CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0 brings retro benchmarking to systems from Windows 95 to Windows 11

Crystal Dew World has released a major update to its retro Windows benchmarking tool. The updated CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0 was made available today, as freeware, and the major change here is that its scope has been extended to cover Windows 95/98/Me systems. Previously, it wasn’t quite so retro, as compatibility only reached as far back as Windows XP. As a bonus, the official benchmark score comparison site crystalmarkdb.com/retro is also now public and fully operational.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

According to the software release notes the development of the key features which make CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0 such an important release began a year ago. Version 1.0.0 was released on this day in 2024, but a user comment on the release seems to have been taken as a direct challenge. A user wrote “You’ve got to be kidding, supporting XP or later, you’ve got to support Windows 98!” And since that time, the developers have been busy on a significant update.

“I decided that Windows 95/NT 4.0 compatibility was necessary to call ourselves a true retro benchmark,” wrote Hiyohiyo, the President and CEO of CrystalMark Inc., in the release notes. “It really took a whole year.”

Hiyohiyo also took the opportunity to thank users, testers, and fellow developers for support in getting CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0 to support Windows systems all the way back to the Win95 era. Hurdles such as IE4 dependency elimination, i386 support, and Windows NT 3.51 support (with a separate patch) were overcome on the way.

Benchmark nostalgia, even on Windows 11

It would have been rude to report on CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0 and not give it a spin, so above you can see my result, top. My overall score looks pretty good for a laptop when compared against some of the entrants on the online comparator. However, more pleasing was the selection of 2D and 3D benchmarks taking over the screen, reminding me of benchmarking programs of old like GEMBench on the Atari ST, or Speedometer 3.X on the classic Mac OS. However, the 3D CPUs flying around the screen in CrystalMark Retro 2.0.0 were a bit more impressive.

More and more folks are interested in acquiring, building or maintaining retro PCs, if my YouTube video stream is a measure of popularity. So, it is good that this updated benchmark can cover Windows 95/98/Me - Windows NT 3.51* /4.0 /2000/XP /Vista /7 /8 /10 /11 - Windows 2003 /2008 /2012 /2016 /2019 /2022 /2025 Server (*Patch needed for NT3.51).