14 DAY TRIAL // Futuremark's 3DMark benchmarks, even since their early days, have been important tools in the measuring of graphics-card performance capabilities, to the point where the score is the defining factor for many end-users when deciding on a purchase. However, the downside to these software tools is that, so far, Futuremark has not implemented many new technologies. For instance, 3DMarck Vantage only used a few of the DirectX 10 technologies and 3DMarck03 only employed DirectX 9.0. Now, the benchmark developer has decided to change its approach and create a benchmarking tool specifically aimed at DirectX 11.
“Over the last decade, graphics processors supporting each new version of DirectX have achieved high volume shipments earlier in their life cycles than their predecessors. Our forecast is that DirectX 11 capable GPUs will continue this trend with the fastest transition between technologies ever, resulting in shipments surpassing DirectX 10 GPUs in 2010,” Mercury Research Principal Dean McCarron said in a report late last year.
The implementation of DirectX 11 has led to a rather serious amount of AMD HD 5000-series graphics cards being sold so far, but this latest version of the technology may perform strangely compared with previous generations. NVIDIA delayed its own DirectX 11 cards by months. This means that, with the new cards’ official introduction on March 26, the graphics technology may see another episode of heavy sales. Taking into account this popularity, and the fact that DirectX 11 support and performance will be the main features considered when deciding between NVIDIA and ATI, it makes sense for Futuremark to change its strategies.
BrightSideOfNews is the one that revealed the company's plans, not long after Jukka Mäkinen, chief executive officer of Futuremark, stated in an interview with ComputerAndVideoGames that its team was “working on some seriously awesome DX11 stuff” and that “focus and investment in the latest graphics tech has benefits for the game studio too.” Expect the next 3DMark to be exclusively designed for the DirectX 11 API (application programming interface).