diff --git a/scripts/benchmark-cpu.pl b/scripts/benchmark-cpu.pl
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..275ceb2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/benchmark-cpu.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+#
+# benchmark-cpu.pl: benchmark CPU optimisations of mpg123
+#
+# written by Nicholas J Humfrey <njh@aelius.com>, placed in the public domain
+#
+
+use strict;
+use Time::HiRes qw/time/;
+
+my $MPG123_CMD = '../src/mpg123';
+my $TEST_FILE = $ARGV[0];
+
+die "Please specify a test MP3 file to decode" if (scalar(@ARGV) < 1);
+die "mpg123 command does not exist" unless (-e $MPG123_CMD);
+die "mpg123 command is not executable" unless (-x $MPG123_CMD);
+die "test MP3 file does not exist" unless (-e $TEST_FILE);
+
+
+# Force unbuffed output on STDOUT
+$|=1;
+
+# Check the CPUs available
+my $cpulist = `$MPG123_CMD --list-cpu`;
+chomp( $cpulist );
+die "Failed to get list of available CPU optimisations" unless ($cpulist =~ /^CPU options: /);
+
+my @cpus = split( / /, substr( $cpulist, 13 ) );
+printf("Found %d CPU optimisations to test...\n\n", scalar(@cpus) );
+
+foreach my $cpu (@cpus) {
+	print "Checking speed of $cpu optimisation: ";
+	
+	my $start_time = time();
+	system( $MPG123_CMD, '-q', '--cpu', $cpu, '-t', $TEST_FILE );
+	my $end_time = time();
+	
+	printf("%4.4f seconds\n", $end_time - $start_time );
+	
+}
+
+print "\n";
+