You can now benchmark a Windows 95 PC with CrystalMark Retro

CrystalMark Retro 2.0, from Crystal Dew World, is a free benchmarking tool that has just been updated to support Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me systems. It took a year of development to extend the tool to cover retro hardware older than Windows XP.

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"I decided that Windows 95/NT 4.0 compatibility was necessary to call ourselves a true retro benchmark," Hiyohiyo, the President and CEO of CrystalMark Inc., wrote in the release notes. "It really took a whole year." In addition to supporting ancient beige machines rocking Windows 95, users can post their benchmark results and compare them against modern machines at https://crystalmarkdb.com/retro.

CrystalMark Retro is a complete benchmark suite that measures CPU, storage, 2D graphics, and 3D graphics (OpenGL) performance. It's compatible with VMware, so you can see how Windows 95 runs on a system with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995X 64-Core CPU - per the screenshot above.

It is impressive that a single benchmark tool supports every version of Windows, from 95 to XP, Vista, Server, NT, and Windows 11, and it is a testament to the developer's programming skills. CrystalMark Retro 1.0 was released in 2024 and was generally well received. However, after receiving feedback from users wanting to see Windows 98 support, "Windows 95/NT 4.0 compatibility" development began.

"I was able to overcome obstacles that I could never have overcome on my own, such as IE4 dependency elimination, i386 support, and Windows NT 3.51 support (requiring the application of a patch created by Roy Tam)," Hiyohiyo adds. "I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who willingly cooperated in the testing in the retro environment. I would like to thank koinec for further brushing up the OpenGL benchmarks and keinkosuge for developing CrystalMarkDB."