Test, fix and upgrade your PC's performance

UserBenchmark can quickly establish whether your PC is underperforming and detect likely hardware and software issues.

Step 1: Download Userbenchmark (here)

UserBenchmark is portable and can be installed anywhere on your PC. Follow the setup instructions to install and launch the software.

Step 2: Launch PreBench

PreBench is a quick five-second scan that checks that your CPU, GPU and peripherals are in optimal condition before starting the full benchmarks. Try to resolve any flagged problems before the next step.

Step 3: Launch Benchmarks

Testing might take a few minutes depending on your system. While the final benchmarks are processing, you'll have the option to prove your skills in a cube blaster mini-game. On completion, click 'Open Benchmark Results' to view your results online.

The following section explains how to interpret these UserBenchmark results

Headline results

The headline results assess how well the PC performs across three key use cases: gaming, desktop, and workstation. This PC boasts an excellent desktop score of 105%, indicating that it excels at tasks that rely on single and quad core CPU performance. It falls into the "UFO" classification for desktop, you can learn more about the performance tiers here. Its workstation score of 62% suggests it can perform reasonably well in multi-core productivity tasks such as video rendering and server workloads. However, with a gaming score of 57%, this PC's suitability for modern gaming could be improved.

High-level summary

The high-level summary uses a traffic light system to indicate performance relative to others with the identical components.

PC status can be thought of as a measure of the entire system's health. It looks at this PC's overall performance relative to other PCs with the same combination of hardware. In this case, a 60th percentile status shows that this PC is healthy and performing above expectations.

Scanning down the section, we can see that the graphics score is highlighted amber, indicating a below average score for this Nvidia RTX 2080, more on this below.

Processor score

Based on a combination of single, quad, and multi-core performance tests, this Intel i9-10900K achieves an outstanding score of 105%, compared to 100% on average for this model. According to the graph, this CPU ranks in the 91st percentile, well above expectations. However, if your CPU is not performing as expected, here are some possible factors to investigate.

Graphics card score

Although this Nvidia RTX 2080 remains adequate for many games at 1080p, its benchmark of 47.3% is on the lower end for modern UHD gaming. This score compares to a 51% average for all Nvidia RTX 2080s, placing this GPU in the 13th percentile.

Click on and other provided links to explore possible causes of relatively poor GPU performance and options for GPU overclocking. Upgrading to a more powerful GPU could also significantly enhance the graphics score and overall gaming experience.

Drive scores

Both the Samsung 960 Evo and 850 Pro SSDs deliver impressive absolute benchmark scores of 195% and 115%, respectively. However, the 960 Evo is relatively underperforming, ranking in the 38th percentile. Follow the link to investigate possible reasons for suboptimal drive performance.

Memory Kit

This Corsair Vengeance 3600MHz C18 RAM ranks in the 81st percentile, performing above expectations and confirming that the XMP profile has been properly enabled. The benchmark distribution for this memory illustrates two distinct peaks. The lower peak mostly consists of systems using the same RAM without activating an XMP or DOCP performance profile. Learn more about how to enable XMP

You can take the following basic steps to improve the speed of your PC if your components are performing below their potential.

Use Windows tools

• Uninstall redundant programs

  First identify which programs are causing unnecessary load using Windows Task Manager. Then type 'Add or remove programs' in the start menu. Search the list of apps and uninstall those identified. Learn more about how to reduce background CPU

• Disable the automatic start-up of applications

  Manage the programs that start when the PC is powered up, via the Task Manager 'Start-up' section. This will reduce PC start up time and background load.

• Free up drive space

  Free up drive space in Windows using Disk Clean-up. Type 'disk clean-up' in the start menu. Select the drive that you want to clean and follow the instructions.

• Check Windows Event Viewer

  This is a record of the PC's alerts and notifications that can be sorted in order of importance. Type 'Event Viewer' in the start menu. A full log of 'Administrative Events' is listed under the 'Custom Views' directory. Investigate errors.

Use free third-party tools

• O&O Shutup10++

  A portable anti-spy tool that helps to retain control over personal data by disabling unwanted telemetry features that ship with default installations of Windows. Highly recommended for new builds.

• LatencyMon

  Measures PC core responsiveness and identifies hardware drivers that cause high latency. Latency problems can result performance issues such as audio distortion, jerky graphics and an unresponsive system.

Practice good maintenance habits

• Restart your PC

  The number one suggestion by IT helpdesks everywhere. Switching off your PC, as opposed to just putting it to sleep, forces all programs to close and clears out the memory.

• Keep your PC physically clean

  Keep air vents and the surrounding environment dust-free. Too much dust can cause hardware to overheat and underperform.

If you require greater performance from your PC or some of your hardware is faulty, you may want to upgrade components or even the entire PC. UserBenchmark can help identify the best options before you make your final purchase decision:

Hardware rankings

UserBenchmark's hardware ranking tables (based on actual users' benchmarks) make it easy to find the best upgrade options for: CPU, GPU, SSD, HDD, RAM, and USB drives. You can sort by performance, value, popularity, budget or age, and filter by brand, capacity or vendor.

Compare components

As an example, comparing the upgrade from an RTX 2080 to an RTX 4060-Ti, instantly reveals that the RTX 4060-Ti offers 19% more performance.

Custom PC builder

Use the custom PC builder tool to see how an upgrade would impact the overall PC score.

Click 'Add to PC Build' from your the top right of your UserBenchmark results page to add all your existing components to the baseline build. Alternatively, you can start a new build.

You've taken on board the suggestions, cleaned up your PC and considered hardware upgrades. Now it's time to test the results of your hard work. Run UserBenchmark again and compare the latest results with your previous benchmarks to quantify the performance impact.

Good luck in your PC improvement journey! If you've found this useful, consider sharing UserBenchmark with your friends. Help ensure their PCs are also running at their best and compare benchmark results together.