Download PerformanceTest 8.0 build 1007

PassMark Software, known for BurnInTest and WirelessMon, among others, released version 8.0 of PerformanceTest at the beginning of October and several updates have already been released. This program allows a computer running Windows XP or higher to be subjected to a series of benchmarks. In 32 tests, the five main groups, namely the processor, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, storage and memory, are tested as objectively as possible and graphically compared to a number of other systems. In addition, there are also seven extra tests, in which virtualization and the network can be examined.

Changes in version 8.0 build 1007:

• Fixed bug causing splash screen to remain open on some Windows 8 systems.
• Fixed bug misidentifying the hard drive tested on some systems preventing baseline from being uploaded.
• Removed temperature detection of AMD video cards on 32-bit systems as this was causing a crash.
• Fixed bug trying to load baseline files from previous versions using the ‘File->Load Baseline’ menu option.
• Reduced start-up time on some older CPU models.

Changes in version 8.0 build 1006:

• Fixed DirectX9 tests to work with some older video cards (GeForce FX 5000 series and similar)
• Fixed bug causing current, min & max transfer rates in the advanced network test incorrectly showing average rather than instantaneous speeds.
• Advanced network test now shows the average speed at the end of the test, where the current speed was while the test was running.
• Fixed a crash when viewing disk results and ceratin disk related system information had failed to be gothered correctly.

Changes in version 8.0 build 1005:

• Added some extra command line parameters to selectively disable certain parts of the system information gathering.
• Fixed crash that occurred when trying to use the /s flag in shareware mode.
• Fixed a crash on some systems that occurred after running any of the tests.
• Improved startup performance slightly on some systems.
• Changed installer so that PerformanceTest doesn’t automatically launch when installing in silent mode.
• Added server 2012 to list of OS options in advanced baseline search.

Changes in version 8.0 build 1004:

• Fixed expiry of certain features after 30 days even when using a licensed version of the software.
• Fixed bug with the USB install that prevented the DirectX 11 test from being run.

Changes in version 8.0 build 1003:

• Added minimum and maximum speed display for Advanced Network Test.
• Fixed bug with the USB install that prvented the 3D tests from running from a USB drive.
• Fixed resource leak.
• Fixed crash in the Advanced Disk Test when using RAM drives.
• Added ability to disable temperature gathering from command line using SAFTEMP flag. (Can help if a crash is seen on start-up)

Changes in version 8.0 build 1002:

• Fixed resource leak introduced with last release that caused instability after prolonged usage.

Changes in version 8.0 build 1001:

• Fixed bug causing results to not display with certain Windows settings.
• Fixed crash at startup when a SoftPerfect RAM disk is active on the system.
• Fixed a bug that application instability after having opened the advanced CD/DVD window.
• Re-implemeneted SAFEMODE flag for V8, significantly reduces the amount of tasks performed at application startup.
• Fixed a caching issue with the new version check.
• Fixed a bug that caused scripting to freeze when reaching the DirectCompte tests.

Changes in version 8.0 build 1000:

• New Single threaded CPU test and corresponding chart.
• New Direct 2D graphics test. Direct 2D is the relatively new hardware accelerated, immediate-mode, 2D graphics API from Microsoft. It requires Vista SP2 or above to work.
• New DirectX 11 3D test. To run this test a video card with DirectX 11.0 support is required, along with Vista SP2 or above as the O/S. This test exercises new video card features like Vertex and Pixel Shader 5.0 effects, Unordered transparency techniques (in the Jellyfish) and Tessellation technique to produce the detail in the terrain
• New DirectCompute benchmark test as part of standard GPU/3D tests. DirectX 11.0 video card support is required for some of the DirectCompute tests. Thanks to Jan Vlietinck & Keenan Crane who wrote some of the code we used in this test.
• New DirectCompute advanced test suite.
• New memory latency test, both as a standard test and advanced test.
• Re-written standard RAM tests in assembly language to be less CPU dependent and more RAM dependent. We are also going to be making available some RAM performance charts
• Advanced tests for Blu-ray & DVD burning on Windows 7 and later.
• Ability to automatically run tests multiple times and take the max result.
• Improved advanced disk test. It is now possible to specify the level of randomness in the data, which can be useful for testing drives that compress the data.
• Scripting of the advanced disk test is now possible.
• Ability to run network test for a much longer period of time.
• IPv6 support in network test.
• Improved system information. Include RAM stick model and timing info, CPU temp & more.
• Re-balancing of instruction mix in the Integer maths, floating point maths and prime number tests.
• Encryption test now makes use of AES-NI CPU instructions where available.
• Faster start-up on launch despite additional system information collection.
• Better looking graphs / new charting engine in advanced tests. Can now graph multiple data series and customize the look of the graphs
• Support for testing more than 64 CPUs / cores.
• Better baseline search, both for basic and advanced search.
• Combining or baseline management windows, adding bookmarks, etc..
• User interface updates with 3D models.
• Newbaseline file format. We are now using the “.ptx” file name extension for PT8 baseline files. New format is effectively compressed YAML. It should be much more extensible than the older binary file format.
• New backend database structure for storing results. This was required as we expected to get to around a million baseline results next year.
• Each uploaded result now gets a web page that displays the summary of the submitted results.
• Better video card model number detection, especially dual cards and Intel HD GPU.
• Removed the old bouncing balls 3D test as it was looking a bit lame.
• Modified the existing DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 3D tests to have better textures, use better models and improved shaders.
• Improved SLI & Crossfire support. SLI & Crossfire should now produce some performance improvements. We would have liked to do more here but nVidia and AMD were not able to provide any assistance.
• Official Windows 8 support.
• Official Windows Server 2012 beta support, with full support upon the Server 2012 release.
• Combining 32bit and 64bit releases into a single install package. The correct executable is autoselected at install time.
• Faster install after download by removal of some install dependences.
• More options for exporting, and copy / pasting the benchmark data into other applications, like Excel.
• As an experiment we are relaxing 30 day trial period, so that the core function can continue to be evaluated beyond 30 days. So rather than it just stop working after 30 days, the software will continue to run, with cut down functionality
• Bug fixes, of course.