Futuremark Synthetic 3D Benchmarks

These synthetic 3D benchmarks from Futuremark allow you to evaluate the expected performance of a system with different generation games. As each 3DMark uses different feature and quality settings, it allows you to get an idea of how a video card will perform in games. But be aware that since Futuremark takes DirectX guide lines to build their stress tests with all features available, performance can differ from real world games when those games don’t fully support/implement all DX features. So take these results with a grain of salt, and always compare them to our game benchmarks.



Let’s start with the most taxing 3DMark of them all, 3DMark06. Default settings are 1280x1024 resolution Anisotropic Filtering enabled, in short: all but the highest end VGA cards can run this benchmark fluently.



This benchmark makes heavy uses of Shader for graphical effects, the 8600 GT cards with their dedicated Shaders really excel here, the older 7600 GT units trail behind, overclocking the 7600 bring it almost on par with the Sparkle 8600 GT. The Calibre takes a comfy lead, and dominates the result chart.

Onto the 3DMark05 benchmark which also features a lot Shader heavy sessions, but runs at a lower resolution of 1024x768 with AA/AF and no HDR effects.



Not much changed here, same result as with 3D06. Next up is the 3DMark03 benchmark, no more heavy Shader action here, time for the 7600 GT to shine?



The 7600 GT is able to best the Sparkle 8600 GT, but the Calibre has some special sauce in the mix, because even with the Sparkle 8600 GT at 666/725 it can’t catch up with the Calibre 630/810.

Last one is the now very old 3DMark2001SE DX8.1 benchmark:



The VGA is no longer the bottle-neck for this benchmark as all scores are close to each other; the Calibre still manages to edge out over the rest.

Let’s see if the results obtained here match our game benchmarks ->