Software represents an important part of any Gaming PC, and nowadays we are very fortunate in this sense, as we can find a large amount of free programs that offer fantastic value and which are, in general, essential to get the most out of our new equipment, and also to check that everything is working as it should.
In my case, there are five freeware programs that have become my favorites and that I have found to be very useful.I always install them after setting up a gaming PC. These programs allow me to monitor temperatures, check that all key components are present and properly recognized, and also help me to monitor and assess the performance of the computer, as well as determine the stability of the computer.
Today I want to share with you those five free programs so that you too can enjoy them. In this article I am going to tell you how they work, what they can do for you and where you can download them safely.. It is important to note that some of these programs may have a paid version with more advanced features, but even in these cases the free version is very interesting and offers excellent value.
As always, if you have any questions after reading the article, you can leave them in the comments. Keep in mind, however, that all the free programs we are going to look at have been tested on Windows 10 and Windows 11 based PCs.. Without further ado, let’s get started.
1.-CPU-Z: one of the best free programs for its lightness and functions.
Of all the free programs that exist to monitor the processor this is undoubtedly my favorite, and for three reasons. The first is that it is very light and has a minimal impact on the equipment, the second is that it allows us to monitor the status of other components, such as RAM, and the third is that it includes a simple performance test that we can use to compare, in a few seconds, the performance of our processor with that of other models both new and old. In my case, it is a Ryzen 7 5800X.
Thanks to CPU-Z we can see the model and the exact revision of the CPU we have.The instructions that it supports and all its key specifications. We will also be able to see other important data of the equipment, such as the type of RAM memory that we have installed, if we have activated the dual-channelthe speed at which it works and its latencies. In other tabs we can also see information about the motherboard and the graphics card.
To measure the performance of our processor we will only have to go to the tab “Bench” and click on “Bench CPU”.. This test will perform a single and multithreaded performance measurement that will allow us to get a rough idea of the performance offered by our processor, and we can compare it with other models listed by default.
How to get CPU-Z for free: we just have to enter this link and click on the “Dowload Now!” option. Once downloaded we proceed to install it. The whole process will take only a few seconds.
2.-GPU-Z: essential to see all the keys of your graphics card.
The truth is that we can consider it as a version of CPU-Z designed for GPUs (graphics cores). GPU-Z maintains almost everything that made its “sister” for processors great, which means that it offers us a exhaustive listing of all key specifications. of our graphics card or integrated GPU, including important technical data such as GPU revision, number of shaders, amount of memory, supported technologies and installed drivers.
In other tabs we can visualize information obtained from the sensors of the equipmentThis information ranges from operating frequencies to core and graphics memory temperatures, as well as fan speeds, power consumption and voltage of both the graphics card and the connectors we are using. If you look at the attached image you will see that, in my case, three additional 8-pin power connectors are listed, which are the ones I have connected to the NVIDIA 16-pin adapter that goes to the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.
The list of information provided by this program is so huge and so complete that it makes it totally worthwhile, and on top of that its impact on the system is minimal, since it weighs very little. It is updated frequently to support new graphics cards released by AMD, NVIDIA and Intel, so we can rest assured that it will always be supported.
How to get GPU-Z for free: is available from the official TechPowerUp! website. You can download it by following this link and clicking on “Download”. You can choose the UK server without any problem.
3.-HWiNFO64: all the information of your PC in a single program.
Of all the free programs we have seen so far, this is undoubtedly the most recommended if we want to make a complete monitoring of the state of the computer in general.including minimum, average and maximum resource consumption as well as temperature values, voltages and operating temperatures at any given time.
In the attached image you can see, for example, that HWiNFO64 shows the consumption values of virtual memory and physical memory, and also the CPU status, the current frequency and its minimum and maximum values, as well as the workload, the occupied cores and the minimum, maximum and current working temperatures. We can also see the RAM frequency and latencies.
If we scroll down the sidebar of this program we will find much more information related to the main components of the computer, such as the CPU voltage, power consumption, frequency of the FCLK (Infinity Fabric system clock frequency) and also about the motherboard VRM system, graphics card temperatures and even about the status of the SSD drives and their lifetime.. Impressive, no doubt.
How to get HWiNFO64 for free: is available through the official website, where we can download it with a simple click on “HWiNFO Installer”. Despite all the information it offers, it is very simple to use, and has a small impact on the computer.
4.-3DMark: ideal for measuring the performance of your new computer.
The 3DMark suite includes a large number of performance testsand yes, it has a paid version that is much more comprehensive than the free version, but the latter offers excellent value and is more than enough to give us a pretty good idea of the potential of our new PC for Gaming.
One of the star tests included is 3DMark Time Spy Benchmark, which allows us to. measure the performance of a PC under DirectX 12.which is ready to take advantage of very important features such as asynchronous computing and multithreaded execution. Another very interesting test is 3DMark CPU Profilewhich will help us to measure the performance of our CPU in different scenarios: 1 thread, 2 threads, 4 threads, 8 threads, 16 threads and maximum number of threads.
Other specific tests included in this suite, and worth taking into account, are. 3DMark Mesh Shader, which measures performance with meshed shaders, and 3DMark API Overheadwhich measures performance under DirectX 12 using “draw calls”, one of the most important new features introduced by DirectX 12 at launch.
How can I get 3DMark for free: it is best to do it through Steam, since we have grouped a complete selection of free and paid tests. We can easily differentiate them and get only those that interest us, without having to spend a penny.
5.-CrystalDiskMark: test the performance of your SSD with a click.
One of the most important shortcomings that the free version of 3DMark has is that it does not have a performance test focused on the storage unit, something that we can solve without problems with CrystalDiskMark, all a benchmark for its lightness, ease of use and accuracy.It allows us to obtain a wide variety of values that will help us to better understand what our SSD can give us.
With CrystalDiskMark we can measure the performance of any storage unitwhether SSD or HDD, and also from external storage devices, such as pen drives, memory cards and SSD and HDD drives connected via USB. To perform a performance test we only need to choose the drive we want to usethe size of the test and the number of tests, as well as the unit we want to be reflected in the final measurement (usually MB/s, which refers to megabytes per second).
This program will not only allow us to see the performance of our storage unit, but it can also be very useful to identify problems. So, for example, if we see that the score we get is well below what we should have achieved, it may be that the disk has problems, or there is also the possibility that we have installed it incorrectly.and this is limiting its performance. So, for example, if we install a PCIe Gen4 SSD in a PCIe Gen3 slot we will be limiting its performance.
How to get CrystalDiskMark for free: we have it available through this link. Just click on “Download” and you will have it available in a few seconds, since it is a very light program. Keep in mind, however, that it is not advisable to abuse this tool, as it performs quite heavy write cycles, and this can reduce the life of the SSD drive.
