PCMark7 benchmark FAQ
Q: Is PCMark 7 compatible with Windows Vista?
A: PCMark 7 is not compatible with Windows Vista. We recommend using PCMark Vantage for benchmarking Windows Vista systems.
Q: But the benchmark starts up on Vista, what’s the issue?
A: While it is possible to run PCMark 7 on a Vista-based system, this is officially unsupported. We do not specifically block PCMark 7 from running on operating systems other than Windows 7. When run on Windows Vista, the PCMark score will be very poor due to some of the individual tests failing and giving no score.
Q: What tests fail and why? Can I do something to fix them?
A: PCMark 7 uses Windows 7-specific features during tests that are not present in Windows Vista.
- Video playback test in PCMark 7 uses Microsoft Media Foundation for playback. Vista does include Media Foundation but critically there is no H.264 Media Foundation codec available on Vista. It may be possible to install a third party H.264 MF codec and get the test to run but this is officially unsupported. Note that PCMark 7 does not use older DirectShow – installing a H.264 DirectShow codec would not help.
- Video transcoding test in PCMark 7 uses Media Foundation Fast Transcoding feature that was introduced in Windows 7. This feature is not available on Windows Vista.
Affected suites: PCMark, Entertainment, Creativity and Computation
Lightweight, Productivity and Storage suites can be run on Vista (using PCMark 7 Advanced Edition) and you can get suite-specific scores from these tests. However, this is officially unsupported. PCMark Vantage is recommended for benchmarking Windows Vista systems.
Q: Can the scores from PCMark 7 be compared with other versions of PCMark?
A: No, PCMark 7 scores should be compared only to other PCMark 7 scores. Each version of PCMark is designed to take account of the latest developments in memory, storage, processor and graphics and this means scores cannot be compared usefully across versions.
Q: PCMark 7 appears to hang during some of the tests?
A: It is normal that some of the tests take a while to execute, especially on laptops and slower systems. There are no visual indicators during the execution of a benchmark workload to ensure that nothing interferes with the measurements. This is done to ensure accurate and consistent scoring.
Q: PCMark seems to get stuck looping on the video transcoding test, repeating same video on screen over and over again even if I wait for hours for the test to complete. Help?
A: This is commonly caused by a crash in the video driver while it is doing hardware-assisted transcoding (you may see a popup stating that video driver has stopped working and has recovered – this is also an indication). This problem seems to happen mostly on configurations that feature Intel Core i3/i5/i7 “Sandy Bridge” processor and is caused by an issue with the integrated video driver. To resolve the issue, please update the Intel HD Graphics 2000/3000 video driver to the latest available from Intel. Intel HD Graphics Driver Download.
This applies even if you have dedicated video card in the system as PCMark 7 can use the integrated Sandy Bridge hardware assisted transcoding to speed up the test. In case you have NVIDIA GeForce video card, you may also need to update the NVIDIA drivers to the latest version. NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Driver Download.
Q: PCMark suite runs all tests three times. Why?
A: Three passes increase the accuracy of the PCMark score and the overall PCMark score requires that all three passes of the tests are completed.
Q: What is the Futuremark Benchmark Development Program (BDP)?
A: The BDP is a group that includes designers, engineers and product managers from many of the world’s leading hardware and technology manufacturing companies. Members include AMD, NVIDIA, Intel, Microsoft, Imagination Technology, S3, Sapphire, Dell, HP and many other well known companies. Consultation with individual members helps Futuremark create unbiased, high quality benchmark software that delivers relevant and reliable results that scale as technology advances.