While there are many benchmark programs like "3D Mark" available for computers, these are often only useful when comparing your system to those of other people. If you want to see how well your computer performs in games, it is more practical to test using the built-in benchmark facilities that some games have. Sine a lot of games use the same engine, this will give you a broad indication of your system's performance for these types of games.
Source Engine Games
Valve owns the "Source Engine" and the company uses it mostly for their own games, such as "Team Fortress 2," "Half-Life 2" and "Counter Strike: Source." A few other games games, such as "Dark Messiah Of Might & Magic" as well as "Vampire The Masquerade," also run on this engine. Source engine games come with a built-in benchmark test called the "Stress Test." The test will run through a short section making use of all the effects the game is capable of, then give you the resulting frames per second that your computer achieved. The more frames per second the better, as the game will run more smoothly.
CryEngine Games
German company Crytek developed the "CryEngine" and used it in their game "Far Cry." Crytek also licensed the engine to other companies, such NCSoft for their game "Aion." Games such as "Crysis" ran on the "CryEngine 2," and the third iteration of the engine was released in 2009. The CryEngine games feature a built-in benchmark utility that runs for a section of the game using intensive effects to measure the performance of your computer. This test will even work with demo versions of the game, as in the case of "Crysis."
Unreal Engine Games
Epic games created the "Unreal" engine, which is used for many Xbox 360 titles. This makes it a good engine to test your PC in order to see if it will play Xbox 360 ports. "Unreal Engine 3" has been in use since 2006, and is still widely in use as of 2011. Owners of "Unreal Tournament III" can benchmark the game and the demo using the free benchmarking tool. This will give an indication of how well games using this engine will perform on their rigs.
Id Tech Engine Games
Owners of computers that still play older games will benefit from the benchmarking features of the "id Tech 3" engine. Id Software created the engine and used it to power their "Quake 3: Arena" games. Other classic titles such as "Call of Duty 2" and "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" also run on this engine. The company released a newer version, "id Tech 4," in 2004 and used it to power games such as "Doom 3" and "Quake 4."
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