3DMark 2003 Commentary

Here’s a few snippets from around the web on FutureMark’s new benchmarking software:

Hot Hardware
3DMark03 combines custom artwork with a custom rendering engine that creates a set of demo scenes that, while pretty, have very little to do with actual games. It is much better termed a demo than a benchmark. The examples included in this report illustrate that 3DMark03 does not represent games, can never be used as a stand-in for games, and should not be used as a gamers’ benchmark.”

The statement above is a direct quote taken from NVIDIA’s report on 3DMark2003. This is not a “new” argument, however. We here at HotHardware get statements similar to this one sent to us after virtually every video card review we write. There were, are and always will be a group of people that put very little stock in synthetic benchmarks. Throughout the report, NVIDIA makes a case against all the “game” modules that comprise 3DMark2003…

nV News
On the eve of the 3DMark03 launch, I was in a conference call with NVIDIA’s Public Relations Director Brian Burke and Mark Daly, Director of Technical Marketing. I met Mark at NVIDIA headquarters a couple of years ago while attending the pre-launch of the GeForce3. There’s no question that Mark’s credentials in 3D graphics technology are impeccable as he was responsible for demonstrating the features of NVIDIA’s leading-edge graphics hardware by developing interactive technical demos.

Now that you’ve had a chance to read the various 3DMark03 reviews, you probably noticed references to NVIDIA, which on the surface appear to totally discredit 3DMark03. Let me assure you that this was not the impression I had based on my conference call. Mark brought up key points that NVIDIA has questioned in regards to the game tests and the methods that were used to program specific graphics effects.

Tom’s Hardware
Aside from the question of whether manufacturer X or Y is now put at a disadvantage, whether or not the new 3D Mark is really meaningful should be a point of discussion. It surprises to remember that while the argument of being non-realistic was also valid for earlier versions of 3D Mark, although not to this extent, NVIDIA’s marketing machine used to promote this benchmark quite strongly. There’s the nagging suspicion that NVIDIA was afraid that GeForce FX wouldn’t be able to stand up against the Radeon 9700 PRO in 3DMark03. An initial test with the GeForce FX “Launch Driver” (v42.63) confirms this suspicion immediately. Yesterday, however, NVIDIA made its new driver (v42.68) available, and here, the results look completely different

Beyond3D
Well, we’ve had a release of a new DirectX API late last year, with the introduction of DirectX9, and we’ve had DirectX9 capable hardware much before that in the form of the Radeon 9500/9700 and the upcoming GeForce FX series, isn’t it about time we saw a new version of everyone’s favourite 3D benchmark? Well, as if on cue, Futuremark Corporation (formerly MadOnion) have released 3DMark2003 and Beyond3D has been given the opportunity to test the software early