New Update for Sandra 16.10: Free System Information Utility Release

SiSoftware Sandra, the latest version of the award-winning utility, includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, mobile devices and networks.

At SiSoftware from version to version we focus four key areas of software development to make sure we give our users the best software experience. Quite simply our four drivers are:

1. Inclusion of new technologies that ensure our tools remain current.
2. Increased hardware and software support for existing modules.
3. Improving the user interface to make it a richer easier user experience.
4. Filling gaps in the product line in response to our customers' needs.

* New CPU benchmark: Scientific Analysis


- 3 common algorithms: GEMM (matrix multiply), FFT (fast Fourier transform), N-Body simulation
- 2 precision: single/float, double/FP64
- SSE2, SSE3, AVX, FMA support where possible
- same workload as GP scientific analysis benchmark - to directly compare CPU vs. GPGPU performance.

* New GP benchmark: Scientific Analysis


- 3 common algorithms: GEMM (matrix multiply), FFT (fast Fourier transform), N-Body simulation
- 2 precision: single/float, double/FP64
- 2 interfaces: CUDA, OpenCL (with DirectX ComputeShader to come)
- not using any vendor specific library like cuBLAS, cuFFT, MKL, etc.
- same workload as CPU scientific analysis benchmark - to directly compare CPU vs. GPGPU performance.


* Updated System benchmark: Overall Score


- Replaced GP crypto with financial analysis (now that most CPUs have crypto HWA support there is no point doing crypto on GPGPU)
- Updated weights to match modern devices (mobile, laptop, desktop and server)


* Updated CPU benchmark: Arithmetic

- New libraries for Whetstone SSE3 / SSE4.1 / AVX
- 2 precision: single/float, double/FP64
- float score is geometric mean of both float and double (was just double before)


* Updated cache/memory benchmark: latency

- measure L0 cache latency
- data and code caches


* Updated cache/memory benchmark: bandwidth

- measure L0 cache bandwidth


* Updated style for Windows 8.1 w/high-DPI (retina) resolution

Huge icons (256x256 PNG) that look good even at 200% 192 ppi or higher (e.g. latest 10" 2560x1600 pixels) or even a MacBook pro

The previous theme (Aero/Metal) is included for Windows 7 / Vista. Windows XP is supported but deprecated - i.e. next Sandra version (2015) will definitely not support it.


* Sandra 2013 SP7

All the fixes in 2014 and minor enhancements will be back-ported to 2013.SP7. So if you really need to stick with 2013, an update will be landing soon.

* More to come soon

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SANDRA will provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what's really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, ODBC Connections, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

SiSoftware Sandra, the latest version of the award-winning utility, includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, mobile devices and networks.

At SiSoftware from version to version we focus four key areas of software development to make sure we give our users the best software experience. Quite simply our four drivers are:

1. Inclusion of new technologies that ensure our tools remain current.
2. Increased hardware and software support for existing modules.
3. Improving the user interface to make it a richer easier user experience.
4. Filling gaps in the product line in response to our customers' needs.

This is a platform update release that includes tool, SDK and library updates. Overall, the benchmark scores should still be within variation range - at least on the platforms we have tested.

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Changes

Support for Windows 10 Tech Preview

• Updated to the latest tools & libraries for forthcoming Windows 10, with various minor compatibility changes and support for new APIs, technologies as well as hardware.
• Will support DirectX 12.
• Support for very-wide SIMD AVX-512 family.
• Updated resources for high-DPI (retina+) up to 200% 192ppi or higher - e.g. huge 256x256 icons.

Updated System benchmark: Overall Score 2015

• Removed .Net/Java Multi-Media (vectorised) benchmark as current JVM/CLR do not vectorise even today.
• Added CPU Scientific (GEMM, FFT, N-Body), CPU Financial (Binomial, Monte Carlo, Black-Scholes) Analysis - while GPGPUs do accelerate these complex algorithms, wide-SIMD (e.g. AVX-512F) can significantly accelerate them in large CPUs with many cores and large caches (e.g. 12C+ 24MB L3/128MB L4)
• Added GP Scientific Analysis (GEMM, FFT, N-Body) (using CUDA, OpenCL, DirectX Compute) - to match CPU Scientific
• Updated weights to match modern devices (mobile, laptop, desktop and server)

Updated Crytography CPU Benchmark

• Optimised AES HWA code-path for improved performance across hardware constrained by memory bandwidth.

Uptimised GP Benchmarks

• GP Cryptography - optimised AES code-path.
• GP Scientific - optimised N-Body path.
• GP Financial - optimised Binomial Options path.

Updated CPU Multi-Media (SIMD) Benchmark

• Combined score is now made of "combined integer (int32 and int64)" and "combined floating-point (single and double)" SIMD performance. Sandra 2014 used "int32 single-float and double-float" only.
• Combined integer averages int32 (32-bit integer) and int64 (64-bit integer) SIMD performance (SSE, SSE2, AVX, AVX2) - and thus measure also 64-bit integer performance that is extensively used today.
• int128 (quad-integer emulated) and quad-precision float-point (emulated, mantissa precision extended) is also measured but not included in the index as both are emulated at this time. Once native SIMD support is available in hardware, they will be added to the index.

Updated Memory Bandwidth Benchmark

• Now reports average (rms - root mean sqare) not maximum performance. Some scores *will* be lower depending on the hardware, usually 3-5%. You can use the "maximum value" as index if you want to match Sandra 2014 and earlier.

Updated Cache & Memory Bandwidth Benchmark

• Now reports average (rms - root mean sqare) not maximum performance. Some scores *will* be lower depending on the hardware, usually 5-20%. You can use the "maximum value" as index if you want to match Sandra 2014 and earlier.

All the fixes in 2014 and minor enhancements will be back-ported to 2014.SP4. So if you really need to stick with 2014, an update will be landing soon.

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Updated Jun 1st 2015 : SP2 released SHA HWA benchmarks, H265 support, further hardware support and fixes, software support.

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Changes

• Benchmark UI Change: Select Multi-Threading, Multi-Core, Single-Thread

While it was always possible in Sandra to disable hyper-threading (HT) to use only physical cores/modules or disable multi-core (MC) to use only sockets/packages or just 1 thread - by using Options - we decided to make it easier to use.

So now you can test either MT, MC, ST - which can be useful on processors that use Turbo/dynamic overclocking and can boost fewer threads to higher speeds.

You can also run on all APs (application processors) - but not the BSP (boot processor, aka thread 0) just in case the BSP causes AP threads to wait for it to finish and thus delay the completion of the test (even now there are some problematic systems).

Single-thread will use an AP not the BSP as generally the BSP is loaded with other tasks (e.g. interrupts).

Note Sandra uses its own scheduler - thus does not depend on Windows to schedule the threads on specific socket/core (and perhaps park the rest). NUMA is also fully supported and the right NUMA node will be selected as appropriate for the package/core the thread should run on.

• Benchmark: GP Arithmetic
• CUDA optimisations on SM5.x hardware, up to 20% improvement in single-float.
• Benchmark: GP Scientific
• Reduced CPU check time of results on CUDA - on high-end GPUs the CPU may be fully utilised for minutes.
• Benchmark: CPU Cryptography
• Optimised x86 AES HWA code path similar to x64, up to 25-50% improvement especially on AMD hardware (e.g. Kaveri). Further updates to x64 AES HWA code path, minor 2-5% improvement.
• Benchmark: CPU Scientific: FFT (SFFT/DFFT) further SIMD code-path optimisations (AVX2+FMA, FMA, AVX).

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SiSoftware Sandra 2015 Released:
Windows 10*/Server 2015 Support, New Benchmarks

Updated Jun 1st 2015 : SP2 released SHA HWA benchmarks, H265 support, further hardware support and fixes, software support.

Updated Mar 17th 2015 : SP1a released FP16 benchmarks, disk 4k/page size testing, further hardware support and fixes, software support (Windows 10) and other fixes.

Updated Feb 16th 2015 : SP1 released GPGPU benchmark optimisations and fixes, hardware support (future Skylake, Braswell, SSDs, DDR4, BitLocker), software support (Windows 10*) and other fixes.

Updated Nov 26th 2014 : 2015i released GPGPU benchmarks optimisations (SGEMM/DGEMM), future hardware support.

London, UK, November 10th 2014 - We are pleased to announce the launch of SiSoftware Sandra 2015, the latest version of our award-winning utility, which includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, mobile devices and networks.

With the public release of Windows 10 Tech Preview, we have updated Sandra to the latest tools for Windows 10 - but also supporting Windows 8.1, 8, 7 and Vista - but also Server 2015*, 2012/R2 and 2008/R2; however, Windows XP and Server 2003/R2 are no longer supported.

As SiSoftware operates a "just-in-time" release cycle, some features were introduced in Sandra 2014 service packs: in Sandra 2015 they have been updated and enhanced based on all the feedback received.

Here is an in-depth new feature list of Sandra 2015:



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Broad Operating System Support
All current OS versions supported: Windows 10*, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista; Server 2015*, 2012/R2 and 2008/R2

• Enhanced for Windows 10* / Server 2015* Desktop mode using the latest API.
• New theme for Windows 10* / 8.1 / 8 with high-DPI support (200% 192ppi) 256x256 pixels icons.
• Full support for Windows 8, 7, Vista as well as Server 2012/R2, 2008/R2.
• Updated hardware support for both current and future hardware

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Updated Device Performance Certification*
Certify the validity and quality of your benchmarks results [Commercial versions]
Device Performance Certification validates whether the benchmark result (score) you have obtained upon benchmarking your device is valid (i.e. the device you tested is performing correctly) and how it compares to the scores obtained by other users when testing the same device.

By aggregating the results submitted for each device and performing statistical analysis (e.g. computing mean/average, standard deviation, etc.) we can use statistical tools to work out whether the score is within the expected range (confidence intervals).

Based on the variability of scores you can determine whether the performance of your device is consistent or varies significantly from test to test.



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Updated Overall Score (2015) benchmark for complete system performance evaluation
14 benchmarks to fully evaluate computer performance
While each benchmark measures the performance of a specific device (CPU, Memory, (GP)GPU, Storage, etc.), there is a real need for a benchmark to evaluate the overall computer performance: this new benchmark is a weighted average of the individual scores of the existing benchmarks:

• Native CPU Arithmetic, Cryptographic, Multi-Media (SIMD), Financial and Scientific: measures native processing performance using the very latest instruction sets (AVX2, FMA, AVX, SSE2 and future AVX-512F)
• .Net/Java Arithmetic: measures software virtual machine performance (e.g. for .Net WPF/Silverlight/Modern applications)
• Memory and Cache Bandwidth and Latency: measures memory and caches performance
• File System/Storage Bandwidth and I/O: measures storage performance
• GP (General Processing) / HC (Heterogonous Compute) (GPU/APU) Arithmetic, Financial, Scientific: measures (GP)GPU/APU processing performance
• GP (General Processing) / HC (Heterogonous Compute) (GPU/APU) Memory Bandwidth and Latency: measures (GP)GPU/APU memory performance

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Brand new style for Windows 10
Windows 10* / 8.x have their own style (Modern, ex-Metro) shared with Windows Phone 8.x. Love it or hate it, it is here to stay. We have also provided Windows 7, Vista and XP* users with an updated, modern style:

• Sandra 2014 - Metro style (Windows 10*, 8.1, 8)
• Sandra 2014 - Aero/Metallic style (Windows 7, Vista)

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Price Engine: invaluable
Why? The Price engine enhances the user's experience by providing product pictures and additional specifications - as well as the the latest price. It enables the calculation of important metrics like Performance vs. Price and Capacity vs. Price (for storage media) which are extremely useful when making comparisons. All this is done automatically rather than manually searching for pricing, a great time saver.

Key features of Sandra 2015

• 6 native architectures support (x86, x64 - Windows; ARM, ARM64, MIPS, MIPS64, x86, x64 - Android)
• Huge official hardware support through technology partners (AMD/ATI, nVidia, Intel).
• 4 native (GP)GPU/APU platforms support (OpenCL, CUDA, DirectX Compute Shader, OpenGL Compute*).
• 4 native Graphics platforms support (DirectX 12, DirectX 11.x, DirectX 10.x, OpenGL 3.0+).
• 9 language versions (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (Traditional, Simplified), Russian) in a single installer.
• Enhanced Sandra Lite (Eval) version (free for personal/educational use, evaluation for other uses)

Relevant Articles

For more details, please see the following articles:

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Purchasing

For more details, and to purchase the commercial versions, please click here.

Updating or Upgrading

To update your existing commercial version, please click here.

Downloading

For more details, and to download the Lite (Eval) version, please click here.

Reviewers and Editors

For your free review copies, please contact us.


About SiSoftware

SiSoftware, founded in 1995, is one of the leading providers of computer analysis, diagnostic and benchmarking software. The flagship product, known as "SANDRA", was launched in 1997 and has become one of the most widely used products in its field. Nearly 700 worldwide IT publications, magazines and review sites use SANDRA to analyse the performance of today's computers. Over 9,000 on-line reviews of computer hardware that use SANDRA are catalogued on our website alone.

Since launch, SiSoftware has always been at the forefront of the technology arena, being among the first providers of benchmarks that show the power of emerging new technologies such as multi-core, GPGPU, OpenCL, DirectCompute, x64, ARM, MIPS, NUMA, SMT (Hyper-Threading), SMP (multi-threading), AVX3, AVX2, AVX, FMA4, FMA, NEON, SSE4.2, SSE4.1, SSSE3, SSE3, SSE2, SSE, Java and .NET.

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SiSoftware Sandra, the latest version of the award-winning utility, includes remote analysis, benchmarking and diagnostic features for PCs, servers, mobile devices and networks.

At SiSoftware from version to version we focus four key areas of software development to make sure we give our users the best software experience. Quite simply our four drivers are:

1. Inclusion of new technologies that ensure our tools remain current.
2. Increased hardware and software support for existing modules.
3. Improving the user interface to make it a richer easier user experience.
4. Filling gaps in the product line in response to our customers' needs.

This is a platform update release that includes tool, SDK and library updates. Overall, the benchmark scores should still be within variation range - at least on the platforms we have tested.

Changes

• Enhanced for Windows 10* / Server 2015* Desktop mode using the latest API.
• New theme for Windows 10* / 8.1 / 8 with high-DPI support (200% 192ppi) 256x256 pixels icons.
• Full support for Windows 8, 7, Vista as well as Server 2012/R2, 2008/R2.
• Updated hardware support for both current and future hardware

While each benchmark measures the performance of a specific device (CPU, Memory, (GP)GPU, Storage, etc.), there is a real need for a benchmark to evaluate the overall computer performance: this new benchmark is a weighted average of the individual scores of the existing benchmarks:

• Native CPU Arithmetic, Cryptographic, Multi-Media (SIMD), Financial and Scientific: measures native processing performance using the very latest instruction sets (AVX2, FMA, AVX, SSE2 and future AVX-512F)
• .Net/Java Arithmetic: measures software virtual machine performance (e.g. for .Net WPF/Silverlight/Modern applications)
• Memory and Cache Bandwidth and Latency: measures memory and caches performance
• File System/Storage Bandwidth and I/O: measures storage performance
• GP (General Processing) / HC (Heterogonous Compute) (GPU/APU) Arithmetic, Financial, Scientific: measures (GP)GPU/APU processing performance
• GP (General Processing) / HC (Heterogonous Compute) (GPU/APU) Memory Bandwidth and Latency: measures (GP)GPU/APU memory performance

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SP1 for SiSoftware Sandra Released!
24th February 2016 | Releases, Updates
We are happy to release SP1 (Service Pack 1) to SiSoftware Sandra 2016.

This release introduces initial AVX512 benchmarks with all SIMD benchmarks due to be ported once compiler support becomes available:

– CPU Multi-Media (Fractal Generation): single, double floating-point; integer, long benchmarks ported to AVX512. [See article Future performance with AVX512]

– CPU Crypto (SHA Hashing): SHA2-256 and SHA2-512 multi-buffer ported to AVX512.

– Hardware support for future arch (AMD and Intel).

– .Net Multi-Media native vector support is vector width independent and thus will support AVX512 with a future CLR release automatically

– GPU Image Processing: New, more complex filters:

• Oil Painting: Quantise (9×9) Filter: CUDA, OpenCL
• Diffusion: Randomise (256) Filter: CUDA, OpenCL

– CPU Image Processing: New, more complex filters

• Oil Painting: Quantise (9×9) Filter: AVX2/FMA, AVX, SSE2
• Diffusion: Randomise (256) Filter: AVX2/FMA, AVX, SSE2

More benchmarks will be ported to AVX512 subject to compiler support; currently Microsoft’s VC++ does not support AVX512 intrinsics and in the interest of fairness we do not use specialised compilers.

Please see our article – Future performance with AVX512 – for a primer on AVX512 and projected performance improvements due to AVX512 and 512-bit transfers.

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