As promised last week, Futuremark has now released the newest version of its popular 3DMark benchmarking software, which is designed to work with PCs that have Windows Vista, Windows 7, and for the first time Windows 8. Futuremark is calling this new version simply "3DMark" this time.
The software contains three demos that you can run on your PC. Fire Strike is designed for high end PCs with DirectX 11-based graphics, while Cloud Gate supports mainstream DirectX 10-based hardware; Ice Storm is made for entry level DirectX 9-based PCs.
You can download a free version of 3DMark which will allow you to run all three demos and compare the results with other PCs online. There"s also a Advanced Edition of 3DMark that has a price of $24.99. It will allow users to run each benchmark demo individually, as well as a special "Extreme" version of the Fire Strike demo. It also offers interactive graphics, the ability to save your results for offline use and more.
Finally, there"s the 3DMark Professional Edition which sells for a whopping $995. It has an image quality tool, command line automation, an option to review the results private offline and a way to export the results as XML.
MSI and Galaxy are offering a free version of 3DMark Advanced Edition with the sale of certain products. Steam also is selling the 3DMark Advanced Edition for the first week for 25 percent off. Finally, people who already own the 3DMark 11 Advanced Edition can get the new 3DMark Advanced Edition for 25 percent off. Versions of 3DMark for Windows RT, Android and iOS devices are planned for release in the future.
Source: Futuremark