BenchmarkXPRT Blog banner

Keep them coming

At the beginning of June we mailed out the HDXPRT 2012 beta to the members of the Development community. This has been an exciting week, as the feedback has started coming in. We want to thank everyone who’s been using the benchmark.

We really appreciate the results you’ve been sending. Obviously, we can’t test every possible configuration in our lab, and it’s very reassuring to see good results coming from configurations we haven’t tried.

Of course it is a beta, and there are still wrinkles to iron out. The error logs we’ve been getting may not be gratifying, but they are enormously helpful. The more problems we see now, the better we can make the release version of HDXPRT 2012.

One of our members asked about the terms of use for HDXPRT 2012. For the final version, the terms will be the same as for HDXPRT 2011—it is free for download and you are free to publish results.  The beta, however, is only available to community members. You cannot publish the results from the beta because things could still change. (If you haven’t joined the community yet, click this link <a href=”http://hdxprt.com/includes/join_us_2.php”>Register for HDXPRT</a>)

If you have questions, please do send them. We’ll get you an answer, and post the answers on the forum.

The comment period ends June 29th, so there’s still a week left. Please send compliments, complaints, results, errors—anything you think would make for a better benchmark. We take every comment seriously, and appreciate them more than we can say.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

HDXPRT 2012 and Windows 8 follow-up

We’re hoping you will help us test the HDXPRT 2012 beta on your latest systems under Windows 8.

As Bill discussed a couple weeks ago, the beta of HDXPRT 2012 has some problems with Windows 8 and consequently will not install. However, with the latest version of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, some of the issues seem to be better. Using some command-line options, you can get around the installation restrictions. That is what we have been doing in our lab. The complete details of how to install and run the beta on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview are in this forum post (login required).

(Don’t worry, we hate hidden options as well, and there should not be any in the shipping version!)

Please let us know what you find out on your systems, either in the forum or via email. We have encountered some crashes in apps and we’d like to know what you find. We provide some instructions for running individual workloads in case you need to work around such an issue. We are also interested in hearing if you see any performance differences between Windows 7 and Windows 8 that don’t make sense to you. While the Consumer Preview license does not allow the publishing of performance results, we still need to start the process of understanding what is going on with Windows 8.

Thank you so much for your efforts to make HDXPRT 2012 as good as possible!

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Software updating when everything uses software

Software updating when everything uses software

The latest beta of Windows 8 Release Preview is out and we are scrambling to see what works with it and what doesn’t. After many years in the software industry, I’ve come to expect that. Now, however, pretty much everything goes through many cycles of software updates. The results can be annoying. Or worse.

Two weeks ago, I took my Nissan LEAF in for its 6-month check-up. While there, the dealer did a software update. I’ve had no real problems with it and, in general, I love the car . However, after the update, the LCD display on my console is different. It now displays the time in the upper right. Unfortunately, that time is different from the one that displays beneath the windshield. I guess I need to read some manuals. Annoying.

This week, the Garmin Edge 500 bicycle computer I use had an available update and I updated it. Everything seemed to go fine on my 36-mile bike ride a couple days later. When I went to upload the ride to the Garmin Connect Web site, it told me I need to update my Edge 500 (to the same version) and claimed there were no new rides on the device. After some frustration, I managed to get it all working without losing the data from my ride. Very annoying.

It seems like I’m constantly updating my iPhone, my Xbox 360, my TV, my iPad, Windows on my PC, Mac OS on my Mac, and, of course, applications everywhere. Usually, the updates work fine. But, when the glitches happen, I am tempted to never update anything again. Very annoying, indeed.

In the meantime, it’s back to working on updating HDXPRT 2012!

Bill

Comment on this post in the forums

HDXPRT 2012 and Windows 8 follow-up

HDXPRT 2012 and Windows 8 follow-up

As I discussed a couple weeks ago, the beta of HDXPRT 2012 has some problems with Windows 8 and consequently will not install. However, with the latest version of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, some of the issues seem to be better. Using some command-line options, you can get around the installation restrictions. That is what we have been doing in our lab. (Don’t worry, we hate hidden options as well, and there should not be any in the shipping version!) We’re hoping you can help us test the HDXPRT 2012 beta on your latest systems under Windows 8.

The complete details of how to install and run the beta on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview are in this forum post. (login required) Please let us know what you find out on your systems, either in the forum or via email. We have encountered some crashes in apps and we’d like to know what you find. We provide some instructions for running individual workloads in case you need to work around such an issue. We are also interested in hearing if you see any performance differences between Windows 7 and Windows 8 that don’t make sense to you. While the Consumer Preview license does not allow the publishing of performance results, we still need to start the process of understanding what is going on with Windows 8.

As always, thanks for your efforts to make HDXPRT 2012 as good as possible!

Bill

Comment on this post in the forums

Now it’s your turn

We mailed the DVDs for the HDXPRT 2012 this week. Kudos to the development and test teams. Thanks to all of the community members who confirmed their addresses. You should receive the DVDs soon. Now the fun begins.

The comment period for the beta goes through June 29. Your feedback is essential. Please install the benchmark, run it, and let us know what you think. If you have questions, we’ll answer them as quickly as possible. If you find a problem, we want to fix it. If there’s something you don’t like, we want to know. If there’s something you do like, we’d like to know that too.

If you don’t receive your DVDs next week, please contact us and we’ll make sure you get your copy ASAP. Unfortunately, the HDXPRT 2012 beta is not available for download. As we explained in an earlier blog post, the benchmark is approximately 10 GB.

Remember, the end of the comment period is June 29. Please help us make HDXPRT 2012 the best possible benchmark.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

HDXPRT 2012 and Windows 8

One of our community members asked whether HDXPRT 2012 would support Windows 8. It certainly is one of our goals. The current beta does not work with Windows 8, however. Problems with a couple of the applications themselves prevent the current version from installing on Windows 8.

We will continue to test beta versions of HDXPRT 2012 with beta versions of Windows 8 over the coming weeks. There is rumored to be a newer beta of Windows 8 out next week and we are hoping to be able to resolve the issues in a later beta or at least by the shipping version.

Regardless, there will be multiple versions of Windows 8 before it releases later this year. We plan to release HDXPRT 2012 this summer. We assume there will be some glitches. So, we expect that we will have to release an update to HDXPRT 2012 once Windows 8 is closer to its final version.

Also, once there is a version of Windows 8 that allows publishing performance results, we plan to look at what performance differences there are between Windows 7 and Windows 8.

A quick update on the beta—we are in the process of making the DVDs and will send them out next week. We sent emails to all the community members to confirm their correct shipping addresses. If you received that email, please respond. If you haven’t received that email, please let us know. We want to make sure the DVDs actually get to you!

Bill

Comment on this post in the forums

Check out the other XPRTs:

Forgot your password?