Thursday May 24, 2012 10:57 PM AEST

Futuremark's next-gen 3DMark 11 benchmark announced!

Futuremark's next-gen 3DMark 11 benchmark announced!
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Video: 3DMark 11's newest features are shown off.

We've known and loved Futuremark's benchmarks around here at Atomic - they're some of the best pieces of programming for testing hardware and comparing between two different pieces of kit.

While we've had 3DMark Vantage for some time now, DirectX11 has been out for a significant period and there's plenty of supporting tech out there.

Knowing this the industrial lads at Futuremark locked themselves in a room for days on end, finally coming up with the latest and greatest version of 3DMark - called 3DMark 11.

 

 

There are plenty of new features in the benchmark that are shown off in the 'Deep Sea' video below, but we'll summarise them in point form for easy digestion:

3DMark11: It's a custom engine based solely on DX11.

Tessellation: It can be seen on the rocks, seafloor, coral, pipes and structures in the video. Dynamically scales detail to increase model geometry, especially for curved surfaces.

Depth of Field: A focusing effect that simulates a cinematographic camera, highlighting focus on specific characters or objects. Seen throughout the whole video.

Volumetric Lighting: A technique that gives light the appearance of travelling through a medium such as fog or water. It can be seen on the sub's lamps, using a technique called 'deferred rendering'.

DirectCompute: A GPGPU library that forms part of DX11, allowing post processing effects that are more efficient on highly parallel GPU cores. Seen in lens flares, streaks and bloom.

Multi-Threading: As the name suggests, this is the use of multiple threads and therefore cores, giving processors a higher workload. Extensive use throughout all of 3DMark 11.

MSI's Logo: It features on the sub in a similar way to the jetboat in 3DMark Vantage; allowing the development and hosting costs of a free version of the benchmark to be developed.

Check out the video below:

It's certainly an exciting look at 3DMark 11, which is set to release in Q3 this year. A demonstration will be shown at MSI's stand at Computex next week, where we'll hopefully get a chance to get some more information on what will surely be one of our next full-time benchmarks. And man... where do we get that music?!

If the video still isn't enough, check out four screenshots of the benchmark in our handy-dandy gallery of pics.

 
 
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8 Comments
osama_bin_athlon
May 25, 2010 11:54 AM
yeh, we heard:
http://forums.atomicmpc.com.au/index.php?showtopic=31788
:D
SceptreCore
May 25, 2010 12:08 PM
As soon as I saw that picture, I was reminded of that movie The Abyss.

And where/when can we get the free version Justin?
nukejockey
May 25, 2010 12:23 PM
"It's certainly an exciting look at 3DMark 11, which is set to release in Q3 this year"

Futuremark site sometime in the next few momths I'd say sceptre.
nukejockey
May 25, 2010 12:23 PM
months* Damn, wish we could edit comments :P

Also, for a little bit more content, it actually doesn't look too bad. Vantage always looked terrible to me, used to love 3DM06 tho'.
bozo01
May 25, 2010 1:23 PM
Wonder which benchmark program will come out first, this or Crysis 2? Yes, I implied Crysis 2 wasn't a game, but running it at high settings, it's not like your going to be able to play it. :P
sirtrancealot
May 25, 2010 3:32 PM
so any word on if this is PhysX'd like vantage?
would love to see how the new nvidia cards bench against the ATI ones in a pure bench where the proprietary physics engines don't mess with the scores.
TheFrunj
May 25, 2010 5:06 PM
sirtrancealot, I haven't seen mention of PhysX anywhere - which I'm taking (for now) to mean that we won't be seeing it.

I'm guessing that DirectCompute (which is vendor agnostic) replaces it.
Athlonite
May 30, 2010 4:51 AM
@ the TheFrunj i heard they were looking into doing physX via OpenCL or a combo of openCL and direct compute depending on what they get working the best.... Personally i think it's time that nVidiots pussX just died and we all go OpenCL
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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 137 | June, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.
 
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