Benchmarks:What are they?

[Speedy42]

Hey guys,
Pardon me for asking such a noob-ish question but what exactly are benchmarks?
I know that they are somewhat used to compare performance of different techs with each other under same circumstances but still I am unable to fully understand this concept.

Thanks in advance

[jesalvein]

basically, those are softwares that push your CPU/GPU to its limits by making them perform hard calculations.

3D mark (for instance) will display very beautiful 3D scenes, super PI will make your CPU calculate PI number.
in the end, you just compare how those pieces of software performed on different rigs.

[Tempyst]

They are programs designed to stress your CPU/GPU to its limits to see what it can handle.

[Rezard]

Basically, benchmarks are set schemes of tasks.

Measuring how fast different hardware can complete the same scheme, or measuring how much different hardware may produce in a given amount of time (i.e. FPS) are ways to compare the measured performance.

[Speedy42]

Alright.
So from the above mentioned what I understand is that:
->Benchmarks show where any rig stands.
->It also stands to reason that what they show is the difference between power of two or more rigs or set-ups.
->They show the performance of the current system in various tests depending on the program

Thanks guys.
It sure was alot of help here.