What is a process that can be run on a computer cluster that displays the time taken?

For my science project this year I need a process that can be run on a computer cluster and that displays how long it took to process. The time needs to remain fairly constant yet be accurate enough to display variations in processing power. For example, let’s say that there is a computer with 4 GHz of processing power. if i were to repeat the same process multiple times then the time taken would be something like 2346765.4567865676 seconds the first time and 2346765.4567865681 the second time, so it would only slightly vary each time. if the processing power would change to 3.95 GHz then the time would change to 2346765.45679 so that variations in the processing power would be evident in the time taken. These are just examples and the values have nothing to do with my actual project but i need something to process with these characteristics. Please ask if clarification is needed.

Comments

[lemonie]

A common way to benchmark processing power is to get a FPS measure of a 3D graphic game.
Otherwise run an intensive job like video-conversion over a longer period of time.

L

[danielemur]

for my project i would need something very constant to measure processing power so that two tests with the same independent variable measure would yeild the same results but small changes in processing power (dependent variable) would be noticable. would video conversion work like this? if so, how long would it take and what program would you suggest?

[lemonie]

I understood that the differences would be small. If you multiply something small by something big it's more noticeable.
E.g. 1 second is 0.027% of an hour.
Do consider that the machine will be running other processes too, so you need the test to be using most of the CPU's capacity.

L

[danielemur]

One thing i would need to regulate is the number and type of processes running in the background ie i cant have one test where there are 52 processes running in the background and another where there are 3.

[lemonie]

As I've said before, people usually make the test process the most CPU intensive process so the rest are insignificant.
Here's a graphics-orientated test: http://www.3dmark.com/

L

[jkimball]

If the cluster is a unix system, use the "time" command to find out how long the job took.
http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?time

If it is not, you need to give more information about the system.