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3DMark 03 Professional Edition
3DMark 05 Business Edition
3DMark 06 Business Edition
The latest in the 3DMark benchmark series built by Futuremark Corporation (formerly known as MadOnion.com). More than 5 million benchmark results have been submitted to Futuremarks Online ResultBrowser database. It has become a point of great prestige to be the holder of the highest 3DMark score. A compelling, easy-to-use interface has made 3DMark very popular among game enthusiasts. Futuremarks latest benchmark, 3DMark03, continues this tradition by providing a Microsoft DirectX 9 benchmark.
The introduction of DirectX 9 and new hardware shader technologies puts a lot of power in the hands of game developers. Increasingly realistic 3D games will be available over the next year and a half. The use of 3D graphics will become more accessible to other applications areas and even operating systems. In this new environment, 3DMark03 will serve as a tool for benchmarking 3D graphics.
This benchmark is not based on any game. Please remember this, never buy a graphics card based solely on the 3DMark score. I'm not bashing the 3D Mark suite here, it's good software but definitely not the sole basis for you to make an informed decision on to buy a graphics card, especially after what happened in 2003.
Let's have a look at 3DMark 03 and 05 scores. Default is again the standard 1024x768 reference test run from FutureMark with all options set to default.
Very respectable performance for all cards. 3DMark is designed in a way that excludes the CPU in the score calculation and tries to focus purely on DX9 graphics card performance. The higher the score the better the card performs. Let's have a look at 3DMark06 though.
Score - Overall end results
SM 2.0 - Overall Shader model 2.0 demo score
SM 3.0 - Overall Shader Model 3.0 demo score
Of course we could not forget about 3dMark06, what a lovely update that is eh? The new HDR functions, dynamic soft shadows, refractions & reflections... I think it's a great tool. The X1900 XTX takes a marginal lead.
