Fossil Speed - Free Online PC CPU Speed Test and Performance Meter Benchmark (Version 1.0)

. . . . . . . Interval* 2sec   5sec   10sec   30sec   60sec   2min   5min   10min   20min   30min   40min   50min   60min Lines 10   25   50   75   100 Width 25   50   75   100 * Increase to reduce load on PC, and to increase logging duration View Log

Introduction

• Simple but effective web-based online PC speed monitor (CPU and RAM).
• No software installation required.
• Platform neutral: Mac, Windows, Linux, Unix.
• Monitors not just CPU speed, but system slowdown due to insufficient RAM as well.
• More accurate indication of system speed/response time, than CPU idle time (user-perceived system speed is not zero, when CPU idle time is zero).
• Unobtrusive - speed is displayed in window title, even when web browser is minimized.
• Stores log of last 1,500 speeds.
• CSV export feature for spreadsheet analysis.
• Displays minimum and maximum speeds recorded during monitoring period.

How to use

• The higher the Fossil Speed in the green box above, the higher the available performance of the PC at that time. As more programs are run, the Fossil Speed will reduce, indicating less available performance to run new programs.
• The absolute value of the speed does not mean anything. It only makes sense when compared against Fossil Speeds from other PCs, or the same PC at different times.
• Use the same operating system and browser. This is extremely important. Different browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera) even on the same PC, can give very different results. Different versions of the same web browser may also give different results.
• The Fossil Speed is linear - a number twice as big means the PC is able to perform twice as fast. This is only valid when comparing with the same or similar PCs. Any comparison will be less accurate when comparing PCs with very different hardware, especially multi-core CPUs.
• Tests both CPU and memory access speed. For many PCs, the amount of memory is more of a limiting factor than CPU speed. The Fossil Speed will reflect PC speed limitations due to insufficient RAM e.g. when many programs are running at the same time.
• The operating system can set the web browser to higher or lower priority, depending on whether or not the web browser is the active application (is in the foreground - receiving keyboard and mouse input). This can affect the Fossil Speed.

Example usage

• Daily routine monitoring of Server/PC speed
  Run in browser to continuously monitor PC performance.
  - An unusually low speed could mean a virus infection or misconfigured application.
  - Fossil Speed will be displayed on the window title even when the window is minimized.
  - An Interval of 10 minutes means that one week's worth of readings can be saved in the 1,500 line log. Setting a longer Interval will also reduce PC load.
• Test CPU throttling configuration settings
  If using CPU throttling software such as RightMark CPU Clock Utility (http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml), to increase notebook battery life, it is possible to experiment with different settings and check the PC's speed at different throttle settings. A properly configured dynamic throttling system should mean little difference in the Fossil Speed, but increased battery life nonetheless (performance on demand).
• Test distributed computing client load
  Distributed computing clients such as for Folding@Home (http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/), should not affect PC performance - processing only when the PC is otherwise idle. Use Fossil Speed to confirm this - Fossil Speed should be the same whether the client is loaded into memory or not.
• Test Virtual Machine Overhead
  Worried about Virtual Machine overhead? Measure the PC's guest OS speed, against the host OS with the guest OS shut down. A sysadmin once gave up on using virtual machines because they were too slow. He based this on the GUI response, not realizing that VM GUI speeds are disproportionately slower than the VM CPU speed.

Special note for IT Helpdesk Support Personnel

Fossil can be a life-saver as it is an objective measure of PC speed, helping to resolve arguments like:

"My PC is slow. You need to fix it."

"I checked it and it doesn't seem slow to me."

"But the other support guy agrees that it is slow."

1. Establish a minimum Fossil Speed for the PCs under your charge. A Fossil Speed below this can be used as an indication that the PC needs to be checked, or upgraded.
2. Come up with a list of minimum acceptable Fossil Speeds for different OS and web browser version combinations.
3. Record the Fossil Speed of each new PC received. Any future reductions are likely to have a software cause, and solution - virus scan, disk defragment, OS re-install.
4. Fossil will not by itself detect PC slowdowns due to insufficient RAM. To benchmark RAM problems, run Fossil after the normal set of applications (as defined by your team, or customized individually by each department or user) have been loaded, and compare the results with and without the applications. Your list of minimum Fossil Speeds can be defined as running with the above standard set of applications loaded, not a recently rebooted "no load" case.

How it works

Program is written in JavaScript, embedded in this web page. It runs inside the web browser, not the web server, so is an indication of the PC's speed. The speed of the Internet connection has no effect on the Fossil Speed calculated.

The program works by looping for a fraction of a second, and counting how many loops are completed. To prevent loop optimization by the JavaScript engine, some variable assignment complexity is introduced in the loop. To avoid loading the PC too much, the program then sleeps before repeating.

To smooth out confusing fluctuations, displayed speed is the moving average of the last three calculated speeds.

Long strings are assigned and zeroed in the loop, providing some measure of memory access speed as well. This is important to reflect PC slowdown when total PC memory usage is high (virtual memory page faults).

The Fossil Speed is a functional test, and therefore mirrors a user's subjective experience of PC speed, more accurately than standard OS indicators such as percentage CPU idle time (when idle time is zero, users do not experience the PC speed as zero).

A bit about PC and CPU benchmarking

The speed of modern CPUs is best characterized by a variety of benchmarks i.e. the speed is multi-dimensional. Two CPUs can exhibit different speeds relative to each other, depending on the test performed - CPU A can be faster than CPU B on one benchmark, and slower on another, due to non-linear effects such as:

• branch prediction logic
• number of pipelines
• cache size - a processor pushed just beyond its cache size will show a sudden and dramatic fall in performance
• integer versus floating point operations

However, a PC's speed is also determined by the memory, the intelligence of the OS virtual memory manager, the mix of programs running at any one time. A high-level functional test such as Fossil, is therefore a valid and useful indicator of a PC's overall speed.

Log history