MadOnion.com revolutionizes PC benchmarking with PCMark2002

Saratoga, CA – March 12, 2002 – MadOnion.com™ today announced the immediate availability of its free and newly released PCMark™2002 Benchmarking tool, available for download from http://gamershq.madonion.com/download/?pcmark2002.shtml.
PCMark2002 provides consumers and business users with a unified benchmarking tool that reliably measures and compares performance of laptops, desktop PCs and workstations, across multiple Windows® operating systems. An integrated online result browser allows instant results comparison against the world’s largest performance database. With PCMark2002’s ease-of-use, professional calibre benchmarking software is now available to even novice PC users.
“Prior to the release of PCMark2002, measuring the performance of different types of computers, required a set of different benchmarking tools”, said Tero Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing for MadOnion. “This is the very first time that personal and business computer users can easily and reliably compare the performance of laptops against budget PCs or even workstations”.
PCs operating at identical CPU clock speeds may offer dramatically different levels of performance. True PC performance measurements go beyond simple megahertz or gigahertz numbers. “The practice of simply looking at the chip speed to assess a system’s performance would be similar to looking an automobile’s engine size or horsepower to assess whether the car is a good value and appropriate to your use”, says Rob Enderle, Research Fellow of the Giga Group, a technology analyst firm in Santa Clara, California. “Effective, independent and accurate benchmarks are a critical factor in both recovering and maintaining the PC market”. (GigaGroup 2002: Independent PC Benchmarks Critical to Market Future)
Major corporations - including AMD®, Intel®, Microsoft® and Nvidia® - participated in the development and testing of the product and are impressed by its ease-of-use and its reliable and impartial benchmarking methodology.
In the past, PC manufacturers were forced to use different benchmark software to measure different computer types”, said Sarkkinen. “This is the first time that vendors are able to accurately measure performance across their entire range of product offerings – from budget school PCs all the way up to industry level workstations – using one single tool.”
Key End User Benefits of PCMark2002:

• Easy to Use: easy to use for both novice users, benchmarking professionals, industry vendors and press labs;
• Unified benchmarking: single software tool for all PCs, laptops and workstations;
• Cross Platform: compare performance changes across different operating systems (Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP);
• Integrated Online ResultBrowser: instantly compare results to the world’s largest database of performance data with global validation;
• Free Download: PCMark2002 is available for immediate free download from the company’s website at http://gamershq.madonion.com/download

Technical Highlights of PCMark2002:

• CPU Performance Testing: extensive testing suite correlates to consumers daily routines and performance requirements;
• Memory Performance Testing: system memory, L1 and L2 cache, video memory and AGP Bus;
• Hard Disk Drive Performance Testing: read, write, and file copy performance;
• System Crunch Testing: system multitasking performance measured by simultaneous runs of CPU, Memory and Video memory tests;
• WindowsXP 2D Testing: presents and measures performance of the new WindowsXP GDI+ 2D features;
• Video Encoding and Decoding Performance Testing: MS ASF (corresponds to MPEG4) encoding/decoding performance testing and DVD decoding performance testing;
• DVD Playback Quality Testing: testing suite from Video2000 has been improved to reveal weaknesses in de-interlacing techniques;
• Laptop Battery Endurance Testing: highly customisable battery endurance testing features offer advanced battery consumption profiles for different usage type;

Pricing
Software can be registered to enable added functionality for $9.95. A professional version with complete features and functionality is available from http://www.madonion.com/products/#pcmark2002 for $39.95.
About MadOnion.Com™
MadOnion.com™ is a leading provider of PC benchmark software and performance information services. MadOnion.com™ is known around the world for its benchmark products, including the 3DMark® Series and Video2000 (with more than 26 million copies distributed, worldwide). MadOnion.com™ has offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland. For more information, please visit www.madonion.com
Note to editors: for free evaluation copy, contact marketing@madonion.com

Company Contact:
MadOnion.com Inc.
+1-408-517-0131
Tero Sarkkinen
Executive Vice President, Sales
tero@madonion.com

Agency Contact:
TechWire International
+1-831-429-6288
Executive Vice President, Sales
Leo Pot
information@ezwire.com