diff --git a/core/BENCHMARK.md b/core/BENCHMARK.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..edad29b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/BENCHMARK.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# Performance benchmark
+
+rustboyadvance-core crate provides a simple yet effective performance benchmark.
+
+to run it use `cargo bench --manifest-path ./core/Cargo.toml --features no_video_interface` from the repository root
+
diff --git a/core/Cargo.toml b/core/Cargo.toml
index f0f667f..ebaebba 100644
--- a/core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/core/Cargo.toml
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ bit = "^0.1"
 [dev-dependencies]
 criterion = "0.3"
 
+[[bench]]
+name = "performance"
+harness = false
+
 [features]
 default = ["arm7tdmi_dispatch_table"]
 elf_support = ["goblin"]
diff --git a/core/benches/performance.rs b/core/benches/performance.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23bb29b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/benches/performance.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/// Measure first 60 frames bigmap.gba from tonc demos
+///
+use criterion::{black_box, criterion_group, criterion_main, BatchSize, Criterion};
+
+use std::cell::RefCell;
+use std::rc::Rc;
+
+use rustboyadvance_core::prelude::*;
+
+struct BenchmarkHardware {}
+impl AudioInterface for BenchmarkHardware {}
+impl InputInterface for BenchmarkHardware {}
+
+fn create_gba() -> GameBoyAdvance {
+    // TODO: do I really want this file in my repository ?
+    let bios = include_bytes!("roms/normatt_gba_bios.bin");
+    let bigmap_rom = include_bytes!("roms/bigmap.gba");
+
+    let gpak = GamepakBuilder::new()
+        .take_buffer(bigmap_rom.to_vec().into_boxed_slice())
+        .with_sram()
+        .without_backup_to_file()
+        .build()
+        .unwrap();
+
+    let dummy = Rc::new(RefCell::new(BenchmarkHardware {}));
+
+    let mut gba = GameBoyAdvance::new(
+        bios.to_vec().into_boxed_slice(),
+        gpak,
+        dummy.clone(),
+        dummy.clone(),
+    );
+    gba.skip_bios();
+    // skip initialization of the ROM to get to a stabilized scene
+    for _ in 0..60 {
+        gba.frame();
+    }
+    gba
+}
+
+pub fn performance_benchmark(c: &mut Criterion) {
+    c.bench_function("run_60_frames", |b| {
+        b.iter_batched(
+            // setup
+            || create_gba(),
+            // bencher
+            |mut gba| {
+                for _ in 0..60 {
+                    black_box(gba.frame())
+                }
+            },
+            BatchSize::SmallInput,
+        )
+    });
+}
+
+criterion_group! {
+    name = benches;
+    config = Criterion::default().sample_size(10);
+    targets = performance_benchmark
+}
+criterion_main!(benches);
diff --git a/core/benches/roms/README.md b/core/benches/roms/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e830618
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/benches/roms/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Files
+
+* bigmap.gba - This is a test rom from TONC, more test roms can be obtained from https://www.coranac.com/files/tonc-bin.zip
+* normatt_gba_bios.bin - An open source GBA bios rom that can obtained from https://github.com/Nebuleon/ReGBA/raw/master/bios/gba_bios.bin
diff --git a/core/benches/roms/bigmap.gba b/core/benches/roms/bigmap.gba
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a72111f
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diff --git a/core/benches/roms/normatt_gba_bios.bin b/core/benches/roms/normatt_gba_bios.bin
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..802982e
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