Brecht

I was wondering if there are ideas out there on how to develop a benchmark test to be used on whichever machine. 

The idea is to design some sort of test which gives some usefull info on the capabilities of the machine. Thing is I'll be using, in this case, quicksilver macs each with a Ati 9800pro 256Mb videocard inside. I want to know what the machines are capable of so I will not be hastled with trying stuff out and having to spend too much time downgrading/optimising the patch untill it runs smoothly. 

Of course designing such a thing sounds like a lot of work for, which might be equal to the time spent on optimization and adjusting the visual design accordingly, but I think in the end when a good benchmark test for this is made, it can be very usefull to use on other machines, e.g. going to the computer shop and asking to run the patch on some computers in order to find out which machine is sufficient for a certain application.

It's a common problem which partially solves itselves through experience, but it might be handy for people who don't have access to a wide range of machines to try stuff on or people searching a suitable machine for a certain application without just 'buying the fastest thing out there'.

I was wondering if there are ideas out there on how to develop a benchmark test to be used on whichever machine. 
The idea is to design some sort of test which gives some usefull info on the capabilities of the machine. Thing is I'll be using, in this case, quicksilver macs each with a Ati 9800pro 256Mb videocard inside. I want to know what the machines are capable of so I will not be hastled with trying stuff out and having to spend too much time downgrading/optimising the patch untill it runs smoothly. 
Of course designing such a thing sounds like a lot of work for, which might be equal to the time spent on optimization and adjusting the visual design accordingly, but I think in the end when a good benchmark test for this is made, it can be very usefull to use on other machines, e.g. going to the computer shop and asking to run the patch on some computers in order to find out which machine is sufficient for a certain application. 

It's a common problem which partially solves itselves through experience, but it might be handy for people who don't have access to a wide range of machines to try stuff on or people searching a suitable machine for a certain application without just 'buying the fastest thing out there'. 

designing a benchmark test