PerformanceTest V6 FAQ
Last updated: 30/April/2008
Q. My License key does not seem to work.
Both the User Name and Registration Key must be correctly entered before
the software turns itself into the registered
version. See this step
by step guide for help.
Keys from V6.0 of PerformanceTest will work in V6.1 of PerformanceTest.
Keys from the 32bit version of PerformanceTest will work in the 64bit edition of PerformanceTest.
Keys from PerformanceTest versions 1 to 5 will not work in PerformanceTest V6. But you can upgrade.
If you purchased PerformanceTest 5.0 within 6 months of PerformanceTest 6.0
being released you are entitled to a free upgrade to PerformanceTest 6.0. You
can request a new key from the PerformanceTest
free upgrade page.
Q. How many licenses do I need if I purchase the software?
You need 1 license per machine that is running the software, or has the software installed at the same time. You can uninstall the software and move it between machines. Note that the same license key works in both the 32bit and 64bit editions of PerformanceTest, you can coose to download one or the other.
Example 1: You are a company and test each new machine as it arrives. One machine at a time. After the test, the software it removed. One license is required.
Example 2: You want to have the software permanently installed on 10 machines. So 10 licenses are required.
Example 3: You have 5 staff in the field repairing and testing PC's. Each technician carries a copy of PerformanceTest with them on a USB drive. 5 licenses are required assuming the software is always run from the USB drive.
Q. Are Windows 95, 98, ME or NT4 supported?
From Version 4.0 onwards, PerformanceTest no longer supports Windows 95 and Windows NT4. From V6.1 build 1002 (May 2007) onwards, support for Windows 98 and ME was also dropped. Some old unsupported versions of the software are available for download at the bottom of the upgrade page. If you are using Windows 2000 or Windows 98 but don't have Direct X 9.0, it can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site.
Q. I don't understand the results. What do all these numbers mean?
If you don't have a lot of computer knowledge interpreting the results can be confusing. There are however a few simple concepts that can help you.
- The bigger the number the faster the computer.
- The results are not a percentage figure. They are relative figures.
- A computer with a result of 400 can process roughly twice as much data as a computer with a result of 200.
Q. How can I make my PC run faster?
We have assembled a collection of hints and tips for fixing slow running computers here. There are also additional tips for building fast machines.
Q.The 3D tests for PerformanceTest v6 use DirectX 9. So what happens in Windows Vista which is shipped with DirectX 10?
In addition to the standard Windows Vista DirectX 10 installation, PerformanceTest needs a DirectX9 component.
We distribute PerformanceTest with the DirectX9 component that is required. PerformanceTest uses DirectX9 in order to be compatible with Windows 2000, and Windows XP and older video cards. Microsoft does not include all the DirectX9 interfaces with DirectX10, but they do provide a component for developers like us to install.
If you do not already have this component installed, then when you run PerformanceTest you just need to select "Yes" when the following message is displayed. This will not alter the DirectX10 installation.
"PerformanceTest requires a DirectX 9.0c component from the October 2006 release of DirectX.
This is required even if you have DirectX 10. This is required for the 3D tests.
To install this component please select Yes.
This may take a minute.
Please note that this will not modify the current DirectX installation, but simply add additional DirectX functions.
To ignore and not display this message in future, please select No.
To ignore this message this time, please select Cancel."
Alternatively, you can run the DXSETUP.exe file that is included in the PerformanceTest install directory to install the DirectX9 component required. This will NOT effect your installation of DirectX10 in anyway. This does NOT overwrite or effect the DirectX10 install in any way, but rather, just adds an extra interface into DirectX.
Q. I get crash with this message, Access violation at 0x7c91084b
(tried to write to 0x00040FFC)
This is caused by a bug in the Windows operating system. The crash
address might also be slightly different, for example, 0x7C9108B. In particular
Dual core CPUs such as the Athlon 4400 X2 and Intel Duo chips provoke the
problem. Microsoft's description of the problem can be found in their knowledge
base article. But it is a much more serious bug than what they make
out in the article.
Quoting from the Microsoft web site,
"Without these updates, computers that are equipped with these power
management-capable, mobile, dual-core processors may experience decreased
performance or unexpected behavior"
They say the solution is to download a hot fix, but at the moment (April
2006) Microsoft don't make it available for download. You need to E-mail
or phone them first. Which is far from helpful. Further discussion and references
to alternative download links can be found in
our forums.
Update: In PerformanceTest release V6.0 1012 we have worked around the problem and a host fix from Microsoft should no longer be required.
Q. PerformanceTest fails to start and displays an error message "Not responding" OR takes several minutes to start in Windows 2000 or XP.
See this page for details on our to help us trace this problem.
Q. Why do my 3D graphics results vary greatly between runs?
On a small number of graphics cards we have noted that the 3D performance
can be greatly impacted by whether the Window in focus is the PerformanceTest
Window or not. We believe that this is a graphics card device driver issue
for windowed DirectX 3D. For now, please just ensure that the focus (mouse
pointer) is set on the 3D test window.
Q. PerformanceTest locks up during the 2D video tests and I have
a ATI Radeon video card, with Catalyst video drivers and I am running Windows
XP with a theme active.
These conditions expose a bug in the ATI video drivers. This problem
was seen in driver version 7.74 (6118), but was corrected in later versions.
A work around was to disable Windows themes.
Q. I have dual monitors and my 2D tests are performing slower than expected.
Using extended desktops with dual monitors affect the 2D test performances significantly. Try disabling extended desktops and running the 2D tests again. Update: New video card seem to be much better and the problem seems to have mostly disappeared.
Q. The results I obtained in version 6 are not exactly the same as in previous releases
There were many changes made to the PerformanceTest software in Version 6. So results created with previous versions of the software are not directly comparable with version results. However old baseline files will have their values scaled up and down when loaded into PerformanceTest version 6to approximate the results that might have been obtained with version 6.
Q. The results for my hard disk aren't what I expected.
There are many factors that affect the disk test results in a Windows environment. Here are the main ones
- Cluster size. Larger clusters in general means better performance for large files. See Appendix 1 for typical default values. Reformatting your drive with larger clusters will give better results in our benchmark, but will also waste disk space. See Appendix 2 for an easy way to check your current cluster size.
- If the disk is fragmented and almost full, this can badly affect performance. Windows includes a utility for defragmenting the disk. Look up “defrag” in the Windows online help for more details.
- The position of the test file on the disk (inner cylinder or outer cylinder) can also affect the performance. The only way to avoid this problem is to only test newly formatted disks.
- The file system being used, FAT, FAT32 or NTFS.
- The operating system, Window9x, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 2003.
- The disk controller (PATA, SATA or SCSI) and what mode it is running in, ATA-33,66,100, RAID0, 1,etc.
- The amount of memory that Windows are currently allocated to the disk cache. This can (and will) vary from one run to the next.
- The amount of onboard cache the drive has.
- Anti-virus software scan files read / written to the disk
- If the disk has compression turned on. (you might see very slow writes, but fast cached reads with compression)
PerformanceTest attempts to measure the non cached disk speed. But in some circumstances (like when the compression driver is in use) the operating system ignores the request to not cache data. This can lead to strange looking results. Typical disk speeds are in the range of 20MB/sec to 100MB/sec. Numbers of above 200MB/sec probably indicate that the cache is interfering with the result.
Q. OK, So there are a lot of factors that effect disk performance but my Seek R/W results still seem too low
This test creates a large test file on the disk under test. The file is then read randomly; a seek is performed to move the file pointer to a random position in the file, a 16KB block is read or written then another seek is performed. The amount of data actually transferred is highly dependent on the disk seek time.
Q. How can I set-up PerformanceTest to run from a CD or USB memory stick under Windows?
PerformanceTest setup
- Install PerformanceTest on any PC using the normal setup program.
- Make a 'key.dat' file (see below) in the same directory as the PerformanceTest executable file (pt.exe).
- Copy all the files from the installation directory to a CD or USB memory stick.
- That's it, you're finished. PerformanceTest should now run from a CD or USB memory stick and pick up the license information automatically. Using the Windows Start / Run menu option you can for example enter the following 'd:\pt.exe' (specifying the appropriate drive letter) to start PerformanceTest from the CD or USB memory stick.
Making a key.dat file
- Create an ASCII text file.
- The first line must contain the username.
- The second line must contain the licence key
- Save the file in the same directory as pt.exe with a file name of key.dat. Click here to see an example key.dat
You can now uninstall PerformanceTest from the PC hard disk and use the CD or USB memory stick in the future on other machines. We recommend using a USB memory stick, rather than a CD, so that log files may be saved. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using the unlicensed valuation version you need to be careful that the date and time is set correctly on all the PCs.
Q. How often are the Baseline results updated?
In real time.
Q. Why is the network test so slow on my laptop?
Laptop network speeds are usually limited by the PCMCIA bus speed. You may have a 100 MBps network card, but the PCMCIA bus will not allow transmission rates much above 10 MBps.
Q. How can I get the network test to run through a firewall?
You may have to set up a rule allowing access on the port used by the network test. If you don't have direct control over the firewall, you'll have to contact your network administrator. The port number used by the test can be found in the network test dialog.
Q. When trying to run the advanced network test between two PC's, I set one machine to server and the other to client, but the client says "Connect Failed". What could be wrong?
The most likely causes are:
- In the PerformanceTest Advanced network test window (on the client/sending PC), the IP address entered is incorrect or the port numbers on the client and server PC's do not match. The same port number must be used on both PC's. The IP address of the server PC, must be entered on the client PC.
- A firewall (eg. Microsoft XP firewall or Norton Internet Security Firewall) is turned on for one or both of the PC's LAN connections and this is blocking a connection. Solution: modify the firewall rules to allow this address, port and protocol through the firewall or switch the firewall off (if appropriate).
- The network cards are not working. You should check in device manager that your Network cards are shown as "This device is working properly".
Note: To test connectivity between the Client PC and the Server PC try the following: Open a "Command" window on the Client side PC by selecting "Start", "Run", type in "Command". Once you have the "Command" window open, type "ping <IP-Destination>", substituting <IP-Destination> for the IP address of the Server side PC.
Q. The advanced network UDP test seems to start OK, but after a few seconds the receiving PC stops receiving data. What could be wrong?
When the Client computer graph shows that nearly the entire bandwidth is utilized for the full test duration of the send session and the receiver shows that after a number of seconds into the test a drop from nearly 100% utilization to 0, the most likely cause is that a router between the PC's is dropping UDP packets.
UDP is not rate adaptive (basically packets are pushed out as quickly the PC can push them out with no consideration whether the packet was received), unlike TCP. A Router between the PC's could become congested and hence start dropping the UDP packets, and remain congested until the end of the test (This is of course more likely if the router is a lower end router or there are other users on the network). Depending on your router, you may be able to get UDP statistics on the 'in' and the 'out' ports to confirm this. You could also try connecting the 2 PC's directly (depending on what you are trying to test).
Q. The calculated CPU clock speed is not correct. Why?
- CPU's made for portable computers can decrease their clock speed to lower power usage. For example, a Pentium III 1000 Mobile CPU may be measured as having a clock speed of 730Mhz at the time the measurement is done.
- The speed rating values that AMD assign to their Athlon CPU's do not correspond to their clock speed. For example a Athlon 2000+ runs at a clock speed of 1660Mhz. This is also the case for the older Cyrix 150+ & 200+ CPU's
Q. How do I uninstall PerformanceTest?
Use the "add / remove programs" icon in the Windows control panel.
Appendix 1 - Default hard disk cluster sizes
Default Cluster Sizes for Volumes with Windows 2000 and XP File Systems
Volume size |
FAT cluster size |
FAT32 cluster size |
NTFS cluster size |
| 7 MB–16 MB | 2 KB | Not supported | 512 bytes |
| 17 MB–32 MB | 512 bytes | Not supported | 512 bytes |
| 33 MB–64 MB | 1 KB | 512 bytes | 512 bytes |
| 65 MB–128 MB | 2 KB | 1 KB | 512 bytes |
| 129 MB–256 MB | 4 KB | 2 KB | 512 bytes |
| 257 MB–512 MB | 8 KB | 4 KB | 512 bytes |
| 513 MB–1,024 MB | 16 KB | 4 KB | 1 KB |
| 1,025 MB–2 GB | 32 KB | 4 KB | 2 KB |
| 2 GB–4 GB | 64 KB | 4 KB | 4 KB |
| 4 GB–8 GB | Not supported | 4 KB | 4 KB |
| 8 GB–16 GB | Not supported | 8 KB | 4 KB |
| 16 GB–32 GB | Not supported | 16 KB | 4 KB |
| 32 GB–2 TB | Not supported | Not supported | 4 KB |
Appendix 2 - Checking your cluster size
Versions of PerformanceTest later than 3.2 display the cluster size of the disk. In earlier versions of the software you'll need to check it yourself. Find or make a file on your hard disk with just a few bytes in it. Then while in Explorer right click on the file and select properties. Compare the values for 'Size' and 'Size on disk'. You can see that in the smallfile.txt example (left) that the disk is used extremely inefficiently (0.015% efficiency in fact). This is because this disk has been formatted with 32KB clusters. If the disk was formatted with 4KB clusters (top right) the results would have been very different. (0.12% efficiency, a 8 fold improvement).