3DMark Vantage Gold pending for release on monday

3DMark Vantage Has Gone Gold, and the countdown clock is ticking. Futuremark has just announced that 3DMark Vantage is ready, and the countdown indicates that it will launch on Monday, 28th of April 2008. Downloads should be available at 16:00 EET (13:00 GMT, 09:00 EST, 06:00 PST).

The definite DirectX10 benchmark will ship in four editions:

• Trial (free)
• Basic ($6.95)
• Advanced ($19.95)
• Professional ($495)

The Professional version is intended for business and commercial use, while Basic and Advanced are limited to private use. A Free Trial key allows you to test the benchmark with a single run. Full details on the differences between the available versions will be available at launch, but to give a rough idea, Basic (6.95$) version allows you to benchmark as many times as you like with the "Performance" preset, and you get a score with all the ORB features available. Advanced ($19.95) unlocks all four presets, six additional feature tests and allows you to customize all the settings.

The final system requirements to run 3DMark Vantage Trial are:

Minimum

• x86/x64 single core CPU with SSE2 support. Performance similar to Intel Pentium D 3.2GHz or better
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 256MB
• 1024MB Memory
• 2GB of free disk space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

Recommended

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or equivalent AMD CPU
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 512MB
• 2048MB Memory
• 2GB of free disk space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

Additionally, following requirements must be met to run each of the four available presets with the Advanced and Pro versions

• Entry - 128MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1280x1024 resolution
• Performance - 256MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1280x1024 resolution
• High - 512MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1680x1050 resolution
• Extreme - 512MB DX10 Video Card and a monitor capable of displaying 1920x1200 resolution

Custom preset can be used to run the benchmark at an user-selectable resolution for individual subscores, but the 3DMark score is displayed and saved to ORB only when using one of the pre-defined presets. In other words, to get a score using the "High" and "Extreme" presets, a widescreen display is required. You probably also need a system that exceeds the recommended setup to get a reliable score at these settings - "Extreme" might be a bit too much for even the fastest systems available today.

For benchmarking older hardware and operating systems 3DMark06 is still around, and remains as the definite DX9 benchmark.