Benchmarking is a huge part of what Atomic is about, so the opportunity to see what has changed in Futuremark's newest generation of 3D benchmark was too tempting for John Gillooly to pass up.
It is a moment that leads to a serious reality check. While downloading the pre-release build of 3DMark03 it dawned on me that for the past few weeks the excitement level was not being built by the impending GeForce FX or the tantilising prospect of an Athlon 64 CPU actually being released in the next six months. No, the excitement level was pumped up by the knowledge that we would finally get our first real look at the end results of DirectX 9, in the form of the most widely known benchmarking program around.
3DMark is an oddity in the world of hardware testing. While most benchmarks we deal with fall heavily on the side of arcane and esoteric, 3DMark has not only pierced the consciousness of enthusiasts, it has developed a fanbase. This is not just due to the fact that 3DMark is one of the least disputed and most reliable indicators of gaming performance.
It is also because 3DMark has become an outlet for tweakers and overclockers to strut their stuff, with the online result browser (ORB) a very different place from when the Atomic Labs managed to grab first place for a week in the aftermath of GeForce3. Nowadays the ORB is dominated by those who have a weird fascination with the combination of silicon, electricity and liquid nitrogen.
As furore rages over the inbuilt biases in SYSmark2002 and UT2003's fluctuating botmatch results 3DMark stands out as suffering constant problems with cheating but only one quickly resolved accusation of bias to its name. The company behind 3Dmark, Futuremark, recently changed its name back from the zany (and somewhat absurd) Madonion.com and has repositioned 3DMark03 as being more than just a 3D Graphics benchmark. To do this it has added a new 3D audio CPU load test and brought back the CPU test from 3DMark2000.
In order to understand just what 3DMark03 does, we need a quick trip back in time, when things where simpler, Max Payne had only been shown off at one E3 and Finnish company Remedy Entertainment released a DirectX-based benchmarking program called Final Reality. While it was a spin off of years spent in the Finish 'Demo' scene, where coders vie for the honour of being named the best generator of pointless 3D eye candy this side of id Software, Final Reality became the seed for the first 3DMark, the DirectX 6.1-focused 3DMark99. This was back when the battle lines were drawn between playable 32-bit colour and screamingly fast 16-bit colour.
The next year heralded DirectX 7 and with it came 3DMark2000, which introduced a new generation to the joys of watching a helicopter cut loops of a valley for hours on end.
Following suit, DirectX 8 was joined by 3DMark2001, and apart from a minor revision to accompany ATI's more advanced shader standards, so things have stood until now.
With the long delayed release of DirectX 9 finally behind us, 3DMark03 is now ready. Like 3DMark2001, it features a mix of tests for different levels of DirectX Compliance. In the case of 3DMark03, there is one DirectX 7 fixed hardware transform and lighting test, two DirectX 8 level shader based tests and one beast of a DirectX 9 test to round it off.
Because of the unlikelihood of any new DirectX versions being released until Microsoft's next generation Longhorn OS hits in a few years, 3DMark03 is the most forward looking version we have yet seen. Our first impressions were dominated by how easily it brought a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 with 1GB Dual Channel DDR RAM and RADEON 9700 PRO its knees, and our tip is that we won't see most of the tests running smoothly for at least a year.
If the previous version is anything to go by, you'll be seeing a lot of 3DMark03 results in Atomic, so we have grabbed the opportunity to break 3DMark03 down into its requisite parts and dissect just what each test does and how that differs from previous versions.
Wings of Fury, the only DirectX 7 test.
The tests:Wings Of FuryIf you only have access to a GeForce2 or RADEON 7500 level video card or older this is the only test you will get a chance to see. It is sad to think that the revolutionary transform and lighting loaded DirectX 7 is getting very long in the tooth, and game design is looking well beyond the meagre capabilities of fixed T&L units.
Wings Of Fury is equivalent to the Helicopter and Adventure tests in 3DMark2000 and the Car Chase and Dragothic scenes from 3DMark2001. It is aimed at bottom end gaming hardware, using only four texture layers. Eye candy comes from the extensive use of Vertex Shader 1.1, which is emulated by the CPU for older hardware and heavy use of particles to replicate the chaos of a WWII bombing raid.
Post-processing filters at work.
Battle for ProxyconLeaving everyone who lacks at least a GeForce3/RADEON 8500-level card behind we move on to the DirectX 8 tests. A remarkable number of people have commented on just how jaw droppingly gorgeous the Nature test was in 3DMark2001, and this level of graphics is mid-range for 3DMark03.
Unashamedly giving a nod to a little-known game in development called DOOM III, Proxycon is heavy on the dark and moody swinging light effects that have become popular with first person shooters in recent years. Unlike the next test, this one is designed to stress in-game performance and is heavy on the shaders.
The opening scene of the Troll's Lair test.
Trolls LairPart two of the DirectX 8 testing is one that Futuremark says is designed along the lines of a cutscene using an ingame engine. Despite sharing support for the same hardware, Trolls Lair differs from Proxicon in that it uses a few different tricks. One particular standout is the main characters hair, modelled with great complexity, animated using the vertex shaders and anisotropically lit.
The introduction of programmable shaders and the complexity that it brings means that two tests are much better than a single one for giving an indication of DirectX 8 performance. Thanks in equal parts to the Xbox and NVIDIA's big push behind Cg, DirectX 8-level hardware is being supported in games quicker than ever before, making these tests incredibly relevant to games and hardware appearing this year.
The Mother of all Nature tests.
Mother NatureIt will be a while before we see anything as subtly complex and beaut
Issue: 137 | June, 2012