Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
More info?)
The reasons a lot of the talk about benchmarks has died down are twofold:
1. People recognize that benchmark results are useful only if the benchmarks
somewhat reflect the work that people actually do with a computer. It makes no
sense to use the results of a SQL benchmark to select computers which will be
used primarily for web browsing. Gamers are the ones who push the envelope the
most in terms of processing power and graphics capabilities, and, no surprise,
there are plenty of game-oriented benchmarks.
2. More importantly, name brand computer manufacturers would rather engage in
specsmanship, selling on specs, and disregarding how computers will actually be
used. To give you an example, I have sold a number of small form factor desktop
systems with Pentium III processors in the 733 to 933 MHz range. They also have
a legit version of Windows 2000 and 256MB of memory. These are perfect for the
student or less sophisticated user (using mostly, AIM, Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Internet Explorer) at a fraction of the price of a new system.
Also of considerable note, Intel seems to have run into a wall in pushing
processor speed while still maintaining acceptable power consumption and heat
generation. So they took a left turn here recently toward multi-core processors
(even more difficult to benchmark!) and reduced power consumption. If Intel has
its way, you will see less and less of benchmarks in the near future.
.... Ben Myers
On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 14:04:09 -0400, TRABEM <> wrote:
>Is there a software benchmark test to quantify how good (or not so
>good) a computers overall performance is?
>
>In the DOS days, we used PCTOOLS.
>
>I don't see much chatter about benchmarks these days. Is that because
>there isn't a benchmark available?
>
>Thanks,
>
>T
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