Mechanical screen is the key component of the downhole sand control equipment and its type and comprehensive characteristics determines the sand retention effect, well productivity and service life. Cretaceous reservoir of Chunguang oil field is typical sandstone formation and faces serve sanding problem during production. In order to select proper screen type for Chunguang oilfield, the concepts of screen conductivity, sand retention ability and the corresponding evaluation index are put forward to describe screen comprehensive sand control characteristic. Using the self-developed experimental installation, with the formation sand and production parameters similar to the reservoir, a series of screen performance evaluation experiments were performed to four types screen samples of slotted linear screen, wire-wrapped screen, compound mesh screen and metal cotton screen. And then, from the test data, the performance index are calculated to compare the comprehensive characteristics of the screens. The results indicates that, for Cretaceous reservoir in Chunguang oil field, slotted linear screen presents poor sand retention and flow ability. The wire-wrapped screen show the same performance as slotted linear screen except that the flow ability is a little better. Metal cotton has high sand retention ability but its fluid conductivity is very poor due to fines plugging. Generally, compound mesh screen show high and well-balanced sand block ability and conductivity, and this type of screen is recommenced as the optimum sand control screen for Chunguang oil field.