Enthusiast Computing - Performance and Benchmarks

Performance and Benchmarks

As a general guideline, enthusiast PCs must achieve high scores on 3D benchmarks such as 3DMark when it is first built or upgraded. Enthusiasts who know how to overclock sometimes do so to prolong the usefulness of their hardware. The highest results are always and by far achieved by overclocking.

However, synthetic benchmark results rarely equate to real application performance, as measured by framerate. The framerate is measured in frames per second, which refers to the number of times the video card recalculates the image shown on screen. While frame rates above 30 frame/s (standard NTSC framerate) become increasingly difficult to distinguish with the human eye, enthusiast PCs with a multi-video card setup often boast framerates in excess of 100 frame/s. To maintain a challenge, the standard for comparison is constantly refreshed with new games and higher detail settings.