Monday, October 21st 2013
PCMark 8 Now Available on Steam
PCMark 8, the latest release in our series of popular benchmarking tools, will be available to download and buy from Steam within the next few hours. PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking, battery life testing, a dedicated benchmark for SSDs and HDDs, and real-world tests using popular applications from Adobe and Microsoft. It's an essential tool for anyone who wants to get the most out of their hardware.
PCMark 8 includes five new benchmark tests, each designed around a typical use scenario. Choose the benchmark that best matches your needs, or run all five for a complete picture of your PC's performance. Each benchmark produces a score you can use to compare systems as well as detailed results you can use to gain a deep understanding of system performance.
The Home, Creative, and Work tests reflect the most common computer usage patterns - light home use, demanding media and entertainment activities, and typical office productivity tasks. The Applications benchmark is a real-world test of system performance using popular applications from Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. The Storage benchmark is ideal for testing SSDs, HDDs and hybrid drives, highlighting the real-world performance differences between devices. You can use the Home, Creative, Work and Applications benchmarks to test battery life too.
PCMark 8 costs $49.95, but can be bought from Steam for $37.49 (25% off) for a limited time. Keys bought from Steam are interchangable with the standalone version.
Buy PCMark 8 from Steam - 25% off for a limited time
PCMark 8 includes five new benchmark tests, each designed around a typical use scenario. Choose the benchmark that best matches your needs, or run all five for a complete picture of your PC's performance. Each benchmark produces a score you can use to compare systems as well as detailed results you can use to gain a deep understanding of system performance.
PCMark 8 costs $49.95, but can be bought from Steam for $37.49 (25% off) for a limited time. Keys bought from Steam are interchangable with the standalone version.
Buy PCMark 8 from Steam - 25% off for a limited time
- Includes all five benchmarks plus battery life tests.
- Benchmark with Adobe & Microsoft applications.
- Test your SSD or HDD with the Storage test.
- Measure the battery life of your tablet or notebook.
- Run individual workloads to fine-tune your system.
- Get in-depth hardware monitoring graphs.
- Automatically save your results offline.
- Includes the Home, Creative and Work benchmarks.
- Easy to use, no technical know-how needed.
- Free online account to manage your results.
12 Comments on PCMark 8 Now Available on Steam
(Disclaimer: I am fully aware that there are computers without steam installed.)
From a customer standpoint, it makes a little sense since it'd probably be nice to have your registration info saved and a reliable place to download from. Typical usage would be install once, run a benchmark, uninstall. If you upgrade a piece of hardware, re-download, re-install, re-run benchamrk, re-uninstall. It makes sense here, but these customers typically go for a free version.
From an enthusiast's standpoint, which I think is the most likely customer for the paid version, it doesn't make any sense since the enthusiast will likely be reformatting often and it seems like Steam would only get in the way and add bloat. Typical usage would be a thumb drive with latest drivers and the benchmark install. I don't think they'd like Steam sitting in the background using up resources.