Inspect
Test result trends
Test Result Trends plots every result stored on this machine as a time series. One benchmark score is a snapshot. A line through a year of them shows drift, sudden regressions, and whether that change you made actually helped.
The section requires Novabench Plus. Results come from the local result database. The chart includes anything you ran on this machine, whether or not it synced to an account.
Choosing what to chart
Test type switches between two families:
Test type | Metrics |
|---|---|
Performance | Overall score, CPU score, GPU score, RAM score, Disk score |
Network | Download (Mbps), Upload (Mbps), Latency (ms) |
Metric picks the series within that family, and Date Range sets the window: Past Day, Past Week, Past Month, Past Year, or All.
Charting a component score rather than the overall score is usually the faster path to an answer. The overall Novabench Score blends four subsystems, so a serious storage regression can hide behind a normal-looking total.
Click any point on the chart to open that result in full.
Reading the trend
Benchmark scores have natural run-to-run variance. Background activity, thermal state, and power source all move the number by a few percent when nothing is wrong. What you look for is structure.
A step change. Scores at one level, then a different level, with a clean break. Something changed on a specific date: a driver update, a firmware update, a new security agent, a power policy change. Cross-reference drivers by Modified date and installed software by Install Date around that break.
A gradual slope. Slow decline over months usually means thermal degradation or storage filling and aging. Check sensor history for rising temperatures at equal load, and the SMART fields in the system inventory for a falling life-remaining figure.
Scatter with no trend. Wide spread with no direction means the test conditions were inconsistent rather than the machine. Results taken on battery, with the lid closed, or while something heavy ran in the background do not compare to each other.
Comparable results
Network results
Network trends behave differently from benchmark trends because you measure a path rather than a machine. Latency and throughput move with the time of day, the server chosen, and everything between you and it.
Read a network trend alongside the network filter list in the system inventory. A new VPN client, security agent, or content filter can appear in the path. That is a common explanation for a sudden latency floor that no hardware change accounts for.
Trends across a fleet
This section covers one machine. To chart the same trends across many devices, see regression testing and change detection in Novabench for Work. They give automatic verdicts rather than charts you read yourself.