TESTA A health score/percentile based on relative component performance (50% is normal).
A component achieves a status of 75% when it's faster than 75 out of 100 results for the same component. When a component scores less than 50% it is underperforming. PC status is the average status of all the components in a system.
QWhat are common causes of poor CPU status?
QWhat are common causes of poor Drive status?
QWhat are common causes of poor GPU status?
QWhat are common causes of poor RAM status?
Causes of poor CPU status
- Overheating: For PCs check that the CPU fan is spinning and the cooler is firmly attached to the CPU. For laptops, remove dust near air vents with a vacuum.
- Reduced battery power can put CPUs into a lowered performance state.
- Windows power management settings can limit the maximum processor state to less than 100%.
- Motherboard safe mode switches can limit the maximum clock.
- Running stock clocks on an unlocked (K, Black) CPU - many users will have overclocked.
- High background CPU utilization - identify and terminate any offending applications. (Open Task Manager's details tab, sort by CPU, close/kill processes using high CPU)
Causes of poor Drive status
- Rotational disks are fastest when data is located towards the outside of a platter. Use an empty first partition for optimal throughput.
- Proprietary drivers (e.g. Intel RST or Samsung NVME) often offer better performance than windows stock drivers.
- USB 3.0 drives on USB 2.0 ports limit peak speed to 35 MB/s.
- SATA 3 drives on SATA 2 ports limit peak speed to 285 MB/s.
- SATA 3 drives on non-Intel (e.g. ASMedia) ports sometimes limit peak speeds.
- High background I/O - identify and terminate the offending programs.
- RAM caching is enabled either via software (e.g. Samsung RAPID), RAID controller, driver error, device malfunction or via windows write cache buffer settings. Drives with these settings expose the system to data loss in the event of a power outage as they rely on temporary RAM rather than persistent storage. These results are disqualified.
- Incomplete sequential tests: The sustained sequential write test requires enough free space for 60 seconds of continuous writes. A SATA ssd with a write speed of 500 MB/s requires at least 60 x 500MB = 3000MB = 30GB of free space.
Causes of poor GPU status
- NVIDIA Optimus/AMD switchable graphics drivers can switch to an IGP (low power integrated graphics e.g. Intel HD) rather than using the discrete "M" card. (How to switch to the discrete GPU)
- High background CPU utilization can throttle a GPU.
- SLI/CrossFire configurations are not supported. Where possible we run the bench with just one GPU enabled. If we fail to disable one of the GPUs, the results are not comparable, so we are forced to disqualify them.
- NVIDIA G-SYNC can cap benchmark fps/score to the monitor's refresh rate. (Disable G-SYNC/VSYNC or any other frame capping technologies during the benchmark)
- Frame capturing software can prevent the GPU benchmark from completing successfully. Disable them during the benchmark.
Causes of poor RAM status
- Performance RAM requires manual XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) activation in the BIOS.
- A CPU can limit memory bandwidth, this often impacts AMD CPUs.
- Reduced multi-core CPU performance will prevent full utilization of RAM bandwidth. (Check the CPU first)
- When RAM sticks are plugged into the wrong slots they may operate in single channel mode rather than dual channel mode. (Usually alternate slots should be populated - check your Motherboard's manual)
Need PC help?
If you need assistance diagnosing a particular problem it's worth posting a request on the Toms hardware or Linustechtips forums, they both have knowledgeable and helpful communities.2018 Hardware Rankings
 PC Score |
PC Status |
|
|---|---|---|
| 2 secs agoGigabyte GA-970A-DS3P | Speed boat | 57% |
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| 9 secs agoDell Precision M4700 | Surfboard | 37% |
| 9 secs agoHP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC | Sail boat | 52% |
| 21 secs agoAcer Swift SF314-54 | Destroyer | 68% |
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| 25 secs agoAsus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ALPHA | Nuclear submarine | 72% |
| 30 secs agoAsus G750JZ | Gunboat | 73% |
| 37 secs agoMSI Z370 GAMING M5 (MS-7B58) | UFO | 55% |
| 45 secs agoGigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3 | Destroyer | 56% |
| 48 secs agoMSI B350 TOMAHAWK (MS-7A34) | Aircraft carrier | 54% |
| 56 secs agoMSI MS-16JB | Surfboard | 26% |
| 1 min agoAsus Z97-K | Battleship | 71% |
| 1 min agoGA-Z270X-Ultra Gaming | Gunboat | 32% |
| 1 min agoLenovo 243852U | Gunboat | 63% |
| 1 min agoAsus CROSSHAIR VI HERO | Tree trunk | 71% |
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| 1 min agoLenovo 20DSA082IG | Sail boat | 59% |