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Test Results Calculation

What the Results Mean
WorldBench takes the time information from 13 different application tests and calculates a composite WorldBench score used to compare PC system performance. WorldBench uses a normalized, weighted harmonic mean to calculate its final WorldBench score. Every system that completes a WorldBench application successfully will receive a WorldBench score. Our baseline system is assigned a WorldBench score of 100, and all other systems are compared to this single unit. In any comparison, the system with the larger WorldBench score also has faster system performance.

See also index topic "Results View Dialog Box."
What is a harmonic mean?

A harmonic mean is a way of comparing time data as a frequency of completion rather than using total time. Normalized harmonic means are useful when you want to compare applications that have different workloads and completion times associated with them. Normalizing brings the applications into scale with each one another so we can produce a mean according to our defined weightings.
Why not use a geometric mean?

We considered using a geometric mean for our composite method. However, PC World wants to allow systems to fail one or more applications on WorldBench because several applications are very system-intensive and low-end systems may be incapable of finishing them. The logical conclusion if you get a null result for any application using a geometric mean is a zero overall score, which is unacceptable as a method of comparison for PC World.

Generating a WorldBench Score?
When you perform a Full Run of WorldBench it will by default run three passes of every application. At the end of a successful run, WorldBench calculates if any of the passes were failures or outliers (results that likely contained some system hang-up). If any runs are deemed unacceptable, WorldBench will run additional passes of all the inconsistent applications. At the end of all the runs, a WorldBench score is calculated based on the three most consistent results from each set of runs. This score will have "WB Score" and brackets containing additional information in the System ID field of the Results View.

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