Synthetic testing is when a piece of software creates a set of defined instructions that do not differ or alter during the testing process, this is designed to provide repeatable results with very few software-oriented variables. An advantage to synthetic software testing is that the component can be reliably loaded to 100% load constantly.
Real-world testing is designed to create a ‘real-world’ representation of performance and is essentially mimicking your PC during normal usage conditions. Often real-world testing incorporates more than one component and is usually much less targeted than synthetic testing.