What are the minimum requirements to run BenchMate?
Hardware
Operating System
Is BenchMate portable?
Yes, every version of BenchMate is portable. You can copy the installation directory to another system at any time.
To be sure to have all dependencies installed (ie: KB4474419 and SSL root certificates) as well as propery entry in the "Apps and Features" tab of Windows, please use the installer.
BenchMate fails to start or I found a bug. What should I do?
Known common errors in our client normally provide an error message with one or more recommended solutions. Please read the message carefully.
If you can't find a solution on your own and this FAQ doesn't help either, it's time to get in touch with us. We are providing support on the following channels:
Why is BenchMate's Bug Report tool not able to submit a bug?
You are probably using an old BenchMate version, that we don't support anymore. Sadly versions prior to BenchMate 10.10 can not report a bug.
In any case, please update BenchMate to its latest version. We can not support every old version out there, so if you contact us, we would probably ask you to update anyways.
If the error still persists on the latest version of BenchMate, please get in touch with us.
Can I move my result data and/or configuration to another BenchMate installation?
Yes, you can.
The result data is located at C:\Your\BenchMate\results. Just copy all result files to the same directory in your new BenchMate installation. You will need to restart BenchMate to reload the result list.
Your configuration files are located in BenchMate's root path: *C:\Your\BenchMate*. Make sure that BenchMate is not running so the source configuration file is up-to-date and the destination file is not overwritten again.
My Antivirus software is acting up stating BenchMate is a malicious Trojan/Worm/etc. Is BenchMate infected?
No, it is certainly not (if you have downloaded it from this website).
The technology we are using for BenchMate is very close to software that would normally be used for malicious intent. The same is true for Antivirus itself by the way. The difference is how code like this is used. We are monitoring and protecting benchmark processes as well as protecting BenchMate itself from being tampered. These patterns are well known and are therefore detected by Antivirus software as a false positive.
If you have troubles with your Antivirus software, please consider excluding BenchMate's installation directory from scanning. Windows Defender should be fine though and is thoroughly tested with each release.
I get the following error message when I launch certain benchmarks: Write access to process memory detected - Antivirus or (Anti)Cheat-Tool installed?
BenchMate does not allow any tampering of the executable's process memory. If write access is detected, the benchmark process is locked and you will not be able to create results. This is a security feature.
We have seen this error with various realtime protection features of Antivirus software. For example if you are using F-Secure, you need to disable DeepGuard.
We do not recommend using realtime protection while benchmarking due to its impact on the performance of your system. Windows Defender should be fine though and is thorougly tested with each release.
Why are several frequencies in the result window flagged as unreliable?
This was necessary due to the complex ways to read bus frequency on all AMD Zen generations. In some cases the readout has to fall back to reading the CPU's LAPIC timer, which is error-prone especially on high load scenarios. So starting with HWiNFO 7.30 (and BenchMate 10.12) a bus frequency derived from the LAPIC tiemr is only read once during initialization to avoid irregular values. That means any bclock changes between BenchMate's initialization and the end of a benchmark run will not be reflected in the bus-dependent frequencies shown on the result dialog.
We mitigated the problem with two new features. At HWiNFO init we read the bus detection method to know if the bus clock will be unreliable. In addition we check the LAPIC timer between init and the end of a run and if a skew of more than 0.2% is detected, all bus-dependent clocks will be marked as "unreliable" and a warning appears on the bottom of the result dialog. 0.2% is the equivalent of 10 MHz on a 5000 MHz core frequency.
For us it is always important to show reliable information and communicate edge cases as good as possible. The new bus frequency reliability check lets you know, when AMD Zen frequencies are not to be taken for granted.
To get reliable frequencies derived from the bus, we ultimately need a solution from AMD.
What is the Super PI Sloppy Wazaa tweak?
The name is derived from the well-known Copy Waza tweak. You need to move files with specific file sizes between hard drives to reduce the usage of System Cache in Windows. This clears reserved memory blocks by the OS and helps to speed up allocations on the heap and fits more reads and writes into the File System Cache. At least that's our best bet to understand the additional gains of this tweak.
It turns out that our RAMDisk AWE tweak's performance is also susceptible to problematic System Cache states. After a few runs and reboots, 32M results started to deteriorate. More research revealed a problem with the memory layout being prefilled by the OS to improve daily performance. And yet again, Copy Waza helped to mitigate the problem.
To avoid having to implement strange copy patterns no one every fully understood, we found a new way that has an even better impact. As this is a big shortcut to the original Copy Wazaa, we are simply calling it "Sloppy Wazaa". By enabling this tweak the Wazaa will be invoked on the launch of the Super PI process. If you feel that runs are getting slower, just close Super PI and reopen it again.
GPUPI is warning me at start-up that an unsafe timer is configured. How can I fix this?
Installing BenchMate 0.10.8 or higher will automatically fix this problem by advertizing a higher QPC frequency so BenchMate thinks HPET is enabled. Internally it's just another scaling factor.
For older versions of BenchMate you can fix this warning by setting the timer for GPUPI manually in BenchMate. Right-click the affected GPUPI version in the BenchMate client's launchpad, go to "Options/Tweaks", "Timer Emulation" and select "Driver". GPUPI will now use HPET by default.
This warning should only happen with GPUPI 2.3.4 or yet untested hardware, because the automatic Timer Emulation of BenchMate can only work for GPUPI 3+ due to technical reasons.
Why am I getting the error message "ACPI PM Timer could not be initialized" on launch?
If you are on X58 or any other legacy platform, search for a BIOS option to enable ACPI 2.0.
Why are Windows apps like the CINEBENCH versions from the Microsoft Store not working?
Windows apps run in a sandbox with special security restrictions and can therefore not be guarded by BenchMate. Use the bundled versions of CINEBENCH from BenchMate's installer.
We do not recommend to run Windows app versions of benchmarks in general, because the sandbox can have an impact on performance.
Why is BenchMate telling me that the client or sensor service was not ready?
You can open a benchmark application immediately after the client is shown, but you can't start a benchmark run before the client (and sensor service) was successfully initialized. That's when the big icon in the client turns from gray to yellow.
The reason you need to wait is that we are initializing HWiNFO in the client which can take a while before it is ready. Without HWiNFO we can't measure your sensors and without the sensors we can't validate your run. So please be patient, launch the benchmark but wait for the big yellow icon before you actually start the run. We are looking for ways to improve this in upcoming versions.
Why is BenchMate saying "No result available" when I press F6 although I have a result on screen?
The hotkey F6 allows you to save the last result that was produced. If you are starting other applications after the result was captured, they will get internally selected as the last benchmark that is active. They don't have a result to save, so that's why the error pops up.
We are working to improve the handling for the hotkey to always select the right result. As a workaround please select the result to save manually in the client.
Why is BenchMate saying that GPU-Z is not a supported application?
This happens when you downloaded GPU-Z manually and you are trying to add it using the "+" button in the client. The GPU-Z executable has its version in its executable name (for example: GPU-Z.2.36.0.exe) and is therefore not recognized. Rename it to "GPU-Z.exe" and it will work.
As the latest GPU-Z is bundled with BenchMate it's best to just install or add it with BenchMate's installer.
Is BenchMate allowing the presence of an enabled Hyper-V hypervisor?
Yes. Starting with BenchMate 0.10.7.1 it is allowed to have Hyper-V enabled and running. Scores made within a Hyper-V virtual machine will be flagged as invalid though.
Why is BenchMate not running within a Virtual machine?
Virtual machines, or to be precise the underlying hypervisor, can mock calls to CPU registers which may influence the hardware detection and timer skew measurements. To preserve our high standard of validation we therefore disallow the use of virtualized environments.
The only exception is currently the presence of an enabled Hyper-V hypervisor, which is necessary to run WSL or other development-specific virtualization.
How can I enable SeLockMemoryPrivilege for Super PI's RAMDisk LP and RAMDisk AWE?
There are other ways to enable SeLockMemoryPrivilege, for example:
We might automate this in the future to make this easier for you. ❤️
How can I add the group policy editor (gpedit.msc) to my OS?
If you have a Windows Home edition or stripped your OS of the group policy editor, you can download it using the following commands in command window using admin privileges:
FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientTools-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F")
FOR %F IN ("%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy-ClientExtensions-Package~*.mum") DO (DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"%F")
Why are you not supporting Geekbench anymore?
The developer of Geekbench doesn't want his benchmarks integrated and threatened with legal action. We will continue to look into the situation and are open to resolve the dispute at any time. Our vision is to support all benchmarks of interest with our common validation standard.
BenchMate 0.9.3 is the last known version to run Geekbench 3, 4 and 5. We do not provide a download for this version nor do we offer support. Old BenchMate versions can only be installed and used in parallel with BenchMate 0.10.6 or higher.
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