Lobisomem: No need to call names just because some people don't agree with you. This is not a crusade to convince each other, it's fine for each one of us to have their own opinion.
Ace: He answered your questions pretty well. The black death track and in-game FPS counter are good enough repeatable tests.
Custom missions are even better though, because the track playback feature is sometimes a bit bugged, not to mention that the black death benchmark track used by most is from a version several patches ago and not the best in terms of compatibility.
It's far better to have a single custom mission as a benchmark that you will fly in the exact same way each time, because it takes into account all of the patch changes up to that point. Having enabled the in-game FPS counter, getting the average and minimums at the end of the run is as good a benchmark as any for this time.
When the track playback is fixed then it will be possible to use a fixed track as a standard benchmark tool between patches, but for now it's easier and more accurate to enable the FPS counter and just reenact the scenarios that you know give you performance problems.
For example, i get 25-60 FPS depending on terrain. The only place get lower than 25 FPS is when skimming the rooftops over London at very low altitude. The only thing i need to do to test this patch is start the London sightseeing tour from the QMB, enable the FPS counter and once the mission starts drop down to the deck and see what kind of numbers it displays.
There are many repeatable tests and not everyone uses the same track/mission, especially if there are quicker ways to get your PC in a stressful situation than having to sit through the entire track.
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