textures.

V6.0.Build 1008 rev.2 23/January/2006
Patch release
WIN32 build 23 / January / 2006

Change to try to resolve a startup issue.

V6.0.Build 1008 18/November/2005
Patch release
WIN32 build 18 / November / 2005 and WIN64 build 22 / November / 2005

Corrected a bug where a long Baseline download filename was not displayed on the Baseline download Window (or possibly closed PerformanceTest).
If the number of CPU test threads was set to 0 (by the user or a CPU information detection problem) then the CPU tests appear to run (but don't) and no CPU results are shown. The number of CPU test threads must now be between 1 and 10
(inclusive), with a default of 1.
In the case where PerformanceTest does not have access to the number of logical processes supported by the Operating system, PT may have exited without warning on startup. eg. systems running VMWare. PerformanceTest will now run, but with an indication that Hyperthreading could not be detected.
Test results have been made more consistent across multiple test runs.
The 3D test now invalidates the 3D test results and displays an error or warning if (i) the user presses Escape, (ii) a Popup removes focus from the 3D test window (iii) there is a rendering error.
To improve accuracy of low results displayed, for results less than five, two decimal places will now be shown.
Advanced Memory: Capped the test memory to 0.5GB, as test on systems with a large amount of RAM may fail due to memory fragmentation.
Corrected a bug where this error condition was not correctly handled, and the "Exit" button was inaccessible.
Corrected the Advanced Network Test "Connection setup failed" status message.
Advanced 3D: Increased the size of the Adapter combo and truncated the string if too long.
Advanced CD: Test file directory control expanded.
Save As baseline: Window size increased to fit Number of CPUs

WIN64 specific:

Bug entering licence key has been corrected.

V6.0.Build 1006 16/September/2005
Patch release
WIN32 build

Improvements to the Advanced Network test. Includes the addition of reporting the number of UDP test data blocks lost per reporting time period.
Corrected the number of CPU cores reported for AMD Dual core CPU's. Previously CPU cores were reported as CPU packages.

V6.0.Build 1005 5/September/2005
Major release
WIN32 and WIN64 builds

A new "game like" 3D test has been included as a standard and an advanced test. This test will make use of some of the advanced features in new graphics cards.
To make it easier to compare your results with similar types of computers, Baseline searching, downloading and uploading is now possible from with-in PerformanceTest.
A new Memory test has been added that measures the performance of the memory sub-system for applications that use a large amount of RAM.
The Advanced Memory test now allows the testing of 64-bit data (in addition to 8, 16, and 32-bit data).
A new Advanced CD test to measure the performance of CD-R/CD-RW writing has been added (under Windows XP and 2003 server).
The Export for Web feature allows the comparison between the current computer and all selected baseline computers to be exported in HTML. This has been improved to highlight the highest scoring test results for each test, test category and overall result.
Changes to CPU test:
- A new CPU test has been added - Prime number test;
- The MMX test has been removed;
- The CPU - Integer Math's, CPU - Floating Point, and all memory tests, that now test with a combination of 32 and 64-bit values (rather than just 32-bit values as was the case in PT5.0).
The standard disk tests have been changed to improve the accuracy and consistency of results, particulary for high end hard disk drives.
Test re-weighting. Due to advances of technology components at different rates, re-balancing the results between major tests has been undertaken to achieve our intended importance/weighting of each test (as described in the help file).
The Graphical User Interface has been updated.

V5.0.Build 1036 30/June/2005
Patch release
WIN64

WIN64 specific: Due to a change in defaults from DirectX 8 to 9, the Windowed 3D tests (Simple and Medium) may not have run as fast as possible, and hence yielded lower scores. PerformanceTest has been changed to measure the maximum 3D performance under DirectX9.

V5.0.Build 1035 15/April/2005
Patch release
WIN32 and WIN64 builds

Corrected a bug introduced in build 1033 with the SSE test.

V5.0.Build 1033 11/April/2005
Patch release
WIN32 and WIN64 builds

The Advanced Memory test now includes a Qword (64-bit data element) test data size. This is useful in showing the benefits of 64-bit memory access with a 64-bit system.
The WIN32 version of PerformanceTest can now read a WIN64 produced baseline for comparison). Previously only the WIN64 version could read a WIN32 produced baseline.
In the Baseline list, Windows 2003 Server is now also displayed for the Operating system.
When printing the results from the Menu "Print", any "Device info" was printed so small it was unreadable. This has been corrected.
In the Advanced Network test, the export results no longer prints the column of unused "number of packets sent/received".
The help file has been modified to further clarify the meaning of the comparative Results.

V5.0.Build 1032 25/February/2005
Patch release
WIN32 build

Corrected a bug where the display of some memory sizes was not correctly displayed with systems with more than 2GB of RAM. Note that the WIN32 version of PerformanceTest reports a maximum of 4GB of memory.
To help interpretation of the Disk test scores in the baselines, some additional information has been added to the "Device Info" to indicate whether the disk is Removable or a RAM disk. This will help baseline users determine whether a very high disk score is the result of using a RAM disk or a removable drive like a USB 2.0 memory card/stick. This information will be available for baselines created with V5.0 1032 or above.
In certain circumstances, systems with a large amount of memory (e.g. 3GB) have reported very high disk scores that do not strictly reflect the performance of the Disk I/O subsystem. The disk test has been improved to report the Disk I/O subsystem performance for these types of systems.

V5.0.Build 1031 16/February/2005
Patch release
WIN32 build

Added the command line option SAFEMODE to start PerformanceTest without trying to obtain SMBIOS information. This may help with problems starting PerformanceTest, due to corrupt SMBIOS or SMBIOS not configured by the OEM. eg. PT.exe SAFEMODE.

V5.0.Build 1030 29/January/2005
Patch release
WIN32 build

PerformanceTest crashed on startup if the System Management BIOS information pointed to data at invalid physical addresses. A sanity check for valid SMBIOS data addresses has been added and an warning displayed by PerformanceTest if this is found.

V5.0.Build 1029 17/January/2005
Patch release
WIN32 build

Added debug information for a reported SMBIOS crash in W98.

V5.0.Build 1028 12/December/2005
Patch release
WIN64 build

First Windows64 bit version of PerformanceTest. Runs under a 64bit version of Windows natively.
WIN32 MMX and SSE/3DNow! benchmarks have been replaced by 64-bit Integer and 64bit Floating Point tests, respectively.
To allow easy comparison of baseline results, WIN32 baseline files are compatible with WIN64 baselines.

V5.0.Build 1027 10/October/2004
Patch release

Increased the Advanced disk test IO queue length for asynchronous tests to 128.

V5.0.Build 1026 23/August/2004
Patch release

Minor User interface improvements.
Increased DEBUGMODE reporting for SMBIOS on application startup. Check added for invalid SMBIOS table termination.

V5.0.Build 1017 30/July/2004
Patch release

Corrections:

Advanced disk test now checks the total disk test file size across all test threads before starting any test.
Unformatted key drive handling.
2D graphics test now produces linear results based on test duration.
Graphs now display 10 different colors for each test thread (instead of 5).
Windows 98/ME corrections to:

- Unable to complete Advanced Disk Test.
- File->Export results for Web option does not allow choosing of a cascading style sheet.
- Baseline Information option doesn't show Disk information.
- Tooltips do not work on top menu bar
- When running 2D -> "Fonts and Text" Test under Win98SE, an error box will pop up and the user cannot click on the "Yes" or "No button.
Installation now warns of existing directory.
Advanced 3D test error messages are no longer 'Hidden'.
A specific error message has been added when a user tries to install an already installed baseline.
It is now indicated in the Baseline information window whether onboard device and system slot information is unavailable.
When a PC comes out of Sleep mode, under all certain circumstances the status bar is now correctly redrawn.
Average WAW in the advanced disk test has been corrected.
Viewing a graph when there are valid results for 10 or more threads is now correctly handled.
Menu item ellipses (...) have been updated.
The setting box in the advanced 3D options no longer becomes incorrectly ungrayed.
When the user stops the Advanced disk test, the progress bar is immediately set back to the start, rather than when the test is next started.
The cascading style sheet is now correctly applied when exporting a "file to the web" to all directories, not just the installation directory.
The "Office" cascading style sheet has been removed, as it was the same as the "Default" cascading style sheet.
When the advanced disk test is stopped by the user, the status now indicates stopped rather than completed.
The PerformanceTest folder is now removed in all cases after uninstalling the program.
The existing testing utilizing Hyperthreading enabled computers improved.
Rounding precision improved in the display of free disk space on the with baseline information window.

V5.0.1014 Release on the 24/June/2004
Patch release

Corrected the handling of stopping an advanced disk test during a test file create.
Corrected the initial display value for Ave. WAR, WAW, RAW and RAR.
Included detection of old versions of riched20.dll for the 2D Fonts and scrolling test.
Updated help file included.

V5.0.1013 Release on the 15/Apr/2004
Patch release

Corrected handling of an SMBIOS v3.2+ issue that has been found on a very small number of PCs, that casued PerformanceTest to crash on startup.

V5.0.1011 Release on the 19/Mar/2004
Patch release

Bug correction - collection of disk model number "unknown" for all disks, when one or more non-SMART drives connected. Device information displayed per disk, rather than being common across the 3 disk tests. Disk device information now changed to reflect changes in disk preferences.

V5.0.1010 Release on the 17/Feb/2004
Patch release

Advanced network test optimized for Gigabit network testing.

V5.0.1008 Release on the 9/Jan/2004
Patch release

Bugfix for saving disk baseline information
Correction of rare startup crash bug
Bugfix related to baseline hyperthreading information
Advanced tests no longer report CPU load of 0.0% when it is unable to determine the CPU load on that specific system.

V5.0.1000 Release on the 10/Dec/2003
Major release

Whole new visual look for the main results window
Replacement of the Maths test suite with a more general CPU test suite. This new CPU test suite also has better performance with multiple CPU and Hyper-threaded machines.
New 2D Graphics test: Fonts and Text. Tests typical rendering of text and embedded document images by scrolling, zooming, and font changing.
New 2D Graphics test: GUI. Tests the rendering and interaction of Windows GUI controls such as list boxes, progress bars, tree view, and window movements.
New CPU test suite, with better performance for multiple CPU and hyper-threaded machines.
Advanced multi-process test: allows you to run multiple test processes at the same time to test your CPU's multi-tasking capabilities.
Advanced disk test: new test window, allows you to specify and run multiple disk test threads. Also, additional information and statistics reported.
Advanced CD/DVD-ROM test now identifies DVDs and displays the appropriate "times" factor relative to read speed (eg. "2x DVD")
Updated decoding of level 2 cache display to handle newer CPU's such as the Celeron 2.2Ghz.
Additional statistics for the advanced disk test.
Merging of the MMX/SSE tests and the CPU tests and the rewriting of the MMX/SSE tests to be more realistic.
Hyperthreading is now taken into account when displaying the number of CPUs installed.
UDP protocol network testing, in addition to TCP
Bug fix: PT was crashing when SMBIOS data was not found. This is now handled correctly
Main test results can now be exported for the Web with customizable stylesheets.
HTML Web Reports supports user defined stylesheets, which can be selected from a drop-down box in the HTML Report Options dialog.
Additional system information is now displayed in the baseline information window. Including Motherboard information, PCI slot information, and memory slot information.
New baseline file format to store the additional system information.
The baseline information window was given a new look with scroll bars to handle more text
DEBUGMODE command line startup option
Increased maximum packet size for network test to 16385 from 4096
Hardware component display

V4.0 Released on the 1/Sept/2002
Major release

Advanced disk testing with graphing,exporting and CPU utilization.
Advanced CD/DVD testing with graphing, exporting and CPU utilization.
Advanced 3D graphics testing for full screen and windowed modes
Advanced network bandwidth testing with graphing exporting and CPU utilization.
Advanced memory bandwidth testing and step size testing with graphing and exporting.
Replacement of the standard 3D graphics test using DirectX 3 with three new DirectX 8 tests.
A new standard test for CD / DVD drive benchmarking has been introduced.
Much of the internal code has been rewritten to support foreign languages (French, German, Japanese).
Many other minor improvements.

V3.5.1002 Released on the 12/Feb/2002
Patch release

HTML Export function now exports system information for logging and inventory purposes.
Bug fix to correct Level 2 cache display for Pentium 4 CPU's with more 512KB cache.

V3.5.1000 Released on the 29/Oct/2001
Minor release to support Windows XP

Improvement to the user interface to better match the Windows XP look and feel. (Only available when running XP)
Identification of the XP operating system in the system information window
Correct Identification of video cards under XP

V3.4.1002 Released on the 3/Oct/2001
Minor release to fix a few bugs.

Bug fix. A rare crash occurred while saving a baseline file.
Correct reporting of RAM in machines with > 2GB of RAM.
Bug fix. Baseline files with path names longer than 100 characters could not be loaded

V3.4.1001 Released on the 3/Sept/2001
Minor release for test automation.

New command line parameters for automated testing from a batch file. See the help file for more details.
Bug fix to MegaFlops test, which returned 0 on a few rare PCs with very low resolution timers.
Bug fix to CPU type detection. Some early model Pentium II 300Mhz were reported as being Celerons.

V3.4 Released on the 21/Apr/2001
Minor release for new CPU types.

Work around for bug in AMD Duron processor that caused L3 cache to be reported as 1KB. See AMD technical document, "TN13 revision 3" for more details of the bug.
Detection of Intel P4 CPU and new AMD chips.
Baseline version number is displayed in System info and baseline list.
New SSE and 3DNow! test added in MMX test suite.
Correction of a minor display bug in the baseline selection window for CPUs faster than 1000Mhz.
New command line parameters for automation of the testing process (eg /ah autoruntest.htm).

V3.3 Released on the 12/Nov/2000
Minor release to implement disk test graphing.

Disk speed test graphs have been implemented. Both read and write speed can be graphed in detail, with options to print the results, copy the results & adjust the X-Axis units.
Improved overhead calibration method for MegaFlops test results should now vary less between runs.
Statistics are now collected for the disk read and write tests. They are placed in four files in tab separated format:
DiskReadStats.txt, DiskWriteStats.txt,
DiskReadStatsTB.txt, DiskWriteStatsTB.txt
Extra delay inserted before Read test to avoid overlap with cached test file creation. This can have the effect of making the read test result look slightly better.

V3.2 Released on the 12/Oct/2000
Minor release to improve disk testing.

Disk cluster size is now displayed in the system information dialog and stored in all new baselines files.
File system (eg. FAT32) is now displayed in the system information dialog and stored in all new baselines files.
The disk test has been altered to always use 16KB blocks for read and write operations. Previously the cluster size for the disk being tested was used. (This may cause the results for the disk tests to vary compared to the results obtained in Version 3.1 & 3.0).
Fixed bug in display of disk size in the system information dialog. Previously the size of Drive c: was always displayed, even if D: was being tested.
The AMD Duron CPU is now identified.
Windows ME is now identified.

V3.1 Released on the 1/Sept/2000
Minor release to correct some serious bugs.

A problem in the calculation of the overall PassMark rating was discovered and corrected. The results from the 3D test and MMX tests were not being fully taken into account. This means that the release 3.1 PassMark rating can NOT BE DIRECTLY COMPARED to the 3.0 rating. Baselines saved in versions 1,2 & 3.0 are automatically re-scaled, upwards, when loaded into version 3.1 however. (so all previous baseline files can still be used in 3.1).
Fixed spelling of 'Subtraction' for MMX tests.
Fixed integer overflow error causing negative results when long duration is set with fast CPUs.

V3.0 Released on the 15/Aug/2000
Major upgrade.

Better CPU speed measurement. In some configurations, such as multiple CPU systems, V2.0 was reporting the wrong speed. The test is now much more accurate on all systems. In some cases we can even measure to 1/10th of a Mhz.
Improved differentiation of similar CPU types. Previously it was not always possible to detect the difference between some Celerons and Pentium processors.
New logo was created for the Welcome screen and the about window. The new logo keeps a common theme with our other products.
Added a splash screen.
Changed the Operating version text from "NT5" to "Windows 2000".
Dual CPUs are now supported in the baseline info window.
Video display hardware is now detected, displayed and saved with baseline files.
Added conversion routines for reading baseline files from previous versions.
Added a drop down list for selecting the disk drive letter in the preferences window.
It is now possible to give a name to the computer being tested from the preferences window. This is useful when publishing or exporting results.
Reformatted the way the main window was laid out. The previous design was confusing some novice users. The % column heading was removed, a scale was included with check marks and extended units of measurement text is included above the scale if the window is wide enough.
The bar chart can now be displayed in Multicolour or in two colors.
A new test has been created. The test measures maximum number of floating point instructions that can be executed per second (FLOPS). The test is multithreaded (unlike existing tests) and will make full use of multiple CPUs if available. The test result also has zero overhead. The results of this industry standard test are also included in the summary window.
A progress bar and the name of the current test is displayed when there is more than a single test being run.
The scaling of the bar chart is now more progressive. The maximum value will now increase in smaller increments.
Redid buttons, moved from large buttons to small buttons and added 3 extra buttons.
Included MegaFLOPS in the Summary window.
Updated and improved online help file.
Added help buttons to a number of the dialog boxes.
Redid the auto-installer to have the option of starting PerformanceTest immediately after installation. The size overhead of the installation program is now much smaller as well.
The .pt file name extension is registered with Windows. This means you can double click on a ".pt" file in explorer to see the baseline results.
Implemented scrolling with the mouse wheel.

V2.0a Released on the 23/Jan/2000
Minor bug fixes to correct two significant issues.

There seems to be a bug in DirectX that causes the textures required for the 3D tests not to load on a very small number of computers (this fault may even be associated with a particular video card / driver). V2.0a has a patch to work around this problem. The error message associated with this problem is, "..Error loading the required texture Bitmap file from disk..".
With a small minority of video cards, the unfilled shapes test doesn't run for the correct amount of time and the result for this test is too low. This is often associated with the filled rectangles (bitmaps) test returning a result that is too high. The problem is related to the speed of the 2D hardware acceleration and the CPU speed. The problem can occur if the CPU can request the display of images a lot faster than the video card can display them. V2.0a corrects this problem.
A number of error messages were also improved.

V2.0 Released on the 1/Nov/99
Major release with a lot of improvements over version 1.0.

A lot of these changes were a direct result of the feedback from users such as yourself. Keep the suggestions coming, (Mail them to Click to send mail (JavaScript required) ).

A button to run all the tests sequentially was added.
When several disk tests are run, the test file is not recreated for each test. This means that the tests can be completed quicker.
The disk tests now read and write information in larger blocks. In version 1.0, 1KB blocks were used. In this version the cluster size is determined and all disk reads and writes are done a cluster at a time. The cluster size varies from computer to computer. The average is around 32KB. This makes the test closer to the real life. Transfer rates are still reported in MB/Sec.
The disk tests were redone. There were about 20-30% of computers that did strange things when the Windows cache was disabled. Some ignored the command, some went to far and disabled the disk controller HW cache, etc..
The results were all over the place in some cases; so the test was dropped. We now use the cache but overload it so that we see the performance of the disk behind the cache.
An additional Disk Seek plus read and write test was added.
It's now possible to export the results in several "text" formats. This includes HTML, Comma separated values, and tab separated values.
Added a registration button on the tool bar.
Extra information is now saved with each baseline. This includes Drive size, Driver letter (eg. C:, D: ).
Some code was reworked to improve compatibility on early Windows95 machines. We have even run PerformanceTest on some old 486 machines using the original Windows95 (+Directx).
It's now possible to view baseline results without re-running all the tests.
Multiple Baselines can now be viewed on the screen at one time. Up to 20 computers can be compared to each other at a time.
The Select Baseline window was introduced to managed the addition and removal of baselines from the screen and display information about all the baselines available.
The graphics on the display was improved and graphs now re-size themselves to the window size.
The size of the notes field (in the Save as Baseline window) was increased to allow the user to add more information.
Some tests display information about their environment. The graphics tests display the color depth next to each baseline. The disk tests display the drive letter.
A problem with the Microsoft C++ compiler that caused inconsistent results for the MMX tests was worked around. The problem was to do with the alignment of 64bit numbers on the stack and caused some computers to report low MMX results.
The printing was improved to handle the differences between landscape and portrait. A page header and page numbers are also included.
The online help was updated and improved.
Scrolling is now smoother. The Home, End, Page up and Page down keys now also work.
The save as image option was enhanced to save Bitmaps (BMP) and GIF files. This is a great feature for those that want to publish their results on the web.
The shareware trial period was increased to 30days (from 15).
A single overall result figure is now calculated. We called this the PassMark Rating. It's a weighted average of all the other test results.
A menu option was added to directly access the PassMark baseline database on the Web (you still need to be a registered user to use these additional baselines however).

V1.0a Released on the 3/June/99

Minor patch to correctly report speed for high end AMD CPUs.

V1.0 Released on the 16/May/99

First version released to the world. Wins numerous awards, whoopeee :-