BenchmarkHQ - News Archive

News for 1999-2000

[31.12.2000]I would like to wish all the visitors of BenchmarkHQ a Happy New Year! I hope New Year will be successful for you! And I will do my best to keep this site interesting, informative and useful! Happy Holydays!

[29.12.2000]New program has been added - Monitor Tester!

[27.12.2000]SysID has been updated once again. The latest version 1.8c has a VxD error fixed!

[26.12.2000]MadOnion.com have started to provide a new service. This online upgrade recommendation service can take a look at your PC's current hardware configuration, provide you with a printable system report that identifies all the key components inside your PC and even give you some recommendations as to what components you might wish to upgrade in order to improve your PC's performance and expand its capabilities.

[25.12.2000]SysID has been updated to version 1.8b! It has a few bugs fixed.

[24.12.2000]Here's the updated BenchmarkHQ Top 10 downloads list!

[21.12.2000]HWiNFO 0.9b has been released! New in this version: enhanced Intel Pentium 4 support, added detection of VIA Samuel 2 CPU, VIA 82C686B South Bridge, VIA VT8363A KT133A chipset, support of ST PowerVR KYRO, IBM RC1000 Graphics Rasterizer and Diamond Fire GL2 Video Accelerator, ect.

SysID 1.8 has been updated to 1.8a! It has a few bugs fixed.

[20.12.2000]The brand-new Dr. Hardware 2001 is out! It has a wealth of new features and improvements. Here are some of them:

SMP support
Monitor test screen for monitor testing and adjusting
Detects new PCI video adapters, chipsets etc.
Detects Transmeta Crusoe processors
Detailed information for Intel 850 and 815EM chipset
CPU corestepping for Intel CPUs
distinguishes between CD ROM, DVD ROM, CD and DVD writer (EIDE/ASPI analysis)
And more!

You can find the full list of innovation here.

[19.12.2000]CPU-Z 1.07 has been released! Now it shows chipset and AGP informations, plus memory timings (CAS Latency, RAS to CAS, RAS Precharge)!

[18.12.2000]SysID has been updated to version 1.8! This latest version can change the CPU multiplier on the fly, directly from Windows! Currently, this feature can be used only if you have AMD K6-2+ or K6-III+ CPU's. Besides, this version has a few bugfixes.

[15.12.2000]Back in November, I published some info about QDPS, an utility to test Quantum's harddrives. Now, IBM has also a similar utility, called Drive Fitness Test, to test its drives! This download creates a self booting diskette to run the utility. You can create the diskette under Windows or Linux but you must start your system with the bootable diskette to run DFT. Currently, the Drive Fitness Test does not support IBM Microdrives, Travelstar E drives, and IBM drives built before November 1995.

[14.12.2000]Another CPU identification utility has been added: MyCPU!

[13.12.2000]TestMem 2 has been updated! It has a refresh check added, bugfixes, and some other changes.

[12.12.2000]TexBench 1.0 has been released! It has added GL_COMPRESSED option, support for RGBA, RGB, INTENSITY Textures, 2x longer Fillrate Benchmark, bugfixes, ect.

[11.12.2000]Another memory tester has been added: AleGr MEMTEST!

[09.12.2000]There will be a new patch for Sandra 2001 soon to address W2K issues! Other currently known issues are:

Incorrect PCI/AGP multipliers @ KX/KT133 chipset.
Cannot load device driver on NT4/W2K: Make sure you have admin rights on the box. If you had the Standard version installed before, uninstall it and uninstall the Sandra.sys driver manually from Device Manager. Check Show non-PnP devices in order to see it.
Missing WS2_32.dll on W95: You need the WinSock 2 update from Microsoft. You should also install Windows 95 Service Pack 1 but ONLY if you have the original 4.00.950 version.

[08.12.2000]Dacris Benchmarks has been added!

[06.12.2000]GliBench 0.1, the Linux port of CliBench, has been released! Some of the features (e.g. hard drive test) are not implemented yet, nevertheless it's already can be useful for Linux users!

[04.12.2000]WebStress has been added!

[03.12.2000]Top 10 downloads on BenchmarkHQ! Here they are.

SysID has been updated to version 1.7a! It has a few bugfixes and a log file added.

[02.12.2000]PC Information 1.23 released! New version supports Windows 2000 and detects installation of e-mail clients and addresses.

[01.12.2000]SysID has been updated to version 1.7! Now it detects CPU's Socket/Slot type, shows L2 cache speed, properly detects Intel Celeron 2, and more.

[30.11.2000]System Analyser version 5.2g is out! It has a wealth of new features, improvements and bugfixes, such as Transmeta Crusoe support, expanded monitor information, more SPD info, Intel 815EM chipset support, ect.

[28.11.2000]GoldMemory 5.07 released! It has a new design and testing kernel, loop/continuous mode added, ect. You can find more details here.

[27.11.2000]PCIList has been updated to Version 2.22 to recognize a handful of additional class devices and vendors!

[26.11.2000]BenchmarkHQ has been chosen to bear the 2000-2001 Golden Web Award!

[25.11.2000]Two programs have been updated. The first one is TaskInfo 2.21. It has some minor bugfixes, applied to some Windows 2000 incompatibility.
And the second one is WCPUID 2.8c-B5! Now it supports Intel Pentium 4 and Transmeta Crusoe TM5xxx.

[24.11.2000]CPUInfo version 2.0 Beta 2a released! New in this version: Microsoft Windows ME detection, Pentium 4 support, more information on some processors (Pentium IV, Cyrix CPUs, AMD K6-2+ and K6-3+), revised CPU- and Revisions- recognition, some minor bugfixes, and more.

[22.11.2000]New Sandra 2001 (2001.0.7.10) released! It contains a wealth of new features, improvements and bugfixes. Here are some of the changes: enhanced (unofficial) support for Windows 2000/1 & NT4, Burn-in Wizard to test system stability, full Pentium 4 support and new SSE2 benchmarks (Whetstone, int/float Mandelbrot, int/float STREAM), full AMD DDR platform support and enhanced MMX/3DNow! benchmarks (int/float Mandelbrot), full current VIA and ALI chipset/south bridges support, multiplexor support for all current Asus mainboards including SMP boards, auto system clock generator (PLL IC) detection, and more!

[21.11.2000]Intel Frequency ID Utility 3.0 released! It has been updated to support the new Pentium 4, Pentium III, Mobile Pentium III with Intel SpeedStep technology, Pentium III Xeon and Intel Celeron processors with 66, 100, and 133 MHz system memory bus products, as well as adding new processor identification functionality (CPUID).

[20.11.2000]HWiNFO 0.9a released! Some of the changes are: added detection of AMD-750MP, AMD-760 and AMD-760MP chipsets, 3Dfx VSA-200 and nVIDIA NV20 chips, ArtX S1-370 TL chipset, SiS305 video adapter, ELSA GLadiac Ultra video card, detailed info about Intel 82810E, 82840, 82815 GMCH and 82801BA/BAM ICH2/ICH2-M, fixed a crash when detecting an nVIDIA card under NT/2000.

[18.11.2000]Final poll results. The question was: what is your favoutite CPU vendor? Most of the visitors prefer Intel (52%), then AMD (46%), and then all other (2%). So, here's the new question: what is your favourite hard drive vendor? Please, vote!

[17.11.2000]Special information for Quantum's harddrives users! QDPS is a simple and highly effective tool to test the health of your Quantum hard drive. The QDPS utilities are designed to be used on Quantum ATA and SCSI S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) capable hard drives. The following drives are supported: ATA - Bigfoot, Bigfoot CY, Bigfoot TS, Bigfoot TX, Fireball 540/1080, Fireball 640/1280, Fireball CR, FIreball CX, Fireball EL, Fireball EX, Fireball lct8, Fireball lct10, Fireball lct15, Fireball lct20, Fireball Plus KA, Fireball Plus KX, Fireball Plus LM, Fireball SE, Fireball ST, Fireball TM; SCSI - Atlas 10K II, Atlas 10K, Atlas III, Atlas IV, Atlas V, Viking II.

[15.11.2000]CPUInfo version 2.0 Beta 2 released!

[14.11.2000]eTesting Labs has released new versions of its famous products: Business Winstone 2001, Content Creation Winstone 2001, and i-Bench 2.0! Business Winstone 2001 and Content Creation Winstone 2001, feature applications that reflect the full range of what most PC users do every day, a focus on the time-consuming operations that make you wait, and a powerful new testing framework that offers testers a wide range of exciting options. i-Bench offers new tests for a broad range of Internet technologies. All the information on them you can find out here.

[13.11.2000]PassMark Performance Test v.3.3 released! This is a minor release to implement disk test graphing. The full list of changes can be found here.

[12.11.2000]Another two program updates. The first one is Informer 3.31. It has a wealth of new features, including the detection of CPU multipliers higher than 8.5, 867 new monitors from 22 vendors, ect.
The second program is HWiNFO 0.9.9! Some of the changes are: added ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 256 and more ATI Radeon 256 cards, Creative Labs GeForce 2 Ultra, ASUS AGP-V7700/64M and AGP-V7700 Deluxe cards, support of Intel 815EM chipset, and so on.
And there are also some sad news. According to Jouni Vuorio, the development of CPU Stability Test is over.

[11.11.2000]Three programs have been updated. First of all, it's a long awaited release of WinTune 1.0.43! New WinTune detects and reports late model Celeron and Pentium 4 processors, Windows Me, video cards with the same logic that Windows uses, ect.
Secondly, it's the new CD Speed 99 v.0.8! It has a new Write Transfer Rate Test to measure the writing performance of recorders, much improved recording routines, most recorders are supported now, improved CD Text routines, added options to write in RAW mode and to simulate the creation of the DAE Quality Test disc, and so on!
And at last, it's the SysID 1.6d, with some Windows Me bug fixes!

[03.11.2000]The final version of TaskInfo 2.20 has been released! It has many changes and additions, like new help, AMD Duron correct recognition and so on. You can see the full list here.

[02.11.2000]SysID 1.6c has been released! Now it works under DOS! Besides, it shows Level 2 Cache latency and speed!

[30.10.2000]New sysinfo tool added - PC Information 1.22!

[29.10.2000]Off-topic. Sachs Marine Aquarium - is one of the most beautiful and realistic fish tank screen savers I've seen! It uses DirectX drivers, and besides, displays real-time fps! It really must be seen to be believed!

[27.10.2000]CDCheck 2.0.2.267 is now available! It has a few bugfixes. In particular, now it supports volume labels longer than 30 characters and so on.

[26.10.2000]New OpenGL Stars 0.5.0.0520 has been released! The biggest improvement is the 3dfx Voodoo support. It is now possible to run on Voodoo 3 in full-screen mode! Besides, the overall performance should be increased due to some rendering code modifications. If you have any previous version (0.5.0.0500 or 0.5.0.0510) you can download an update (about 185 Kb)!

[24.10.2000]New CD-ROM drive performance tester added - CDRom Drive Analyzer!

[21.10.2000]CD-R Diagnostic 1.6.1 has been released. Changes from the previous version include minor fixes for Windows NT/Windows 2000, addition of support for bootable discs for the Analyze tool, improvements in the Error Summary tool, especially for high-speed CD-ROM drives, ect.

[18.10.2000]CPU-Z 1.06 has been released! It has two changes: Dual-CPU support under Windows NT/2000 and Athlon core stepping correction.

[17.10.2000]New OpenGL benchmark program from Poland - OpenGL Stars!

[16.10.2000]According to CD Speed homepage, we can expect a new version of CD Speed 99 in a few days with full support for Yamaha recorders.

At last! Final version of CPU Stability Test 6.0 released!

[12.10.2000]PassMark Performance Test v.3.2 released! Passmarks says that it's a minor release to improve disk testing. And besides the AMD Duron CPU and Microsoft Windows ME are now identified. The complete list of new features can be found here.

[11.10.2000]SysID has been updated to version 1.6b! There's only one new feature in it - a log file (sysid.log) is created every time SysId is started.

[10.10.2000]ASMDemo has been updated and renamed to AIDA. New version has a wealth of new features, such as detection of Intel Pentium 4, AMD K8, support for Matrox G450, PCI IDE controllers, ect.

[08.10.2000]CPU-Z 1.05 is now available! New in this version: detection of the processor core voltage, L2 bus width, you can save results in a html file, Pentium Pro L1 detection fixed!

[30.08.2000]New memory tester added: GoldMemory!

[29.08.2000]Another sysinfo program added: SysID!

[18.08.2000]Memory bandwidth benchmark added: STREAM!

[16.08.2000]New program added: FRAPS!

[14.08.2000]New program added: CPU-Z!

[10.08.2000]New CD-ROM media tester added: ScanCD!

[08.08.2000]Two new programs added: TestMem 2 and TestVideoRAM!

[04.08.2000]New sysinfo program added: Runtime's System Info!

[24.07.2000]New RAM tester for DOS: MemTest!

[19.07.2000]New monitor tester: Test Screens!

[18.07.2000]Internet Connection Benchmark 2000 added!

[17.07.2000]Two new programs were added: CDCheck
and CD-R Diagnostic!

[16.07.2000]New SiSoft Sandra 2000!

[14.07.2000]Drive! - measure your hard drives performance under Windows NT!

[13.07.2000]ZD BatteryMark 4.0 added!

[04.07.2000]HWiNFO 0.9.6 beta released!

[02.07.2000]MadOnion.com has released an update to 3DMark2000!

[29.06.2000]CPUInfo version 1.21 released!

[28.06.2000]System Speed Test version 4.50 released!

[26.06.2000]WCPUID version 2.7e-B6 released!

[21.06.2000]HDD UTILity added!

[13.06.2000]EntechTaiwan's PCIList has been updated to
version 2.10!

[09.06.2000]New program added: CPUInfo! Plus, ZD has
updated its i-Bench test to version 1.5!

[03.06.2000]HWiNFO 0.9.5 beta released!

[01.06.2000]TaskInfo version 2.20 beta 1 released!

[30.05.2000]New sysinfo program added: System Speed Test!

[27.05.2000]WCPUID added!

[26.05.2000]CliBench MK III SMP 0.7.10 released!

[22.05.2000]TexBench 0.8 released!

[19.05.2000]Another new sysinfo program added: ASMDemo

[17.05.2000]New harddrive test added: HD Tach 2.61!

[14.05.2000]New sysinfo program added: HWiNFO!

[12.05.2000]Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility 2.5 released!

[11.05.2000]ToolStar 0.92.04.20 Beta 4 released!

[09.05.2000]CliBench MK III SMP 0.7.8 final released!

[04.05.2000]Dr.Hardware 2000 released!

[29.04.2000]Passmark BurnIn Test 2.0 released!

[26.04.2000]Dr.Hardware 2000 final beta released!

[21.04.2000]New: Passmark BurnIn Test 2.0 Beta 3 and
TexBench 0.6b!

[06.04.2000]New Dr.Hardware 4.00e released.

[04.04.2000]New Informer - 3.22!

[30.03.2000]Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility 2.02 is
now available!

[28.03.2000]CPU Stability Test 5.2 released.

[23.03.2000]ZD has updated its i-Bench test up to version
1.02.

[17.03.2000]CliBench MKIII SMP 0.7.6 RC released.

[12.03.2000]CliBench MKIII SMP 0.7.2 release candidate added.

[11.03.2000]Super System Info 2.5 released!

[10.03.2000]Now, BenchmarkHQ can be also accessed at
http://www.bhq.f2s.com!

[05.03.2000]SiSoft Sandra 2000 released!

[23.02.2000]New program from Tirtanium's developper:
TexBench 0.4!

[20.02.2000]New WinTune version 1.0.42 released!

[15.02.2000]Video2000 released!

[14.02.2000]Two new sysinfo programs were added:
Informer and Toolstar!

[13.02.2000]Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility was added.

[12.02.2000]New Tirtanium 1.9 is now available!

[09.02.2000]Super System Info version 2.0 released!

[08.02.2000]TaskInfo was added.

[02.02.2000]ZD has updated its i-Bench test up to version
1.01. This update fixes minor problems and clears up
ambiguities in the user interface, but doesn't affect
performance test results.

[31.01.2000]CDSpeed 99 version 0.66 released!
CD Speed 0.65 had a bug in the disctype detection routine
which could cause inaccurate test results.

[28.01.2000]CDSpeed 99 version 0.65 released!

[24.01.2000]EntechTaiwan has released PCIList 2.0.
And PassMark has released its Performance Test 2.0a!

[22.01.2000]DVDSpeed version 0.2 released!

[20.01.2000]DDC Test version 2.0 released.

[13.01.2000]TestCPU version 0.96 released!

[08.01.2000]EntechTaiwan has released PCIList 1.5.

[05.01.2000]New version of Tirtanium - 1.8 - is now
available!

[01.01.2000]Happy New Year 2000!

[30.12.99]DDC Test and PCIList were added.

[24.12.99]New WinTune 98 version 1.0.41 released!

[20.12.99]nVidia has released a few new demos.

[16.12.99]SysInfo v0.05 was added.

[14.12.99]CoffeineMark 3.0 was added.

[12.12.99]Modem Doctor - modem diagnostic tool
was added.

[07.12.99]3DMark 2000 released!

[05.12.99]TestCPU - the new processor test and benchmark
program was added.

[29.11.99]Games - the new Benchmark tools' subsection!

[16.11.99]Dr.Hardware information was updated!

[12.11.99]New PassMark Performance Test version 2.0
released!

[10.11.99]Take a look at the new sections of my page -
Links and Conference (basically in Russian)!

[05.11.99]There are new benchmarks and updates from ZD: i-Bench, Content Creation Winstone 2000 and 3D Winbench 2000! You can download the latter (92.4 Mb!).

[01.11.99]Two new programs added: Super System Info,
WhatCPUIs! New version of Tirtanium - 1.7 - is now
available! You can upgrade your existing 1.6 version!

[27.10.99]Three new programs added: CDSpeed32,
Cool Info 99 and DiskSpeed32!

[24.10.99]New program added to the Benchmark tools -
3dfx WizMark 3.0

[22.10.99]Another OpenGL test added to the Benchmark
tools: TestOpenGL.

[20.10.99]New ZD Winstone 99 - version 1.2! Solves last-
minute compatibility problems with Windows 2000! You
can update your existing installation of Winstone 99 version
1.0 or 1.1 with this patch!

[19.10.99]CPU Stability Test added to the Benchmark tools.

[15.10.99]Two new programs in the Benchmark tools:
GpBench/CD and PassMark BurnInTest!

[14.10.99]CD Speed 99 version 0.6 released! The new
version has a function which shows some important
information about the drive. The new version of
Wintune 98 is also available now!

[08.10.99]At last! English version of my page is available!