14 DAY TRIAL // Just days ahead of NVIDIA's imminent release of the highly-anticipated Fermi-based GeForce GTX 480 and 470 graphics cards, UNIGINE has announced the release of the new Heaven 2.0 benchmark. The new benchmark is designed to support the latest DirectX 11 graphics cards and enable computer enthusiasts to put their latest cards through a series of tests that will ultimately determine how fast a certain card is when running DirectX 11 graphics.
For those enthusiasts and hardware testers out there, the name of UNIGINE's Heaven Benchmark is well-known, due to the fact that it was the first benchmark to provide support for DirectX 11 graphics. The introduction of the new 2.0 version adds a couple of new features, while also promising to deliver a heavier tessellation load. Tessellation is the feature that enables game developers to create more vivid characters, environment and a more true-to life gaming experience.
According to the release notes of the new version, the Heaven 2.0 benchmark will provide the following: Support of DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11 and OpenGL Comprehensive use of tessellation technology Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion) Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm Dynamic sky with light scattering Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes Benchmark mode
The company also notes that, although a series of cards can support the new benchmark (starting from the ATI Radeon HD 2xxx series and higher, to NVIDIA's GeForce 7xxx series and higher), only DirectX 11-ready cards will be able to run the tessellation benchmark. The developer added a couple of videos of the new benchmark as well to provide users with a better view of the changes in the new version.
You can download the new benchmark, following this link, but be sure to check-out this quick preview of the available features.