PCMark2002 usage
Official testing guidelines
In order to get accurate and repeatable benchmark results, you should follow the requirements and recommendations below. These guidelines may be updated from time to time. Up-to-date guidelines are available on the PCMark2002 web pages.
Official Testing Requirements:
- Restart the computer before running the benchmark.
- Exit all other programs.
- Under the 32-bit Windows operating systems, other tasks can preemptively run during the tests, thus affecting the results. You will want to eliminate as many of these types of tasks as possible, such as automatic updates in operating systems, e-mail clients or other tasks from your StartUp folder. This action also maximizes your available memory.
- Disable all file sharing and possibly also all network connections. Background network activity may affect results. You can submit your results even if you run the benchmark without network connection. Save your results in the default format (.xml) and restart your system with network connection after the benchmark run. Run PCMark2002 and submit your saved result by selecting the 'Submit Saved Result' item in the 'Online Services' menu.
- Follow a standard testing procedure each time you run the tests. Run the tests at least three times to verify that the results are reproducible.
Additional Recommendations for Testing:
- We recommend that you test on a "clean" system only. You should use a program like "Norton Ghost" (http://www.ghost.com) to restore a clean system for every test case.
- We recommend that you disable the System Restore feature in Windows ME and XP. For more information, please see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q267951.
These measures help to ensure that your results are consistent.
The main window
The large button in the lower right corner starts the benchmark run. The Benchmark button always starts the run using the selected tests and options. The default settings are used when you open PCMark2002, which means that all of the standard tests are selected and the default options are used.
Select tests
By default all the standard tests are selected but you can also choose to only run certain tests. For example, the CPU score only requires all the CPU tests. Pick tests to be run by clicking the Change button in the Select Tests frame. The Select Tests dialog is only available in the Registered or Pro version of PCMark2002.
The Select Tests dialog has two tabs. The Normal view shows the tests in their logical groups. Remove a tick from a checkbox (by simply clicking on it) to run the next benchmark without that group of tests. The Custom view shows all the test groups and all the separate tests included in those groups. So you can, for example, choose to run only some of the CPU tests. Remember though that you will not get a total CPU score if you skip some of the CPU tests.
Options
Click the Change button of the Options frame to modify benchmark options. The Options dialog is only available in the Registered or Pro version of PCMark2002. You can set the following options in the Options dialog:
- Test Options - Test repeat count. You can select how many times you want to repeat each test in the benchmark run. The given result for each test will be an average of all those runs. By default each test is run only once.
- Test Options - Looping infinitely. Here you can set the benchmark to loop infinitely. This feature is useful if you want to use PCMark as demonstration software at a tradeshow or in a PC hardware store. By default looping is switched off.
- Logical Drive. You can choose which logical drive to use in the HDD tests. Remember that one physical disk can contain several logical drives, and several physical drives can form one logical drive, like in RAID solutions. By default the first logical hard drive with enough free space is selected.
- DVD Software Components. This text area shows the installed DVD playback software components that are used by default and, thereby, also used by PCMark in the DVD Playback tests. You cannot select which one(s) to use or choose from several installed DVD decoders. This space is not editable, it is only for information.
Benchmark results
When the benchmark run is complete, the Results dialog shows your overall scores. Below the scores is the button for accessing the Online ResultBrowser (ORB). The Details... button shows the results of the individual tests. There is a frame in the PCMark main window showing the total scores after the Result dialog has been closed. This frame also has a Details... button that shows individual test results. The Details dialogs are only available in the Registered or Pro version of PCMark2002.
PCMark calculates total scores for CPU, Memory, and HDD performance. The figures are gained by adding the results of the individual tests, after weighting them with suitable factors. The factors have been chosen by running the individual tests on a number of reference systems from different manufacturers and balancing the results to affect the total scores evenly.
The PCMark2002 CPU score is calculated using the following formula:
CPU Score = { JPEGDecompression*60,6 + (ZlibCompression*153,8 + ZlibDecompression*12,4)/2 + TextSearch*4,9 + AudioConversion*11,1 + 3DVectorCalculation*16,7 }
JPEGDecompression means the result of the JPEG Decompression CPU test result, etc. Please read the descriptions of these tests.
NOTE: The Zlib compression and decompression tests together affect the total score as much as one individual test since they are so similar.
The individual CPU tests and their result units are listed below:
- JPEGDecompression - MPixels/s (million pixels decompressed / second)
- Zlib Compression - MBytes/s (million bytes of data compressed / second)
- Zlib Decompression - MBytes/s (million bytes of data decompressed / second)
- Text Search - KRounds/s (Times searched through the text file / second)
- Audio Conversion - KB/s (Kilo bytes converted / second)
- 3D Vector Calculation - fps (Frames / second)
The PCMark2002 Memory score is calculated using the following formula:
Memory Score = { Read(3072*32+1536*32+384*16+48*1+6*1) + Write(3072*32+1536*32+384*16+48*1+6*1) + Modify(3072*64+1536*64+384*32+48*2+6*2) + Container(1536*64+768*64+384*32+96*4+48*2+6*2) + VideoMem(1*4+4*8+16*16+32*32) } / 160
Read 3072*32 means the Raw Memory Read test result, reading a 3072 byte block at a time, multiplied by the weighting factor 32 etc. Please read the descriptions of these tests.
NOTE: The results of the memory tests with data blocks too large to fit in the L1 or L2 cache are weighted more in the total score. Similarly, the memory tests using the L2 cache on typical systems are weighted more than the tests using only the L1 cache.
The system memory tests all have the result unit MB/s (Mega byte of data transferred / second). The video memory tests have the unit fps (Frames / second).
The PCMark2002 HDD score is calculated using the following formula:
HDD Score = Write(Cached*8+UnCached*4) + Read(Cached*8+UnCached*4) + Copy*16
Write Cached*8 means the Cached HDD Write test result, multiplied by the weighting factor 8 etc. Please read the descriptions of these tests.
NOTE: The cached data transfers are weighed more in the total score, since HDD reads and writes usually are always cached in normal applications.
The HDD tests all have the result unit MB/s (Mega byte of data transferred / second).
System info
System Info shows you the hardware setup of your PC in detail. Click the System Info button in the main window of PCMark to view your System Info.
System Info works the following way: Choose from the nodes in the tree structure to the left what system information you want to view. Click on the desired node to show the information or double click to expand the node. These can be minimized again by double clicking on the expanded node. The information from the expanded nodes is displayed in the text area to the right. This space is not editable, but you can copy the displayed text by highlighting the desired text with your left mouse button pressed and then pressing Ctrl and C simultaneously. Paste the copied text by pressing Ctrl and V simultaneously. The text can be pasted to almost any text editor or mail program.
System Info shows you details regarding your PC's:
- Windows installation
- DirectX installation
- CPU
- System memory
- Motherboard
- AGP bus
- Graphics card
- Hard Disk Drives
- Monitor
- Battery, if PCMark is run on a laptop
IMPORTANT NOTE! PCMark2002 runs on a wide variety of PCs, equipped with very different hardware. We have done our very best to build a system info utility that detects any hardware we have been able to test it on. However it is possible that your PC contains, for example, a motherboard that doesn't provide the CPU bus clock speed or amount of memory in the format our system info expects. Should you find yourself in this situation, please check our FAQs for more information.
Command line switches
All available command line options are presented in a window, when you start PCMark with the switch /help. The command line switches are only available in the Registered and Pro versions of PCMark2002. This can be done in at least two ways:
- Drag the PCMark2002.exe file or the PCMark2002 desktop shortcut to the Run dialog of your Start menu. Press the Start button on your desktop and then select Run to open the Run dialog. When the PCMark file or shortcut is in the text field of the Run dialog, move the cursor to the end of the text, add a space, type /help and click OK.
- Edit the PCMark2002 shortcut on your desktop by clicking it with the right mouse button. Select properties and edit the Target: text field. Move the cursor to the end of the text, add a space, type /help and click OK. Next time you click the PCMark2002 desktop shortcut, the command line switches will be displayed. Remember to change the shortcut back to the way it was so that you can run PCMark again.
Use the command line switches the same way you used the /help switch. The command line switches are the following:
- /help - Shows the available command line options
- /benchmark [<result file>] - Runs the benchmark and saves the results in the file <result file>. If no <result file> input is given, the results are stored with the default file name in the PCMark2002 installation directory. Give the <result file> a name ending with .txt to save the results in text file format. PCMark2002 will exit after the benchmark run.
- /nosplash - Disables the splash screen on benchmark start-up
- /cpu - Selects the CPU tests
- /mem - Selects the Memory tests
- /hdd - Selects the HDD tests
- /crunch - Selects the Crunch test
- /gdiplus - Selects the GDI+ tests (Pro version only)
- /videoperf - Selects the Video Performance tests (Pro version only)
- /videoquality - Selects the Video Quality tests (Pro version only)
Example: To run PCMark2002 from the command line, selecting the CPU tests, Memory tests and the HDD tests, and saving the results in text file format in a file named 'result1' in the 'C:\results' directory, write the following command line options:
/benchmark c:\results\result1.txt /cpu /mem /hdd
Menu bar
The explanations of the menu bar items are as follows:
| File | |
| New | Open a new benchmark. Resets settings to default. |
| - | |
| Save Results... | Save PCMark2002 settings in a specified project file. |
| - | |
| Exit | Exit PCMark2002. |
| Edit | |
| Selected Tests... | Open the Selected Tests dialog. |
| Options… | Open the Options dialog. |
| Run | |
| Benchmark | Run benchmark. |
| Battery Test | Run the battery test. |
| - | |
| System Info | Open System Info. |
| Default | |
| Reset All | Reset all settings to default. |
| - | |
| All Tests | Select all tests. |
| Options | Set all options to default. |
| Online Services | |
| Online ResultBrowser | Access the Online ResultBrowser. |
| Submit Saved Result | Submit a saved PCMark2002 benchmark result. |
| Go To MadOnion.com | Open the MadOnion.com web site. |
| Register | |
| Register PCMark2002… | Upgrade PCMark2002 to the Registered or Pro version. |
| Help | |
| PCMark2002 Help | Open the PCMark2002 Help file. |
| - | |
| About PCMark2002… | Open the About box. |
