Competitive Benchmarking Tips and Tricks

Assuming you’re already familiar with benchmarking applications, it’s quite clear that you’ve realized how they work and probably felt the urge to compete. This article’s main focus, in a nutshell, is on competitive benchmarking.

If you don't have a clue about benchmarking software or you don't know their purpose, and you can't use them, then I wholeheartedly suggest reading Mike Mackenzie's article called "Benchmarking and Diagnostic Programs." It's very comprehensive and informative, containing everything you need to know related to the most popular and well-known benchmarking utilities: Super PI Mod (get it here), SiSoft Sandra, FutureMark software, CPU-Z, and Memtest86.

Getting Started

Let's say you have a bad-ass system and you want to break into the top rankings. Or maybe you're just a simple bench marker who wants to outperform your next-door neighbor's computer. Maybe you're just looking to maximize your system's overall performance. Whatever your reasons are I really hope that reading this article will help.

It should be noted that the tips and tricks which you are about to read are not dangerous and cannot damage your hardware components or void any warranties. This is not an "overclocking" article, so have no fear.

Before moving on, it's a good practice to backup your registry and important data to be safe before putting stress on your system. Try setting a System Restore point or using a free utility such as ERUNT.

These tips shouldn't harm your operating system if performed exactly as described. Keep in mind that these techniques are tested and proven, but the performance gains are very relative and sometimes even unnoticeable. Some may work better than others on specific systems and yield significant results while others may slightly lower performance.

Ultimately, this article attempts to point them out and help you understand them, but you need to do the experimenting. After applying each tip, run your benchmark software and compare your results, then repeat accordingly. Practicing like this will help you to become familiar with tweaking to improve your computer's performance.

I'll cover tweaks, tips, and tricks for the following benchmarking applications: SuperPI and FutureMark's PcMark Series (04, 05) and 3DMark Series (01SE, 03, 05, 06). Most of the tweaks are specifically for one of the benchmarking applications but-like I said-experimenting with them leads to success.

Label: Hardware guides