PC Benchmark Testing: GitHub Installation Guide

Complete PC GPU Testing Guide

Testing your PC's GPU performance provides critical insights into your system's capabilities, upgrade potential, and gaming readiness. This comprehensive guide covers everything from basic testing to advanced analysis for desktop PC users.

Why Test Your PC GPU?

Common Testing Scenarios

Scenario	What You'll Learn	Frequency
New PC Purchase	Verify advertised specs match actual performance	Once (initial validation)
After Driver Update	Measure performance changes (positive or negative)	After major updates
System Upgrade	Quantify improvement from GPU/component upgrade	Before/after upgrades
Troubleshooting	Identify performance degradation or thermal issues	When issues arise
Overclocking	Validate stability and measure performance gains	During OC tuning
Selling/Buying Used	Prove GPU health or verify used hardware condition	During transactions

PC System Requirements

Minimum System Specifications

Hardware Requirements:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CPU:      Any modern dual-core processor (2015+)
RAM:      4GB minimum (8GB recommended)
GPU:      DirectX 11 compatible (WebGL 2.0)
Storage:  No installation required (browser-based)
Display:  1024x768 minimum resolution

Software Requirements:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
OS:       Windows 10/11, macOS 10.14+, Linux
Browser:  Chrome 90+, Firefox 88+, Edge 90+, Safari 14+
Drivers:  Latest GPU drivers recommended
Internet: Active connection for test access

Supported GPU Architectures

Manufacturer	Architecture Support	Minimum Series
NVIDIA	Maxwell, Pascal, Turing, Ampere, Ada Lovelace	GTX 900 series and newer
AMD	GCN 3.0+, RDNA, RDNA 2, RDNA 3	R9 380 and newer
Intel	Gen 9+ (HD Graphics 500+), Xe, Arc	6th gen Core (Skylake) and newer

Step-by-Step Testing Process

Pre-Test Preparation

1. Update GPU drivers: Latest drivers ensure optimal performance
   • NVIDIA: GeForce Experience or nvidia.com/drivers
   • AMD: AMD Software Adrenalin or amd.com/support
   • Intel: Intel Driver & Support Assistant
2. Close unnecessary applications:
   • Background games and launchers (Steam, Epic, etc.)
   • Video rendering or streaming software
   • Browser tabs with heavy content (keep only test tab)
3. Set power mode: Windows "High Performance" or "Best Performance"
4. Ensure adequate cooling: Clean fans, check temperatures
5. Monitor temperatures: Use HWiNFO64, MSI Afterburner, or GPU-Z

Running the Benchmark

Testing Workflow:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. Navigate to benchmark website in browser

2. Click "Start Test" or equivalent button

3. Test sequence begins (typical 2-5 minutes):
   └─> Graphics rendering tests
   └─> Compute shader tests
   └─> Memory bandwidth tests
   └─> Particle system stress test
   └─> Feature support detection

4. Results display automatically:
   ├─> Overall score
   ├─> Component breakdowns
   ├─> FPS metrics
   ├─> Feature support list
   └─> Percentile ranking

5. Save/screenshot results for comparison

6. (Optional) Run 3-5 times for average score

During the Test

What You'll See:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ 3D scenes rendering with increasing complexity
✓ Particle effects and physics simulations
✓ Real-time FPS counter (frames per second)
✓ Temperature and GPU usage (if monitored separately)
✓ Progress indicator showing test stages

Normal Behavior:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ GPU usage at 95-100% (expected)
✓ GPU fans spinning faster (louder)
✓ Temperature rising to 70-85°C (typical load temp)
✓ FPS varying based on test complexity
✓ Minor FPS drops during transition scenes

Warning Signs:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠ Temperature exceeding 90°C (thermal issues)
⚠ Test crashing or freezing (instability)
⚠ Extreme FPS drops (below 5 FPS for >10 seconds)
⚠ Artifacts or graphical glitches (GPU problems)
⚠ System shutdown or restart (power/thermal protection)

Understanding Your PC Results

Score Ranges by GPU Class

GPU Class	Typical Score Range	Example GPUs
Entry-Level	2,000 - 4,500	GTX 1650, RX 6500 XT, Arc A380
Mid-Range	4,500 - 7,500	RTX 3060, RX 6600 XT, Arc A750
High-End	7,500 - 11,000	RTX 4070, RX 7800 XT, RTX 3080
Enthusiast	11,000 - 15,000	RTX 4080, RX 7900 XTX, RTX 3090 Ti
Extreme/Professional	15,000+	RTX 4090, RTX 6000 Ada

Performance Tier Mapping

Gaming Resolution Recommendations:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Score 2,000-4,500: Entry-Level
├─> 1080p Low-Medium settings @ 60 FPS
├─> Esports titles (CS2, Valorant, LoL) High @ 144+ FPS
└─> Suitable for: Casual gaming, older titles, esports

Score 4,500-7,500: Mid-Range
├─> 1080p High-Ultra @ 60-100 FPS
├─> 1440p Medium-High @ 60 FPS
└─> Suitable for: AAA gaming 1080p, competitive 1440p

Score 7,500-11,000: High-End
├─> 1440p High-Ultra @ 100-144 FPS
├─> 4K Medium-High @ 60 FPS
├─> Ray tracing Medium @ 1440p
└─> Suitable for: High refresh 1440p, 4K 60, RT gaming

Score 11,000-15,000: Enthusiast
├─> 1440p Ultra @ 165+ FPS (high refresh)
├─> 4K High-Ultra @ 60-120 FPS
├─> Ray tracing High @ 1440p/4K
└─> Suitable for: Competitive high refresh, 4K ultra, VR

Score 15,000+: Extreme
├─> 4K Ultra @ 120-144+ FPS
├─> Ray tracing Ultra @ 4K
├─> 8K gaming potential
└─> Suitable for: No compromises gaming, content creation

PC Optimization Tips

Software Optimizations

• Driver updates:
  • Keep GPU drivers current (performance improvements)
  • Use "Clean Install" option when updating drivers
  • Roll back if new driver causes issues
• Windows optimizations:
  • Enable "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" (Windows 10 2004+)
  • Disable unnecessary startup programs
  • Set power plan to "High Performance"
  • Disable Game DVR if not recording gameplay
• Browser optimization:
  • Enable hardware acceleration in browser settings
  • Close unused tabs before testing
  • Disable browser extensions during test

Hardware Optimizations

Common PC Bottlenecks and Solutions:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thermal Throttling (GPU temp >85°C):
├─> Clean GPU fans and heatsink (compressed air)
├─> Improve case airflow (add/reposition fans)
├─> Repaste GPU thermal compound (if old/dried)
├─> Increase fan curves (manual fan control)
└─> Undervolt GPU (reduce heat without perf loss)

Power Limiting (GPU not reaching boost clocks):
├─> Verify PSU sufficient for GPU (check wattage)
├─> Use separate PCIe power cables (not daisy-chained)
├─> Increase power limit in MSI Afterburner/similar
└─> Upgrade PSU if insufficient wattage

CPU Bottleneck (GPU usage <95%):
├─> Check CPU usage during test (if 100%, bottleneck)
├─> Close background applications
├─> Overclock CPU (if safe and possible)
└─> Consider CPU upgrade for GPU pairing

RAM Issues:
├─> Enable XMP/DOCP in BIOS (run RAM at rated speed)
├─> Ensure dual-channel configuration (2 sticks)
├─> Upgrade to 16GB+ for modern gaming
└─> Check RAM usage (close memory-heavy apps)

PCIe Slot Issues:
├─> Verify GPU in top PCIe x16 slot (fastest)
├─> Check GPU running at x16 (not x8) in GPU-Z
├─> Reseat GPU if not detected properly
└─> Update motherboard BIOS

Advanced: Safe GPU Overclocking

Basic GPU Overclocking Guide (MSI Afterburner):
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Step 1: Baseline Testing
├─> Run benchmark 3x, record average score
├─> Note temperatures and power draw
└─> This is your baseline for comparison

Step 2: Incremental Overclocking
├─> Increase core clock by +50 MHz
├─> Test stability (run benchmark)
├─> If stable, repeat in +25-50 MHz increments
└─> Stop when crash/artifact occurs, reduce by 25 MHz

Step 3: Memory Overclocking
├─> After stable core OC, increase memory by +100 MHz
├─> Test stability
├─> Increment by +50-100 MHz until unstable
└─> Reduce by 50-100 MHz for final stable value

Step 4: Fine-Tuning
├─> Run extended stress test (15-30 minutes)
├─> Monitor temperatures (should stay <85°C)
├─> Verify no artifacts or crashes
└─> Benchmark to measure performance gain

Typical OC Gains:
NVIDIA (Pascal/Turing/Ampere): +100-200 MHz core, +500-1000 MHz memory
AMD (RDNA/RDNA 2): +50-150 MHz core, +100-200 MHz memory
Intel Arc: +50-100 MHz core, varies by model

Expected Performance Increase: 5-15% score improvement

PC Troubleshooting Guide

Common Issues and Solutions

Issue	Possible Causes	Solutions
Test won't start/load	Browser compatibility, WebGL disabled	Try different browser, enable WebGL in browser settings, update browser
Very low FPS (<10)	Wrong GPU selected, power saving mode	Set browser to use discrete GPU in Windows Graphics settings, disable power saving
Score lower than expected	Thermal throttling, outdated drivers, background apps	Check temperatures, update drivers, close background processes
Test crashes mid-run	Unstable OC, driver issue, insufficient power	Reset OC to stock, update/rollback driver, check PSU cables
Graphical artifacts	GPU overheating, failing GPU, unstable OC	Check cooling, test at stock clocks, RMA if hardware fault
Score varies wildly	Thermal throttling, background interference	Improve cooling, run clean boot, test consistency

Score Below Expected Range

Diagnostic Workflow for Low Scores:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. Verify correct GPU is being used:
   ├─> Open Task Manager > Performance > GPU
   ├─> During test, verify dedicated GPU shows activity
   └─> If integrated GPU active, set browser to use discrete GPU

2. Check for thermal throttling:
   ├─> Monitor temps with HWiNFO64/GPU-Z during test
   ├─> If >85°C and clocks dropping, thermal throttling occurring
   └─> Clean cooler, improve case airflow, repaste if needed

3. Verify power delivery:
   ├─> GPU should hit rated power limit (e.g., 220W for RTX 3070)
   ├─> If power much lower, check PSU cables, increase power limit
   └─> Insufficient power = reduced clocks = lower performance

4. Driver check:
   ├─> Outdated drivers can cost 10-20% performance
   ├─> Update to latest Game Ready/Adrenalin driver
   └─> Try DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) clean install if issues

5. Background application audit:
   ├─> Check Task Manager for CPU/GPU hogs
   ├─> Disable overlays (Discord, GeForce Experience, etc.)
   └─> Close launchers (Steam, Epic) during test

6. Hardware verification:
   ├─> PCIe x16 slot (not x8 or x4)
   ├─> RAM running at rated speed (XMP/DOCP enabled)
   ├─> Adequate PSU wattage (check 12V rail amperage)
   └─> No CPU bottleneck (CPU usage <100% during test)

If all above check out and score still low:
→ GPU may be underperforming due to hardware defect
→ Compare with others' scores for exact same GPU model
→ Consider warranty claim if significantly below average

Comparing PC Performance

Before/After Upgrade Comparison

Example: GPU Upgrade Analysis
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

System Configuration:
CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F
RAM: 16GB DDR4-3200
Motherboard: B660

Before Upgrade: GTX 1660 Super
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Overall Score:        4,820 points
Rendering Test:       5,100 points
Compute Test:         4,200 points
Memory Test:          4,950 points
Average FPS:          48 FPS
99th Percentile:      38 FPS

After Upgrade: RTX 4060 Ti
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Overall Score:        7,650 points (+58.7%)
Rendering Test:       8,200 points (+60.8%)
Compute Test:         7,800 points (+85.7%)
Memory Test:          7,050 points (+42.4%)
Average FPS:          76 FPS (+58.3%)
99th Percentile:      68 FPS (+78.9%)

Real-World Gaming Impact:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p High):
Before: 35 FPS → After: 62 FPS (+77%)

Forza Horizon 5 (1440p Ultra):
Before: 52 FPS → After: 89 FPS (+71%)

Call of Duty MW3 (1440p High):
Before: 68 FPS → After: 118 FPS (+73.5%)

Conclusion: ~60% benchmark improvement = ~70% real gaming uplift
Cost per performance point: $399 / 2,830 gain = $0.14/point

Conclusion

Regular PC GPU testing provides valuable insights into system health, upgrade potential, and performance optimization opportunities. By following this guide's systematic approach:

• ✓ Accurate baseline: Understand your PC's current capabilities
• ✓ Informed upgrades: Quantify performance gains objectively
• ✓ Optimization: Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks
• ✓ Troubleshooting: Detect thermal, power, or hardware issues early
• ✓ Comparison: Benchmark against similar systems and track changes

Whether you're a casual gamer verifying system performance or an enthusiast fine-tuning an overclock, browser-based GPU testing provides accessible, consistent results without complex software installation. Test regularly, track changes, and use the data to make informed decisions about your gaming PC.