System Requirements labs questions

This is what I get when the website analyses my lappy:

You Have: 2.13 GHz Performance Rated at 3.19 GHz

What does "rated at 3.19" means?

thanks

 

what website are you getting that information from?

 

http://www.systemrequirementslabs.com/

Sorry, I guess the subject of the thread wasnt clear.

 

One of the problems with game requirements is that in the past the only thing that mattered about the CPU was clock speed. Now AMD, and eventually Intel, changed their architecture so that CPU performance was not based primarily on scaling high clock speeds, but on improved architecture, more L2 cache, dual core etc... As a result a lot of games released in the past year or so have had requirements such as "minimum CPU 2.5ghz". Of course with AMD and Intel clock speeds are now anywhere from 1.5ghz to 2.8ghz.

So these onine system requirements tests are stating what they believe you're CPU would be equivalent to in pure clock speed (ultimately trying to compare it to an old Pentium 4) so that newer desktops/laptops are actually passing these online requirements test instead of failing on the CPU score each time.

 

Sionyboy is exactly right. I personally dont use system requirements lab any more because of this. Before when I had a P4 it was accurate, and now it just isnt untill these non clock speed orented cpu's become the majority of processors out there. But yeah these ratings are close estemates of what your processors P4 equivlent is.

[EDIT] Ok I just ran the test for Oblivion. It says my processor is rated as at 4.87GHz, they never even made a P4 that fast. But I remember seeing a chart someone poster a link to on this forum, its probably a sticky. But I think it said my processor was rated at about 5.0-5.2 GHz P4. Ill have to look it up. But heres the reason why I dont trust this test. I have a Geforce Go 7400. Because I have 256mb of "shared" VRAM, and because it meets all other requirements, its got all 6 bars in the recommended tab for video card. I know my video card cant play Oblivion above medium with reasonable frames, but the test says it should be amazing.

 

I have a X1300 with 128mb dedicated, and then 384 hypermemory (=512mb) so when I run a test my graphics card is usually passed with flying colours, when its pretty apparent that it shouldn't. But, its a pretty handy site I must admit. If they can just modernize it a bit for example, have a database of graphics cards so that they are judged on their technical merits (core/memory speed, memory bus, pipelines) so that you could get a better idea of where your graphics card comes in. They could even use something like taking your graphics card and finding out its default 3dmark score and you can be judged by that. (3dmark05 score of 3500 required - You have 2870. Buy a new card cheapskate)

 

Yeah if they did something like that then I would trust the test. But right now all its really good for is if you can or cant play it. What level it says you should be able to play it at is no longer accurate enough to trust.