PerformanceTest V8 Feature List

[David (PassMark)]

We are hard at work on development of PT8 and have progressed far enough that we are able to publish a feature list and coding progress of the mid Jan 2012.


Add a new memory latency test. [Done]
Re-write standard RAM tests in assembler to be less CPU dependent and more RAM dependent. [Done]
Add blu-ray burning speed test & DVD burn on Win7/8 as a advanced test [Done]
Allow multiple automatic test runs & take max result [Done]
Improved advanced disk test [Done]
Allow network test to run for much longer [Done]
Improve system information. Include RAM stick model and timing info, CPU temp & more [Done]
DirectCompute test as part of GPU/3D tests [Done]
Re-balancing of instruction mix (http://www.passmark.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3348) in the Integer maths test and prime number test in the CPU Suite test [Done]
Single thread CPU test [Done]
Faster startup [Done]
Better looking graphs / new charting engine in advanced tests [Done]
Support more than 64 CPUs / cores [Done]
Better baseline search [Done on client, 30% done in cloud]
User interface updates with 3D models [90% Done]
Updated 2D tests with Direct2D API. [70% done]
New baseline file format [50% Done]
Replace Tokamak physics engine with Bullet or Havok engine [5% done]
Better video card model # detection, especially dual cards and Intel HD GPU
DirectX 11 3D test & Maybe dropping of one of the DirectX 9 tests.
Better SLI & Crossfire support (tried this twice before with no luck)
IP6 support in network test
Official Win8 support (should as trivial as PT7 already works on Win8 )
And various other minor changes....


The list is still somewhat flexible. So if you have some suggestions of what you would like to see in PT8, please let us know.

We expect to have some type of beta release available in a few months.

- David

[godfather]

Looks great.
I'm especially looking forward to the crossfire and SLI support, as well as the single-threaded CPU test.

But I'm wondering how the single-threaded CPU test would work. Will it count as simply one of the tests in the overall CPU score? Or will it be published on its own? Thanks

[David (PassMark)]

Updated coding progress today in the first post.
We have been working on the 2D tests this week. Been spending some time looking at what DirectWrite (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd368038(v=vs.85).aspx) and Direct2D (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd370990(v=vs.85).aspx) can do.

Big problem with all this new fancy 2D stuff is that there is no support for it in Windows XP. But we don't want to drop support for XP just yet. So we'll need to work out a solution for that.

The single threaded CPU test will just be one of the existing tests and make up part of the V8 CPUMark score. So it will pull down (slightly) the results of CPUs that have poor single threading performance.

[godfather]

So it will pull down (slightly) the results of CPUs that have poor single threading performance.
Which will improve the usefulness of the scores. As it stands now, AMD's FX series is way overrated.

[David (PassMark)]

Should also allow us to do a "single threaded" graph.

[wonderwrench]

How about HD video encoding/decoding including actual video playback. On CPU, GPU etc. Scores based on speed, accuracy, dropped frames, CPU/GPU load etc.

I know I mentioned the above before but today's CPU's can handle all normal tasks at any price point in a matter of seconds, not counting gaming and video encoding. Video encoding can be a slow process on any hardware. What hardware is the fastest? Best cost performance ratio? As far as HD video decoding goes not all hardware is created equal. Sure for the most part any newer system should be able to decode HD video. The trouble is there are many decode features and modes that are not supported on some common hardware available today. Sandybridge can't output 24 fps. Lower end GPU's can't handle edge enhancement, noise reduction etc. It would sure be nice to see a database comparing HD video encoding/decoding. I doubt I'm the only one that wants to see it.

Bill