Futuremark lays an egg.

[Pixelsmack]

L A M E

Wow, Futuremark has lost their way. They expect me to PAY for that? That first demo looks especially like crap. If I want to see how my box does with action environments like interiors and jungles, I'll run Crysis. Which hauls ass.

The first demo looks so bad and ran like crap. The second while looking a little better still was unreasonably slow.

At least with the old 3DMark demos, if the demo ran slow, you could SEE why. The demos were sexy as hell. Now I am staring at this crappy looking demo that looks like my old Geforce3 should be able to get 60fps with it but it's not. It's a slide show!

Then I see all the embedded ads for new hardware and it starts to all make sense. What a joke.

I'll stick with Performance Test for reliable numbers. 3DMark use to at least offer eye candy, now it offers nothing.

[Shocky]

I agree, the graphics are poor and there are less tests, from toms results I don't think there anymore relevent then 3dmark06 results and they want people to pay to run it more then once, it's a big joke.

[SH64]

Agreed. 3DMark took a huge step back with Vantage

[bacon12]

They lost me when they applied for copyright to the word 'pwn' or "pwnage"

These synthetic benchmarks are useless imho. Having a good score doesn't equate into real world performance.

[Shocky]

Originally Posted by bacon12

They lost me when they applied for copyright to the word 'pwn' or "pwnage"

These synthetic benchmarks are useless imho. Having a good score doesn't equate into real world performance.

Yep, the only good thing it really had going for it was the pretty tests but vantage isnt visually impressive at all, the first test looks bland and the second one is just, meh.

[CaptNKILL]

Completely agree.

3dMark 2001 was amazing back then. 3dMark 2003 was pretty cool... 2005 was decent... 2006 was bloated (lots of effects pasted on to make things run like crap without really improving visual quality)... and now "Vantage" is even worse, AND you have to pay to use it more than once.

Before 2005 I would have said Futuremark was one of the few companies that could successfully make use of our graphics technology, but anymore it seems like they're just using gimmicks to make people buy more hardware from their sponsors.

I mean, the program actually uses Physx acceleration now...

How convenient now that the technology is owned by billionaire nvidia...

[ViN86]

lol just dont buy it guys.

cmon now, youre all pretty computer savvy and you know that the higher your 3dmark score is, the bigger your ePen0s is and that's about it

[CaptNKILL]

Originally Posted by ViN86

lol just dont buy it guys.

cmon now, youre all pretty computer savvy and you know that the higher your 3dmark score is, the bigger your ePen0s is and that's about it

Yeah but it in the past it was actually interesting. Its just turned into a big hardware advertisement over the past 5 years, and now they're even charging for the basic version.

I never really cared much about 3dMark scores, I just liked the visuals.

[ViN86]

Originally Posted by CaptNKILL

Yeah but it in the past it was actually interesting. Its just turned into a big hardware advertisement over the past 5 years, and now they're even charging for the basic version.

I never really cared much about 3dMark scores, I just liked the visuals.

that's a very good point.

it was initially about stressing your hardware and actually benchmarking. in the end though, if youre system is fast enough for you, then who cares about a benchmark.

i mean, i dont need 3dmark to tell me that my E8400/8800GT system will beat my X2-3800/7800GTX system heh

[MaXThReAT]

Unfortunately it's too late for many of us. After playing with this thing most of day I'm inclined to agree with the OP.
For me, the purpose of running 3DMark is not so much to get a good score but to impress others and myself with the spectacular visuals and new effects...in the demo...with sound. I don't know how many countless times I've run the demos from 05 and 06. I think the last actual benchmark I ran was over a year ago. It took allot of waiting and upgrading to be able to view the demos at high settings. All thrills are lost for me with the lack of a demo with sound or any mini game, not to mention 1 of the 2 GPU test is total ass..yes lots of stuff going on and maybe if knew everything that was going on in the background it might be imprezive but I’ve seen water and I’ve seen cloth physics. Don't even get me started on the ad banner within the benchmark making them money with every tick and I would like to simply see my score without having to upload and connect to them everytime.
With 06 there was a good reason to buy, it unlocked allot of extra stuff. With this one I think they know they're going under and need to sell allot of keys cheap. Why spend time making something good when most people are paying less than seven bucks.

[CaptNKILL]

Yeah I don't see futuremark's gaming benchmarks being around too much longer. Professional PC benchmarking isn't exactly a huge market, and regardless of how little their newer stuff impresses me, its expensive to make.

I give them one more release (2009 revision) before they stop making 3dmark.

[turdhat]

Funny that this used to be a celebrated occasion and now is like.... Meh.....

The irony is that they release a new product like they have all this clout by allowing ONLY ONE RUN and based on that alone it seems most dont even care to go through the trouble of downloading it. And it doesnt look all that great...

How to alienate your customer base and ruin your product credibility 101.