Desktop application performance testing is important to know whether your application can deal with heavy loads. It helps to know how the Windows desktop application behaves with different number of threads, applications, browser windows and so on. It helps you to test your performance against multiple parameters and makes the analysis easier.
Here are just a few methods on how to run a performance test on your desktop.
CPU-Z
CPU-Z is free benchmark software that will provide users with a complete rundown of your PC’s hardware specifications, particularly concerning your CPU.
It also provides specifications for your motherboard, RAM, and graphics card, making it a great all-around program to visualize hardware makes and models. You can even save a TXT file of the information via the Tools option.
Download: CPU-Z for Windows (Free)
2. HWMonitor
HWMonitor is PC benchmark software that visualizes the make and model of hardware components in your PC and displays certain parameters live.
These parameters include power consumption, fan speeds, utilization percentage, clock speeds, and temperature. This can be crucial, as issues like an overheating component in your PC can lead to frequent PC crashes.
HWMonitor’s simple interface also makes all values easy to view and understand. Of course, you can also save this information for further troubleshooting via the File option.
Download: HWMonitor for Windows (Free)
3. SiSoftware Sandra Lite
SiSoftware Sandra Lite is a fully-featured benchmark suite aimed at users who are very well informed about the inner workings of their computers and for businesses that need to perform a detailed analysis on multiple computers.
Want to test your computer’s memory bandwidth? No problem. Want to benchmark network performance? Sure. Want to benchmark your computer’s power efficiency? Yes, Sandra does that as well.
Another useful feature of SiSoftware Sandra Lite is its online reference database. SiSoft Sandra will benchmark your component or online connection and then compare your performance with other similar processors to give you a better idea of how an upgrade may or may not help you.
Download: SiSoftware Sandra Lite for Windows (Free)
Speccy
From the creators of CCleaner, Piriform’s Speccy is a favorite among the gaming community for its simple layout of a PC’s hardware configuration.
Once it’s open, Speccy will provide a thorough rundown of every component, and most drivers, currently available on your PC.
If you click on the individual parameters on the left-hand side of the window, you’ll get even more information concerning your specific hardware, including temperature, voltage, fan speeds, and more.
Download: Speccy for Windows (Free)
5. Fraps
Fraps is the de facto FPS benchmarking tool in every gamer’s arsenal. Easy to use and configure, Fraps will allow users to view and save their FPS ratings over time.
While Fraps is largely used to show FPS ratings over time, which is very useful for testing new hardware or overclocking your PC, you can also use it to screenshot and record gameplay.
Download: Fraps for Windows (Free)
RealBench
RealBench is another example of real-world CPU benchmarking. It uses four tests, all involving rendering in some capacity: Image Editing, H.264 Video Encoding, OpenCL, and Heavy Multitasking.
You can upload your finding to the RealBench website to compare where you stand with other benchmarked hardware configurations. Possibly the best aspect of RealBench is that it simulates a regular course load; no stress testing to push your CPU to the max to gauge its performance. Although, of course, stress testing is also an available feature in RealBench.
Download: RealBench for Windows (Free)
GPU Benchmarking
GPU benchmarks are much like a CPU benchmark: they will update the user on the clock speeds, bus speeds, temperatures, and fan speeds of your GPU.
MSI Afterburner
Not exclusive to MSI graphics cards, MSI Afterburner is the best live monitoring GPU tool around. Afterburner allows users to overclock and monitor their software in one program.
It tracks every parameter you need to chart graphics card parameters: clock speed, temperature, RAM usage, fan speed, and CPU usage (by core). You can also save and activate overclock profiles at startup, so you’ll always be overclocked at the outset.
Download: MSI Afterburner for Windows (Free)
9. Unigine Suitehttps://www.youtube.com/embed/Ya4Z-obAkWA
The Unigine suite has been the go-to benchmarking software for graphics cards for years. If, for example, an overindulgent overclock has the possibility to damage your GPU over the long run, Unigine engines will make sure they benchmark and stress-test the GPU to ensure maximum performance and stability. It also allows users to test varying degrees of detail, so any GPU—budget or otherwise—can be tested using the software.
Download: Unigine for Windows (Free)
HOW TO RUN A PC PERFORMANCE TESTING
Option 1: Using Performance Monitor
Every Windows distribution has this handy built-in diagnostics tool. You can use Performance Monitor to view performance either in real-time or from a log file. You can also configure how the results are outputted so you can analyze the results.
- Press the Windows Key + R on your keyboard and type “perfmon /report”.
Run Perfmon
- A window will open with the message of “collecting data” for the next 60 seconds.
Report Status of Resource and Performance Monitor
Under the Diagnostic Results tab, you’ll find the following subsections:
Warning: This section comes up if there are any warnings of issues the computer is facing. It provides related links to more information about the situation and how to solve it.
Informational: Provides some more information about the processor, network cards, etc,
Basic System Checks: This shows you the information of the OS, Disks, Security Center related information, System Services, Hardware, and Drivers.
Resource Overview: This section will give you an overview of the major parts of your system including the CPU, Disk, Memory, and Network. It uses red, amber or green lights to indicate the severity of the issues and provides details on the current status of the system.
There are several other reports available from the Performance Monitor providing advanced information. You can take time to read them but if you can’t, the results of the diagnostics will provide you with just the information you need.
Option 2: Using Prime95
Prime95 is a popular tool among overclockers for CPU stress testing and benchmarking. It features torture test and benchmark modules.
PRO TIP: If the issue is with your computer or a laptop/notebook you should try using Restoro Repair which can scan the repositories and replace corrupt and missing files. This works in most cases, where the issue is originated due to a system corruption. You can download Restoro by Clicking Here
- Download Prime95, decompress the zip file and then launch Prime95.exe
- Click on the “Just Stress Testing” button to skip creating an account.
- On the next screen if click on “Cancel” to leave the Torture Test Mode.
- Go to the “Options” menu and click “Benchmark” to perform a benchmark
To interpret the benchmark results, note that the lower values are faster, and therefore better. You can also compare your benchmark results with other computers on the Prime95 website.
Option 3: Using SiSoftware Sandra
SiSoftware Sandra is a common system profiling tool that includes benchmarking utilities. Though it is a paid software, the free version contains benchmarks you’ll need. You’ll find individual tests from parameters such as memory to an overall benchmark score.
- Download and run a copy of the software from here.
- Click on the Overall Score, which benchmarks your CPU, GPU, memory bandwidth, and file system performance. To begin benchmarking, click OK at the bottom of the windows.
- After the benchmark is completed, you’ll see detailed graphs that compare the results with reference computers.
Option 4: Using NovaBench
NovaBench is one of the most popular and efficient benchmarking suites for Windows with provision for CPU, GPU, RAM, and disk speed. NovaBench is completely free – no trial or paid version with additional features.
- Get a copy of NovaBench from here and open it.
- Click on “Start Benchmark Tests”. It usually takes less than a minute to complete a benchmark using NovaBench.
NovaBench will display an overall score and then show the results of each benchmark – higher is better. You can also view and compare bench results from other computers on the NovaBench website.
Option 5: Userbenchmark
Userbenchmark is a freeware benchmarking tool that tests your hardware components and lets you compare them to other users online. It’s a really cool program, however, this program isn’t as aggressive as other programs so these numbers should be taken as a grain of salt and you should not really think about them that much. Also, keep in mind that if you are going to test your GPU’s overclock using MSI Afterburner that’s not an option here because the GPU benchmarks don’t load if you are running MSI Afterburner or RTTS.
You Might be Interested In: 7 Best Motherboards For i9 9900k
- You can simply download their Benchmarking tool (here).
- Once it’s downloaded you can simply run it and you can select the components you want it to benchmark.
- Now once the benchmarks are completed it should open a webpage on your Default Browser.
- You can share your results and compare them with other users online.
Conclusion
Desktop application performance testing can be achieved using load generating tools like JMeter, Loadrunner, Tsung etc. But these load generating tools are quite costly. There are free desktop application performance testing tools available like JMeter, Loadrunner etc. For better understanding to go about this, you can check my post on how to carry out performance center in loadrunner using jmeter.