LMbench vs SiSoftware Sandra

LMbench is a free, self-hosted benchmark suite for measuring system performance, with a focus on data movement and its cost. Its workload areas include memory, disks, file systems, networks, pipes, virtual memory, processor operations, cache, and TLB behavior. Latency measurements report time and CPU cycles per operation; bandwidth results include megabytes per second and CPU cycles per megabyte. Other benchmarks cover null process execution time, context switching, network transfers, socket operations, and large-transfer throughput. The command line can run benchmarks, and `make see` compares results with system results included in the repository. Documentation names UNIX/POSIX, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, SunOS, AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, OSF/1, and partial Windows NT support. Linux and Windows are listed as platforms. LMbench is GPL-2.0 licensed and costs nothing. Its documentation warns that other system activity, especially CPU cache and cycle effects, can affect measurements, and recommends multiple runs with output comparison.

SiSoftware Sandra is a remote analysis, benchmarking, and diagnostic utility for PCs, servers, mobile devices, and networks. It runs on Windows and Android and covers CPU, memory, cache, graphics and GPGPU, storage, networking and internet, cryptography, and software virtual machines. Information modules include TPM cryptoprocessors, biometric devices, virtual machines, storage spaces, and SQL Server databases. Benchmarks cover TPM cryptography, DNS, internet connections, and Java and .NET virtual machines. For GPU and APU workloads, the release lists OpenCL, CUDA, DirectX Compute Shader, OpenGL Compute, and Vulkan support. Sandra also has a comparison database. Sandra Lite is free for personal and educational use; other uses are treated as evaluation software. Listed paid editions are Personal Edition at 74.99 USD once, Business Edition at 199.99 USD once, Tech Support Edition at 299.99 USD once, and Enterprise Edition at 2295.00 USD once. The maker is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and was founded in 1995.