In this paper, a method for the performance assessment of a variable-gain control design for optical storage drives is proposed. The variable-gain strategy is used to overcome well-known linear control design trade-offs between low-frequency tracking properties and high-frequency noise sensitivity. A convergence-based control design is proposed that guarantees stability of the closed-loop system and a unique bounded steady-state response for any bounded disturbance. These favourable properties, guaranteed by virtue of convergence, allow for a unique performance evaluation of the control system. Moreover, technical conditions for convergence are derived for the variable-gain controlled system and a quantitative performance measure, taking into account both low-frequency tracking properties and high-frequency measurement noise sensitivity, is proposed. The convergence conditions together with the performance measure jointly constitute a design tool for tuning the parameters of the variable-gain controller. The resulting design is shown to outperform linear control designs. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.