Welcome to PCMark2002

PCMark2002 is the first unified PC benchmark from MadOnion.com. PCMark2002 is suited for benchmarking all kinds of PCs from laptops to workstations, and is designed to test normal home and office PC usage. MadOnion.com has released other benchmark products for benchmarking specific PC usage areas. PCMark2002 covers many additional areas outside the scope of the other MadOnion.com benchmarks.

PCMark2002 tests the following:

• The CPU (Central Processing Unit), both with integer and floating point workloads.
• The memory subsystem, including both L1 and L2 caches and the system memory.
• Graphics memory, including the AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) bus.
• The Hard Disk Drive(s).
• New Microsoft Windows XP GUI (Graphics User Interface) features.
• Video performance and quality.
• Laptop battery, if PCMark2002 is run on a laptop.

MadOnion.com has no current plans for further separate Video benchmark products. Therefore, PCMark2002 includes video tests that measure playback and encoding performance and playback quality.

Introduction to PCMark2002

PCMark2002 measures generic PC performance in home and office use. It is a small download that is easy to install and run. The program does not include whole applications for measuring the performance but rather measures computer performance on a lower level. The benchmark consists of a series of tests that represent common tasks in home and office programs but does not run or attempt to emulate whole applications.

Memory and hard disk drive performance are measured by tests that do data transfers only. Normal applications naturally perform many other tasks simultaneously, but to test such data transfers, other simultaneous tasks would only distort the measurement. The data access is implemented, like it is in applications, without any particular optimizations, so it is very likely PCMark won't achieve any peak data throughput results. Still, the lack of other tasks should allow relatively high data transfer numbers.

Besides CPU, memory and HDD speed, graphics is an important part of overall PC performance; this generally refers to 2D performance, as in the Windows desktop usage. Unfortunately, such graphics performance is hard to measure. Until now, most attempts to measure 2D performance have resulted in tests that are more dependent on the overall system performance than on actual graphics hardware performance.

In PCMark2002, 2D graphics is tested in two different ways. Firstly, the data transfer of the AGP bus and graphics card memory are tested as a part of the memory tests. These tests scale very well according to the graphics memory speed and, above all, according to the AGP speed. In normal home and office usage, graphics data transfer is one of the most important factors in 2D graphics performance.

PCMark2002 also has a series of 2D tests using the standard MS Windows XP 2D API (Application Programming Interface) GDI+. A number of GDI+ features are run in order to both present these features and measure their performance. As long as none of these features are accelerated in the graphics hardware or drivers, the GDI+ performance is very much up to the whole system performance. For these reasons there is no overall 2D score in PCMark2002.

System requirements

PCMark2002 is a tool for benchmarking all kinds of PCs, from laptops to high-end work stations.

Minimum System Requirements:

• Intel® compatible 400 MHz processor, with MMX support
• 64 MB system memory, or more if the Operating System requires it
• AGP graphics accelerator
• Microsoft Windows 98/SE, ME, 2000 or XP operating system
• DirectX 8.1 or later

NOTE: If you run Windows 2000 or XP, 128 MB of system memory is recommended.

PCMark2002 requires a number of software to be installed for full functionality. Some are included in the installation package, but some need to be added separately.

Required software for full functionality (Pro version only):

• Windows XP
• Windows Media Player 7.1, for older Windows versions (click here to download). If needed, you can also install Windows Media Encoder 7.1 separately (click here to download).
• DVD playback software. There are several trial versions freely downloadable on the web. During the PCMark development, Cinemaster, PowerDVD and WinDVD (in alphabetical order) were tested.

PCMark2002 features

PCMark2002 comes in 3 versions: Free, Registered and Pro. The Free version is available (without charge) to download and install from the web and has minimum functionality. The Registered version can be purchased online for a low price and has a basic but expanded functionality. The Pro version can also be purchased online and offers the highest level of functionality.

Free version features:

• CPU tests, presenting the total CPU score.
• Memory tests, giving a total Memory score.
• HDD test and a total HDD score.
• System Info, showing your PC hardware and system software in detail.
• Online services. Submit your results and compare them to PCMark2002 results from all over the world.

Registered version features:

• Custom benchmarking by choosing the desired tests and settings for the benchmark run.
• Detailed result information also offline.
• Results can be exported in text format suitable for most text editors and spreadsheet applications.

Pro version features:

• Windows XP 2D tests, demonstrating and testing new GDI+ features.
• Video performance tests, including ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) encoding and playback in different resolutions, and DVD playback also in different resolutions.
• Video quality tests for DVD playback quality measurement.
• Battery test for measuring battery life and for testing the impact that power saving features have on both usage and system performance. The test is completely customizable to better suit a wider range of laptop battery testing.
• Offline Results Browser. A separate application for managing and comparing larger amounts of results on a local PC. The Offline Result Browser also includes additional features such as comparison charts and graph generation.

The Registered and Pro versions of PCMark2002 are available for purchase at www.madonion.com/products.

Other MadOnion.com benchmarks

3DMark®2001 SE
The 3DMark series is the industry standard in 3D game performance benchmarking. The latest version, 3DMark2001 SE, features Microsoft DirectX 8.1 functionality, including vertex and pixel shaders, FSAA (Full Scene Anti Aliasing) and Pure Hardware Transformation and Lighting. 3DMark offers both reliable benchmarking and breathtaking 3D graphics. 3DMark has a free version with limited functionality. Download it here.

BAPCo/MadOnion.com WebMark2001
WebMark2001 has been designed for the professional evaluation of PC performance on the Internet from the user's perspective, recording and reporting how the client computer and the speed of connection affects the overall Internet experience.

BAPCo/MadOnion.com SYSmark®2002
BAPCo/MadOnion.com's SYSmark2002 is the industry standard application-based benchmark, testing your system's ability to run today's leading edge software applications for Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity. SYSmark2002's standardized testing and reporting guidelines ensure reliable and repeatable results.

These benchmarks are available for purchase at www.madonion.com/products.

MadOnion.com on-line services

Performance Analyzer
MadOnion.com offers performance analyzer services customizable for your website. A light ActiveX component sniffs the PC hardware and operating system components of a visitor to your website, through just a single click on a link. Their system can then be given a performance estimate based on the result database of MadOnion.com. This estimate is then compared to the performance of your products, which gives the consumer a reliable comparison of his system and the products of your company.

Online ResultBrowser
The Online ResultBrowser (ORB) lets you review your results in detail on-line and compares your scores with results from PC users all over the world. The ORB also gives you valuable insight on ways you can improve your computer's performance.