Dumb question (3dmark)

I would just like to know what these 3dmark scores are that Im seeing all over on these forums.

 

It's a score measured by a program called "3dmark" which is usually defined as "3dmark05" or "3dmark06" (06 scores usually being lower) it's sorta a universal scale to compare video cards, and gaming capabilities of different makes of computers.

 

is the only thing that affects the score your graphics card? Or is it more than that.

 

Its basically a synthetic (not a real game) benchmark that shows how capable a certain machine is of playing games. The higher the score, the better your system is for playing games.

Everything can affect it, but its mainly the GPU.

 

3DMark is a series of synthetic graphic benchmark programs from the company Futuremark. Link to Futuremark's products. The latest 3DMark is 3DMark06. It's main use is to benchmark video cards and gaming systems to get an indication of how well a system will perform for games.

Every 3DMark has a free version available that have limited functionality, this includes the default benchmark that gives you a score that you can then compare with other people and Futuremark's database, ORB.

The scores from different 3DMark's (i.e. 3DMark06, 3DMark05, 3DMark03, etc.) are not comparable.

The CPU and ram will also affect the score, but it's mainly the video card for the most recent versions. With the older 3DMark's like 3DMark01, the CPU can make a big difference in the scores since the newer graphics cards are no longer the bottleneck.

 

also not to be confused with futermarks' PCmark program, that can test your whole PC.

 

thanks everyone.

 

no problem