Toshiba KIRAbook High Resolution Ultrabook

Name: Toshiba KIRAbook High Resolution Ultrabook
Brand: Toshiba

by Joshua Gulick — Thursday, June 27, 2013, 11:45 AM EDT

Next, we fired up some benchmarks by Futuremark. The company, which is based just outside of Helsinki, Finland, started publishing benchmarks in 1998. Since then, Futuremark has developed benchmarks for testing standard PCs and mobile devices and continues to update its flagship 3DMark gaming benchmark suite (a test we run on the next page) and PCMark.

Futuremark PCMark 7

Simulated Application Performance

Futuremark’s PCMark 7 benchmark includes a suite of tests designed to measure the way your computer would perform during typical tasks. It includes an Entertainment Suite, which offers gaming scenarios and tests its media playback capabilities. The benchmark also has a Creativity Suite, in which the system processes images and video. Other tools include the Computation Suite and the Storage Suite.

With a score of 5179, the KIRAbook took the lead among similar systems we've tested. PCMark offers scores for individual sections of the test, so we checked them out: The KIRAbook scored 2841 in the Productivity segment, 3456 in the Entertainment segment, and 10031 in the Creativity portion of the test.

Futuremark PCMark 8

Simulated Application Performance

Futuremark recently launched PCMark 8, which has several separate benchmarks. The Home test measures a system's ability to handle basic tasks: video chatting, web browsing, photo editing, an similar day-to-day activities. The test is designed to be run on just about any Windows 7 or 8 computer. The Creative test offers some of the same types of tasks, but puts more stress on the system and is meant for mid-range and higher-end PCs. The Work test simulates the workflow of a typical office user. And the Storage test - you guessed it - benchmark's your computer's data storage performance.

Because PCMark 8 is so new, the KIRAbook is the first system to undergo this benchmark in our labs. As a result, we can't speak to the scores, but we'll compare the KIRAbook to other systems as we benchmark them. Next up, Futuremark's 3DMark tests.

Tags: Toshiba, Ivy Bridge, Ultrabook, KIRAbook, (NASDAQ: TOSBF) Core i7

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine. A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.