Thanks to DiGRem for the heads up in BPN.
Benchmark software company Futuremark has dropped its allegation that graphics card maker Nvidia cheated, ending the dispute between the two firms.
"Futuremark now states that Nvidia"s driver design is an application-specific optimisation and not a cheat," said Futuremark in a statement.
In the mean time, new ZDNet lab tests show that the scores of Nvidia"s latest hardware dropped by between 14 and 22 percent using Futuremark"s updated testing software, although at higher image-quality settings the Nvidia chip still matches the performance of ATI"s latest Radeon. The update of Futuremark"s 3DMark03 eliminates the effects of Nvidia"s optimisations.
Nvidia and Futuremark issued a carefully-worded fence-mending joint statement on Tuesday. Explaining why it decided to drop its allegation that Nvidia was fudging results, Futuremark said its normal practice was to frown on optimised code, but said it may change this practice.