3DMark is now available for download on the Futuremark download website, as we stated in our post earlier the basic version is free due to the support of MSI and Galaxy with in-bench Advertisement. For people wishing to get the full version and access custom settings and see their scores offline you can by it online on the futuremark website or Steam.
For the launch Futuremark is offering 25%Off the regular price to people on steam, already having a 3DMark11 key or for free if you buy a particiapting product of MSI or Galaxy :
SPECIAL LAUNCH OFFERS
Save 25% in the Futuremark store
People who own 3DMark 11 Advanced Edition can get a 25% discount when they buy 3DMark Advanced Edition from the Futuremark store.http://www.futuremark.com/
Save 25% with Steam
3DMark is also available on Steam. For the first week only, you can save 25% when you buy 3DMark Advanced Edition from Steam.
http://store.steampowered.com/
Get 3DMark free with MSI
Look for specially marked MSI brand motherboards and video cards from MSI in stores and get 3DMark Advanced Edition free.
http://www.futuremark.com/msi-
Get 3DMark free with Galaxy
Look for specially marked Galaxy brand components in stores and get 3DMark Advanced Edition free.
http://www.futuremark.com/
The different version availables are as follow :
3DMark Basic Edition – FREE
– Includes all three tests: Ice Storm, Cloud Gate and Fire Strike.
– Test everything from tablets to gaming PCs.
– Easy to use, no technical know-how needed.
– Free online account to manage your results.
3DMark Advanced Edition – $24.99
– Run each test individually for faster benchmarking.
– Unlock the Fire Strike Extreme preset for extreme hardware.
– Explore your PC’s performance limits with custom settings.
– Use benchmark looping for stability testing and burning in.
– Get in-depth insights with interactive performance graphs.
– Automatically save your results offline.
3DMark Professional Edition -$995.00
– Licensed for business and commercial use.
– Command line automation.
– Image Quality Tool.
– Private offline results option.
– Export results as XML.
Enjoy your Bench ! And Keep Pushing It !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzPQtG-E0N4
Original Post (December 4th) :
Original title : Futuremark tease with 3DMark for all your devices
Futuremark unveiled today a new trailer of their upcoming benchmark : 3DMark… Erm that’s a name like the others ?
Indeed, Futuremark seems to have named their next benchmarking suite 3DMark. You might recall our news about 3DMark for Windows 8 back in June after Computex, seems that the bad sales of Windows 8 and the very wide jungle in the computing environment have made Futuremark step in a global reach for their next benchmark.
What is the deal with the upcoming 3DMark ?
We pretty much all have a smartphone, and a computer or at least a laptop, this is true and whether or not you agree with the Post-PC era concept, this is what we have today : A huge mess of lot of computing unit from small that fits in our pocket to the huge one we love or dream to bench.
Futuremark had previously a mobile benchmark but they sold this mobile benchmark business to a spin-off called RightWare, and was left in the game with only strong benchmarks for PCs. For a few month now there was rumors, show-off, talks and proof that Futuremark was developing 3DMark for Android, and then most probably for iOS too. Now, we are sure, that it will be on all our beloved terminals… except Unix-based Operating Systems (that is racism against Penguin for sure !)…
While you can’t really compare a proper gaming / overclocking setup with a smartphone how will you be able to differentiate the benches ?
Futuremark introduce three 3DMark‘s sub-names : Fire Strike for the overclockers and gamers using the so-called high-performance gaming PCs, Cloud Gate is for regular users using notebook or regular computer and finally the Ice Storm that will be for all your Mobile devices running Android, iOS, Windows RT (windows for ARM processors) and Windows. (Ed. Note : there is no mention of any Windows Phone X here… error or just totally not worth developing something for it ?)
Fire Strike : Overclockers & gamers
Fire Strike includes two graphics tests, a physics test and a combined test that stresses both the CPU and GPU at the same time. Fire Strike uses uses a DirectX 11 engine and is designed for testing DirectX 11 compatible hardware.
This is the so-called 3DMark DirectX 11 tech demo that was released last June. We now know more, it is aimed to test DirectX 11 hardware and that will be the one overclocker will use to compete.
As it is Direct X 11, that means, the benchamrks is Windows vista/7/8 only and will run on DX11 capable GPU.
This is a preview of the 3min+ length demo :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiFXAooGtgU
There are no words yet about the point systems, will we be able to choose different resolution in Fire Strike or will this be a fixed resolution to make everyone compete on the same exact benchmark ?
Cloud Gate : Your Mom’s computer
Cloud Gate includes two graphics tests and a physics test. Cloud Gate uses a DirectX 11 engine limited to Direct3D feature level 10 making it suitable for testing DirectX 10 compatible hardware.
While I personally found the name funny as our daily computer are (or will be) soon no more than interface to our Cloud based computing… This part of the benchmark will be more for regular PCs and notebooks, like the one at works or for you daily use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jBj4VwhVY&hd=1
It will be able to run on hardware supporting DirectX 10 and 11, you can learn more about the Direct3D feature level on Microsoft MSDN site. This also mean, the benchmark will be Windows only..
From this point we see that 3DMark is not a unified benchmarks, but we should be able to compare PCs, between them with Cloud Gate and latest hardware with Fire Strike, let’s go to the Post-PC area.
Ice Storm : Compare bananas, apples, peaches & watermelons
With Ice Storm, Futuremark is back in the Mobile benchmarking game with support for Android, iOS, Windows RT and Windows.
Ice Storm is a new test designed specifically for mobile devices and entry-level hardware. It includes two graphics tests focusing on GPU performance and a physics test designed to measure CPU performance. On Windows, Ice Storm uses a DirectX 11 engine limited to Direct3D feature level 9. On Android and iOS, Ice Storm uses OpenGL ES 2.0. The test content, settings and rendering resolution are the same on all platforms and scores can be compared across Windows, Windows RT, Android and iOS.
The interesting part is that it will be streamlined between all our toys, from our smartphone to the HTPC in the living room and finally the gaming rig in our room. While there is no relevance in testing you gaming rig on the entry-level benchmark it will be funny to compare your Galaxy S III to your SLI System… (this is to have fun remember ?)
The benchmark is DirectX 11 capable but the feature level 9 implies it will be limited to only the very basic sets of features, allowing it to run on pretty much all PCs that are available today… and running Windows or Windows RT. For the true mobile part, as Android and iOS doesn’t rely on Microsoft’s DirectX, the benchmark will run on OpenGL ES 2.0 that is the open standard for mobile devices to run 3D enabled games of applications. OpenGL ES 3.0 is already out but only since August 2012, that is the reason why it is not used by the benchmark yet.
All the scores run on Ice Storm will be comparable, despite not using the same rendering technique, it will definitely step up the game between android tablets and android handsets, while on iOS that will probably be quite limited given the access to overclock the phone or the ability to tweak the system.
There should be more video soon about Ice Storm and Cloud Gate and Futuremark promise to release the benchmark before the end of 2012… Hey guys! Hurry up it’s already december :D ! ()
More about :
Direct3D feature Level : Wikipedia – MSDN D3D Feature level concept – MSDN D3D Specs Table of features level
Direct3D vs OpenGL : Wikipedia
OpenGL : Reference on Khronos.org – Wikipedia
Updates :
December 15th 2012 : Futuremark have announced that the benchmark will be released in January 2013 instead of the ‘before christmas’ time, as there is a Major IT show early January (CES in Las Vegas) we can expect the benchmark to be out in mid January.
December 17th 2012 – 11:49am (Montreal Time) : Added the Cloud Gate video trailer.
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