Chapter 13 The Black Art of Performance Testing
Better performance, better buying decisions
Benchmarking isn't just for industry professionals and gearheads anymore. With a little advice, you can run benchmarks on your system to help you diagnose problems to make more informed buying decisions. This chapter gets down and dirty with this mysterious art and helps you start benchmarking on your own.
Benchmarking: Why Should I Care?
This is a good question worth pondering. Why do you, the erstwhile reader, care about benchmarking - especially if you never plan on doing it yourself. There's several answers to this question.
On the most basic level, understanding what benchmarking is, its limitations, and how good benchmarking is conducted lets you make a more informed buying decision when it comes time to upgrade your hardware. This is part of being an informed consumer. Since all graphics card companies do benchmarks, understanding the process helps you cut through the chaff that's often printed on product boxes.
Next: Why you should care, continued
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