Defining The Phoronix Test Suite

[Michael]

Will this benchmark suite have a cumulative scoring system, similar to PCMark?

The ONLY THING out there for Linux similar to PCMark is Geekbench. Wahoo Geekbench is cross platform and covers a multitude of tests. Booooo it's proprietary and you have to pay to run 64-bit versions.

I am so disgusted with the lack of a PCMark-like benchmark on Linux... I'm seriously considering developing a cross platform PCMark-lite suite if the Phoronix suite doesn't do score indexing.

If it doesn't, would the Phoronix guys be interested in helping develop such a suite?

Right now there's nothing on the road-map for coming up with a composite scoring system, however, that's not to say it can't be done. Once the framework for the software is in place, it can then be planned and implemented, since that's where we're at right now.

You're more than welcome to start coming up with ideas and most likely could be integrated into the Phoronix Test Suite.

[Michael]

I hoped to start pushing out some things this week, but was busier than expected... Should have the start of it being pushed soon though, just some code cleaning to do and finishing off various bits and the graphics profiles.

[Vadi]

That's very quick anyhow - but thanks for the update.

[Michael]

As basically all Quake-engine based games it has the nice timedemo command. Try e.g. "timedemo demos/demo1". I think it should even work directly at game startup: "./nexuiz-linux-whatever-binary +timedemo demos/demo1"

Or you can create a benchmark config file (e.g. "benchmark.cfg" in the Nexuiz "data" directory):

timedemo/demo1
timedemo/demo1
timedemo/demo1
timedemo/demo2
timedemo/demo2
timedemo/demo2

and do a "./nexuiz-linux-bla-bla +exec benchmark.cfg" to automate testing.

Each run will print to console (ingame and to stdout) statistics like min/avg/max framerates.

We'll release a new version of Nexuiz hopefully later this month (see http://emptyset.endoftheinternet.org/~polzer/nexuiz/builds/ for SVN builds) which will introduce (optional) rendering features like reflective water with refraction - this will make sure even fast cards are kept busy ;-)

(Plus we finally have a much nicer menu ;-) )

SavageX: Is there a command for Nexuiz similar to timedemoquit on the Quake games? Where when benchmarking is completed and results written to stdout that the game will immediately quit? I'm writing a Nexuiz 2.4 profile for the initial PTS release right now.

[Kano]

nexuiz -benchmark demos/demo1

result shown or in

.nexuiz/data/benchmark.log

PS: Als long as you run free games - best those which are packaged in Debian I could even create a live cd for testing... nexuiz (without music) + gl2benchmark fits on one cd iso.

[Michael]

nexuiz -benchmark demos/demo1

result shown or in

.nexuiz/data/benchmark.log

PS: Als long as you run free games - best those which are packaged in Debian I could even create a live cd for testing... nexuiz (without music) + gl2benchmark fits on one cd iso.

The benchmark argument doesn't work in Nexuiz 2.4. The timedemo argument works, but it doesn't quit automatically. Aside from that, the profile is working.

Matthew Tippett has already recommend creating a Live CD/DVD, so maybe your offer will be used once the GUI for PTS is in place, etc.

[Kano]

It works with nexus 2.4 - 100%. I am using my sid backport on etch:

ii nexuiz 2.4-1 A fast-paced 3D first-person shooter

[Michael]

Doh, I did +benchmark instead of -benchmark... Yeah, it's now working. Thanks Kano.

[SavageX]

I'd just like to add that it makes sense to run the (Nexuiz) benchmark more than once to make sure everything is cached and whatnot - but I guess this is already done.

[chem]

To address this question of multi-platform compatibility, the Phoronix Test Suite software is compatible with Solaris and I'd anticipate it even working on the *BSDs.

However, the Phoronix Test Suite specification will be specifically designed and tested for Linux. Sure, you can apply the same testing practices to Windows or any other OS for that matter, but the chosen benchmarks and accompanying documentation will be all geared for Linux testing.

I am currently installing the 0.51 PTS on my Fedora 8 desktop. However, I would love to compare its results (on either the "universe" suite or even just a subset of tests) to my MacBook Pro laptop, running OS X 10.5. As OS X is certified Unix '03, BSD-based, and has a variety of GNU/Linux programs available via Macports or Fink, I imagine it would be not too much trouble to get PTS working (at least in part!) on OS X.

I think this would be an incredibly valuable contribution. You could even compare benchmark scores on the same hardware (macbook pro, in my case) booted to Linux vs OS X. Currently, I do not know of a good suite to do this.

While I understand that Phoronix makes their money from Linux, I hope that Phoronix reconsiders and at least makes a perfunctory effort to make their PTS compatible with OS X 10.5. It may even be a wise business or PR move.

Thanks.