Want to know the specification of a computer? You could look at the manufacturer’s web site, but you’ll probably find that there is a limit to the level of detail that is provided. Similarly, if you want to know how fast your machine is, there is little point relying on figures quoted by the manufacturer, you want to know how it performs in the scenarios you are using it in. AIDA64 is one of the most advanced benchmarking and diagnostic tools available and the release of version 2.60 sees the addition of support for Windows 8 as well as the latest hardware.

Benchmarks are a great way to see how one system compares to another and it also provides a means of checking exactly what difference, if any, tweaks and hardware upgrades make to the performance of your computer. There is support for a massive range of hardware, so whether you are using an aging machine, or something more cutting edge, you should be able to find out everything you need to know.

AIDA64

The latest update adds support for not only for the RTM version of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 but also additional hardware – after all, hardware is the focus of the application. Benchmarks optimized for VIA Nano X2 and QuadCore processors have been added, including the VIA VX11 platform. AMD A-Series Trinity APUs are now also supported meaning that there are specific benchmarks for this hardware as well as all of the detailed specifications you could ever need.

The August update to the software means that the program is now able to provide GPGPU information for Direct3D Compute Shader, AMD Stream, nVIDIA CUDA, and OpenCL devices, now with APP SDK 2.7, CUDA 5.0 and OpenCL 1.2 updates. Various other hardware models have been added to the list of supported devices, and there have also been fixes to RAID member enumeration and RAID SMART support for Intel RAID controllers.

You can find out more and download a free trial of the program by paying a visit to the AIDA64 review page.