Put your PC through its paces to know what you're getting from your hardware. You don't need to be a hardcore PC gaming enthusiast to run benchmarks on your rig; modern tools can be installed easily and will put your system through its paces with minimal fuss. Whether you want to test out GPU, CPU or SSD performance, using benchmarking software is easy and worth exploring. Running benchmarks can also help you catch system problems. If you're not seeing the scores you'd hope for, that could point to problems with your PC or laptop. Thankfully, tools like 3DMark, Cinebench, Superposition and Crystal Disk Mark all have free versions that will quickly show you how your system's components are performing.
3DMark is an especially useful tool for gauging GPU performance, as its various in-built tools let you compare your card's score to similar setups used by other gamers. If you're looking to benchmark your GPU, 3DMark has long been the most popular software for testing graphics card performance. You can download a free version of 3DMark on Steam, which gives you access to tests like Solar Bay and Time Spy. Superposition is also a great option for benchmarking your GPU. Using the UNIGINE 2 Engine, it can put your card under heavy load with tests that simulate demanding lighting and visual effects. On the CPU front, you can't go wrong with Cinebench. It's currently the safest and most reliable way to stress-test your processor, and should thus be your go-to software for benchmarking CPU rendering performance.
For those looking to benchmark the read/write speeds of top SSDs, Crystal Disk Mark is your friend. This free open-source software lets you easily and quickly test out your drive's sequential read and write speeds. To get the best results, close all background apps and ensure your SSD has at least 10 percent of its space free. If you're benchmarking your laptop's drive, make sure you plug in its charger first. Are in-game benchmarks more reliable than 3DMark tests? If a game has a built-in benchmarking tool, its internal tests will normally give you the best indication of how a particular title will run on your system. 3DMark is still great for giving you base level hardware results you can then compare to other systems online. But for measuring straight-up FPS performance, in-game benchmarks are the way to go. Open-world racer Forza Horizon 6 has a super comprehensive tool that measures GPU performance and CPU utilization, while also serving up FPS graphs that span maximum, minimum and average frame rate performance. Cyberpunk 2077 also has a useful in-game benchmark that runs through a crowded Night City scene, allowing you to quickly adjust and measure the impact of graphics settings to hit a steady frame rate.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing