How We Tested
Content Creation Winstone
Content Creation Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running top, Windows-based, 32-bit, content creation applications on Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 (SP6 or later), Windows 2000, or Windows Me. Content Creation Winstone 2001 uses the following applications:
- Adobe Photoshop 5.5
- Adobe Premiere 5.1
- Macromedia Director 8.0
- Macromedia Dreamweaver 3.0
- Netscape Navigator 4.73
- Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 4.5
Following the lead of real users, Content Creation Winstone 2001 keeps multiple applications open at once and switches among those applications. Content Creation Winstone 2001 is a single large test that runs the above applications through a series of scripted activities and returns a single score. Those activities focus on what we call "hot spots", periods of activity that make your PC really work--the times where you're likely to see an hourglass or a progress bar.
Business Winstone
Business Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running today's top-selling Windows-based 32-bit applications on Windows 98 SE, Windows NT 4.0 (SP6 or later), Windows 2000, or Windows Me. Business Winstone doesn't mimic what these packages do; it runs real applications through a series of scripted activities and uses the time a PC takes to complete those activities to produce its performance scores.
WinBench
WinBench 99 is a subsystem-level benchmark that measures the performance of a PC's graphics, disk, and video subsystems in a Windows environment. WinBench 99's tests can run on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows Me systems.
3D WinBench
3D WinBench measures the performance of a PC's 3D subsystem, which includes the Direct3D software, the monitor, the graphics adaptor, the graphics driver, and the bus used to carry information between the graphics adaptor and the processor subsystem. You can use 3D WinBench 2000 to test hardware graphics adapters, drivers, and the value of such enhancing technologies as MMX. What you can't test is Windows NT 4.0, because it doesn't support hardware acceleration of the Windows Direct3D interface that 3D WinBench 2000 uses; 3D WinBench 2000 runs only on Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000, and Windows Me. 3D WinBench aims to measure both the current and future state of hardware 3D accelerator performance.
3D WinBench 2000 uses the DirectX 7.0 interface, which means you get to see the benefits and the performance of such features as hardware transformation and lighting up close and personal. Other highlights of the new version include a new processor test suite and new quality tests for the latest innovations in 3D rendering.
3DMark 2001
3DMark2001 is the latest installment in the popular 3DMark series. By combining DirectX8 support with completely new graphics, it continues to provide benchmark results that empower you to make informed hardware assessments. As with all MadOnion.com Internet-enabled benchmarks, 3DMark2001 has been created in cooperation with the major 3D accelerator and processor manufacturers to provide you with the best possible and most reliable set of diagnostic tools. MadOnion have also included a completely new demo-mode, which demonstrates some of the latest innovations and advances that real-time 3D Graphics can offer.
Key Features of 3DMark2001:
- Support for Microsoft DirectX8.
- Optimisations for the latest Intel and AMD processors.
- Three new game tests plus a fourth game test using DirectX8 hardware accelerated features.
- DirectX8 feature tests showing Vertex Shaders, Pixel Shaders, and Point Sprites.
- DOT3 and Environment Mapped Bump Mapping tests.
- Support for Full Scene Anti-aliasing and Texture Compression.
- An awesome new demo which features an original soundtrack and is guaranteed to push your system to its limits.
Games: Quake 3
The latest Quake 3 test features enhanced detail and gives the CPU and graphics 3D engine a pounding. In common with QII, Q3 also uses OpenGL rather than Direct3D to render the display.
CD-R/DVD Playback Test
We decided to look at the stability of each of the machines by making each of the PCs perform multiple jobs at once. To do this, we burned a 74-minute audio CD while playing a DVD movie.
Editors' Choice
This was an exceptionally hard month to pick a single winner. We decided in the end to give the Editors' Choice award to the Peripherals Plus PC. It was jam-packed with features. It included a fast 16x CD writer, a good 17in flat screen display, the flexibility of being able to either use DDR-RAM or SDRAM, and it also included a modem and network card as well as an excellent graphics card and sound card. It was also very fast and it was priced reasonably. The Dell is deserving of a Merit Award for its excellent build quality, awesome monitor and great set of speakers.
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