Benchmark

[AndroidPeru]

what is this 3dmark program i always hear about it i just dont know if its good to have it or not and if i can buy it at any computer store

 

[Brent_Justice]

3DMark is made by futuremark www.futuremark.com, it is a syntehtic 3D benchmark, but does not tell you gaming performance.

 

[AndroidPeru]

what does it tell me then

 

[spin02]

3DMark05 is the newest release. It requires a load of GPU power just to run. 3DMark03 is great for mid to high range video cards.

These programs run a series of tests, stressing the video card and CPU. They are great for establishing a reference point. Then you can tweak your system and rerun the benchmark to see if you have gained performance.

They also seem to promote some competitiveness among tweakers with similar set-ups .

 

[jon67]

what does it tell me then

For ranking purposes, benchmarks do give you an indication, nothing more, of the overall gaming potential of a computer. As most 3D benchmarks averages D3D and OpenGL performance the scores may not reflect the performance of different video cards in games. Game performance may also be CPU limited, in which case 3D benchmarks will tell you nothing.

For tweaking purposes the 3DMark series is nice, much due to the online database.