Futuremark Corporation today announced 3DMark(R)05, the world's most demanding graphics application for PCs. 3DMark05 is the fifth generation of the product line, which boasts a distribution of over 50 million copies. 3DMark05 sets the standard for accurate and objective measurement of graphics performance of DirectX 9 in running the next generation of 3D games.

3DMark05 enables objective cross-platform performance comparisons and incorporates many groundbreaking new features and technologies. The all-new engine and tests were developed within Futuremark's Benchmark Development Program whose members include: 3DLabs, AMD, ATI, Dell, Gateway, Imagination Technologies (PowerVR), Innovision, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, S3, and XGI.

3DMark05 is designed to measure the performance of a Windows-based PC in running as advanced technology of DirectX 9 graphics as possible. The next generation of games will deploy technologies and levels of workloads found in 3DMark05. Consumers, who are purchasing PC technology, can use 3DMark05 today to assess how good their investment will be with the more advanced games of 2005 and 2006. Futuremark further helps consumers with an Online ResultBrowser service which provides users with real-time comparisons and scoring from over 10 million real-world benchmark results.

3DMark05 is the world's most advanced benchmark in its class and features the latest DirectX 9.0c shader models: 2.0, 2.a, 2.b and 3.0. The all-new engine utilizes the latest DirectX 9 effects and offers never-before-seen fidelity and realism in real-time 3D graphics. With an average of over one million rendered polygons per screen, and peak levels of up to over two million polygons per screen, 3DMark05 is by far the most demanding graphics benchmark ever created.

"Alienware chose to become a 3DMark sponsor for a second time to help Futuremark continue their great work in the industry. 3DMark has set the standard by virtue of its leading-edge technology and next-generation game workloads," said Frank Azor, Senior Vice President at Alienware Worldwide Product Group. "Alienware has found 3DMark to be one of the best applications available to demonstrate the capabilities of Alienware's high-performance systems and an ideal way to reaffirm to customers the value of their purchase."

"3DMark05 stresses our hardware beyond the means of current games," said Andy Thompson, Director, Advanced Technology Marketing, ATI Technologies Inc. "By using 3DMark05 as a performance analysis tool we have already found ways to make improvements in our current and future products that will make games run even better. When 3DMark03 was introduced it gave gamers an indication of how the available graphics hardware would perform on future games and we expect the same from 3DMark05. We stand by our commitment to allow 3DMark05 tests to run unaltered by application specific optimizations so that customers can rely on the benchmark results on ATI hardware as a true indication of future game performance."

"Futuremark has once again raised the visual bar with this latest version of 3DMark," said Dan Vivoli, Executive Vice President of Marketing at NVIDIA. "With support for DirectX Shader Model 3.0 and other innovative new features, 3DMark05 is one of the most graphically advanced benchmarks in the industry."

"With 3DMark having such a big weight in the industry, we feel tremendous responsibility for the ultimate end-user of our products: PC technology consumers. I am happy to say that 3DMark05 proudly continues the tradition of the 3DMark product line by being an objective and relevant benchmark," said Tero Sarkkinen, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing at Futuremark Corporation. "3DMark05 is essential for any serious gamer because it enables gauging how `future proof' their investment in a new graphics card or a PC is."