PerformanceTest 9 Released

[Meryl (PassMark)]

PassMark Software is proud to announce the release of PerformanceTest 9!

Download Link:
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/petst.exe

PerformanceTest has long been regarded as an industry standard by consumers and businesses alike. With one of the largest and most renowned PC benchmark databases in the world (www.cpubenchmark.net), PerformanceTest 9 offers a comprehensive and easy to run test suite that allows you to compare your computer's performance against 600,000+ computers from around the world.

PerformanceTest Version 9 comes with the following exciting new features, just to name a few:

• Totally New look User Interface redesigned with new charts for displaying benchmark data, your result vs the world (using all submitted baselines) and your result vs same hardware model (CPU/Video/RAM/Disk)
• Added editable text file for customization of User Interface strings and translation
• 3D Graphics: New DirectX 12 test
• 2D Graphics: New Fonts and Text test
• Advanced Tests: New DX11 Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Test

[Meryl (PassMark)]

More info:

What's new in Version 9

Test Changes

• New DirectX 12 test that runs at a default resolution of 4K (3840x2160). In cases where 4K resolution isn’t available the score will be scaled down and the test will run at the highest available resolution.
• Removed simple DirectX 9 test from 3D test suite. This was removed as DX9 is now fairly old and the simple test wasn’t putting much load on newer video cards.
• CPU extended instructions test will perform testing using sub-tests for FMA, AVX and SSE (or only those that are supported) and take the average of the 3 (or of those that are supported) for the benchmark result. FMA and AVX are new CPU instruction sets that have become available over the last few years in Intel and AMD CPUs. They were designed to make certain mathematical operations faster. Individual sub-test duration has also be adjusted to account the new sub-tests.
• CPU Physics Test and the Advanced Physics Test have been switched to use the current ‘Bullet’ physics engine. In the past we were using the Tokamak engine, but Tokamak is no longer maintained. While at the moment GPU acceleration isn’t stable in Bullet, we hope to enable GPU acceleration in Bullet in a future patch (limited to integrated GPUs).
• 2D Graphics, added a Fonts and Text test using Direct2D. This test will launch after the original Font and Text test complete on systems that support Direct2D (Vista and higher). Direct 2D is used by most browser and some other applications for rendering text and web pages. So the new Fonts and Text test result will now be a combination of Direct2D performance and GDI performance. GDI being the traditional method if displaying text and graphics in Windows. While Microsoft advertised Direct2D as being faster than GDI, we found the opposite in most cases. Win10 did bring some Direct2D performance improvements however.
• DirectCompute tests will now run for longer based on the test duration configuration setting. The bitonic test will now run for a length of time corresponding to the duration setting, previously it was set to 100 iterations.
• Direct compute bitonic, standard test will launch two instances of bitonic test is there are 2 identical cards in the system (not running in SLI/XFire mode)
• Advanced Disk Test
  • Added sampling of individual latency results and added support for latency results plotted on the graph as a heat map.
  • New Drive IOPS Test available from "Advanced->Disk->Drive Performance..." menu option.
• Advanced Memory Test
  • NUMA is now supported where available. Settings are displayed when selecting results to graph. Exported results and graph will now include NUMA settings.
• Added DX11 Oculus Rift VR test, as an advanced test. This is currently a bit experimental and it has only had limited testing. The test is based on the existing DX11 test (the Lunar landscape test), but has been redesigned slightly to run on an Oculus Rift.
• Advanced 3D Test
  1. Changed how results were displayed and will now display frame latency times. Note: Frame latency is measured from the applications point of view, so doesn’t tell the whole story, as the video card can buffer or discard frames.
  2. Added button for easy copy of results to clipboard
• Advanced Direct Compute, added option for bitonic test to run on all available cards. Previously the test would only run on a single card.
• Test durations have been increased slightly to reduce error margins. This has had the effect of lowering the DirectX 10 results slightly on slow video cards. The DX10 test frame rate varies depending on the scene being rendered. Having a longer test allowed the test to move on to more complex parts of the scene.
• Advanced network test, added internet and transfer protocols used to test report output. Also changed the maximum block size of 256KB and set the default to 32KB. The larger block sizes result in less overhead and higher throughput.
• Advanced Visualized Physics Test
  • Now uses Bullet physics engine (see above)
  • Added a new collection of preset tests, based on the capabilities of the Bullet engine. Ragdoll, compressible objects, friction, rope simulation, etc..
  • Switched to using OpenGL3 (instead of DirectX) for rendering the scene.
  • Changed max number of shapes to be 30000 (limited by Bullet Physics)
  • Removed Overall FPS display (same as render FPS due to multithreading)

Misc

• Scripting, added REPORTSUMMARYHTML script keyword to output report in HTML format when using the LOOPS command
• Scripting, added optional parameter SINGLELINE to commands EXPORTCSV, EXPORTTEXT for outputting the computer's system information and results to one line
• Added shortened operations descriptions to CSH/HTML/TXT exports (eg M/ops, Mb/s, Fps, etc)
• Added error message when the number of selected baselines cannot fit on one page when printing
• Added error message when saving results to image fails due to the image file height being too large (eg too many selected baselines)
• Added a warning message when submitting a baseline if different video card names were detected as being tested. This is to alert the user and try to prevent situations in systems with low power/high power video cards using the low power card in some tests
• Support for new CPUs and better identification of AMD graphics card (some AMD card have never identified themselves correctly and only refer to themselves as ‘Series 200’ or the like).

User Interface Changes

• Totally new look user interface, redesigned with new charts for displaying benchmark data, your result vs the world (using all submitted baselines) and your result vs same hardware model (CPU/Video/RAM/Disk).
• Added User editable string file allowing for customisation and translation of strings used in PerformanceTest (pt_localization.txt). Nearly all menus and headings can be customised/translated by editing the text file. This will allow future localization of the software into French, Chinese, etc..
• Added option to enable/disable heat map plotting in Customization dialog (in the advanced tests)
• Added real-time temperature collection and display to main 3D window display
• In system information window physical disks are now displayed in disk number order (as opposed to the SMBIOS order)
• Added baseline drag and drop loading to main baseline information window, baselines can be dragged form windows explorer into PerformanceTest for loading.
• Added right-click menu to benchmark graphs for exporting results to clipboard/file
• Removed "Show numeric results column" from Preferences
• Temperatures are now updated after corresponding test suite has completed (eg. CPU temperatures updated after running CPU test suite, etc)
• When RAM manufacturer/part number from the SPD data is not available, use SMBIOS details instead
• Added mouse over tooltips for advanced memory graphs
• Added DPI scaling for 2D font test. Previously the test window would be tiny on high DPI displays.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some places where files were saved to the local user directories instead of the executable directory when running with command line parameter /p (eg not saving to USB drive as expected)
• Fixed a bug in the memory read cached test where the buffer size used was in steps from 16KB to 148KB instead of 16KB to 8MB. Test results in this test will now be slightly lower than they were as a result.
• Fixed baseline search in baseline manager where searches of turbo speed 5001MHz+ were not working correctly
• Fixed a bug in the Advanced Direct Compute bitonic test where the displayed results were being calculated incorrectly
• Added some checks to try and avoid a situation where a graphics driver crash could cause an abnormally high Direct2D result
• Fixed a crash when running Direct Compute test
• Now closing DirectIO.sys library when PT exists to stop the .sys file being in use until automatically closed. This should avoid an error some people saw on installation that the DirectIO.sys was locked and couldn’t be overwritten.
• Fixed incorrect values for average speed + data transferred when exporting results from the advanced network test
• Fixed crash in advanced network test if test was started without server being available.
• Fixed a bug where the ADT_SETEXPORT graph settings were not being read correctly and the graph type was not changing

Test Score Scaling

• Added 6.5% scale down of CPU Mark so PT9 results are closer to PT8 results, to compensate for the increased scores in the Extended Instructions and Physics test changes.
• So the PT8 CPUMark should be broadly comparable to the PT9 CPUMark. Same for the overall PassMark rating. Still, when possible, for improved accuracy, compare PT9 results to PT9 results and PT8 results to PT8 results.
• DX12 test score is penalised if it cannot be run at the desired 4K (3840x2160) resolution. Running at lower resolution increases the frame rate. So the scaling compensates for this.
• The weighting of the 3D tests was changed due to the removal of the DX9 simple test and the addition of the DX12 test. The DX9 (complex) test is now weighted lower than the other tests (approx. 25% less). Systems that cannot run the DX12 test will received a 20% penalty to the overall 3D mark score.

OS support

All versions of Windows between XP and Windows 10 are supported. Some functions will not be available in older operating systems. For example, DirectX 12 testing is only supported in Win10.

Pricing

Pricing hasn't changed, it is still a low $27 USD

Upgrades

Upgrades will be free for people who have purchased V8 in the 6 months prior to the V9 final release. New license keys will be required and will be available hereonce the beta period is finished. For older orders a discounted upgrade will be available when the beta period is finished.

You don't need to uninstall V8 before you install V9. You can install them into different folders and have then both installed at the same time.

Changes in beta 7

• Fixed a bug where the "raw disk read" options for the advanced CD/DVD test was unavailable in windows versions newer than XP
• Fixed overlay appearing for 'vs model' charts when chart data is not available
• Custom drawn menu updates to fix some high DPI issues
• Fixed chart colour being too dim on certain monitors
• Chart data is no longer updated while running mid test
• Fixed bug when no HTTP data (no error) is received from the server
• Removed the 'timeout' popup error during HTTP request
• Fixed a bug where DX11 test would often pick a low refresh rate (eg 24hz)
• Some oculus test changes to allow keyboard movement (within a limited area) and head tracking instead of moving along a set path

Changes in beta 8

• Added option to 'Clear chart cache' in Preferences window. All .xml files under ProgramData\Passmark\PerformanceTest9\ChartData\ are deleted.
• Added a check for Nvidia G-Sync, if detected will block basline submission until G-Sync is turned off and 3D tests re-run. (G-Sync can limit frame rates)
• Fixed the scaling of benchmark gauge charts
• Increased the maximum benchmark graph size to 1920 x 1080 (for 4K monitors)
• Fixed overlay not showing when highlighting ranges via mouse drag on distribution graphs
• Fixed a bug with some CSV exports sometimes not exporting the results
• Fixed a bug with some test headings that are no longer used being exported

Changes in Beta 9

• Fixed a possible crash that could occur when calculating graph percentiles
• Some DX12 updates
• Removed Vsync options in main preferences, will now always default to off. Script command will remain and allow it to be changed when running a script.
• Fixed a bug where the script file handle could become invalid (due to working directory change) when running a loop and cause a crash
• Updated G-Sync detection to only block a baseline submission if result seems to be capped (DX9 framerate between 54 and 60)

Changes in Beta 10/11/12

• Internal testing builds

Changes in Beta 13

• Added German, French, Chinese (simplified and traditional) translation
• Added an OpenCL test to the Direct Compute tests (now known as GPU Compute test).
• Near total rewrite of the DX12 test, to look better and make better use of DX12. SLI/Crossfire support is also better for most card combinations.
• Fixed some flickering issues with DX12 test when crossfire is enabled
• Changed how script files are processed to better handle the loop command
• Made some changes to standardise the 3D test information overlay on DX9/10/11/12 tests
• Score scaling changes

Changes in Beta 14

• Added OpenCL test to Advanced GPU Compute test options
• Made some changes so GPU Compute tests are now DPI aware and should no longer automatically scale on high DPI monitors
• Fixed some GPU-Based Validation errors in the DX12 test
• Removed some unnecessary padding in menu items, fixed centering of arrow icons on high DPI monitors
• Fixed a bug with the percentile result being wrong when above 99%.
• Help file updates
• Updates to CPU detection code to correctly detect AMD Carrizo CPUs and other new AMD CPU models.

[Zyll Goliat]

Hey guys I really love new Performance test 9 and I was enjoying doing many test´s in beta version...however this latest version don´t allowing me to do test in directx12 from some reason saying that my card or directx is not compatible and as I said in the same beta version dx12 test was working with no problem now it don´t and for example 3dmark Time Spy test dx12 working just fine now...so maybe you can try to find what is root of this problems...thx in advance!!!
here are my spec:
CPU:AMD 8300
GPU:GTX 660 TI 2gb(MSI PE OC)
RAM:16gb ddr3
SSD:128gb SamsungEvo
HDD:500gbSegate
System:WIN 10

[Tim (PassMark)]

Could you please send us a debug log after trying to run the DX12 test.

[Zyll Goliat]

Hey np Tim here it is in attachment....glad that I can assist&I hope it will help you 2 find the solution....

[Tim (PassMark)]

First could you please update to the latest drivers for your card and check if you still have the issue.

if so could you please download this debug version of the DX12 test, http://www.passmark.com/ftp/PT-D3D12Test-Debug.zip, unzip it into your PerformanceTest install directory (replacing the current test executable with this one) and then send us another debug log created with this version.

[Zyll Goliat]

Srry but that page for the debug test don´t exist anymore.....by the way I did tried with the latest driver and it is the same thing.......

[Tim (PassMark)]

Sorry our forum software seems to have messed with the link, please try this http://www.passmark.com/ftp/PT-D3D12Test-Debug.zip

[Zyll Goliat]

Cool...here it is....

[Richard (PassMark)]

Thanks for the log. We narrowed it down to the portion of the code where it may be failing, but we may need to iterate the process a couple more times to locate the trouble area. We may need to provide another build shortly.

From the logs, it looks to be failing when setting up the scene and DX12 test is possibly timing out. Can you confirm that the DX12 screen never actually appears?

Can you also update the drivers for your videocard to see if it makes a difference?

[Zyll Goliat]

Exactly as you said DX12 screen never appears from some reason and show me an error message on screen and if I click ok in case that I run complete 3D tests all other tests will pass with no problem and I can see my final score.....Yeah srry I did tried the latest drivers(same error appear) but after that I roll back on this driver version as it is more stable and performs a bit better in some games that I play...but it was the same if you really insist I can install again the latest driver again and send you the log...by the way few more things I wish 2 add when you mention timing out I notice that sometimes timing out appears between the test´s untill I move the mouse however never result with any kind of erorr (only dx12 test) it is just a strange pause I think that this maybe happens when I use triple monitor setup so maybe that could be some possible cause to look into but anyway in your beta version DX12 test was always working with no problems....so..hmmm..

[Zyll Goliat]

Ok guys Nvidia release last night the latest drivers so I download it and tried the test again....the result is the same DX12 showing me the error message and as I tried complete 3D test all other test passed with no problems at all...here is the log file below....

[Richard (PassMark)]

Thank you. We do have a few entries in our database for DX12 results for the GTX 660 TI, so it may be something specific about your setup.

In any case, here is another build with more debugging information to help us pinpoint where in the loading process it is failing. Same routine as before:

If so could you please download this debug version of the DX12 test, http://www.passmark.com/ftp/PT-D3D12Test-Debug2.zip, unzip it into your PerformanceTest install directory (replacing the current test executable with this one) and then send us another debug log created with this version.

[Zyll Goliat]

Hey Richard good news!!!After I replaced the file you sent me this time DX12 actually worked,however after the test is finished I realized that was unable to run complete DX12 test that was just partial run(no error message) so at the end I could not see my dx12 score(N/A),anyway here is the log file below....

[Tim (PassMark)]

Thanks, we've added some more debugging to this build http://www.passmark.com/ftp/temp/PT-...est-Debug3.zip so could you please send us another log from this build. The issue seems to be happening when setting up the main scene so an error is still occurring but it's not stopping the entire test from running (though as the error was flagged the result won't be valid).