Used in columns of Clubic – and by the way – 3DMark is a “young man” in great shape. Just think, he’s only 25 years old!
On October 26, 1998, a company called MadOnion launched software that didn’t look like much. Software responsible for evaluating the 3D performance of graphics cards, 3DMark.
At the time, 3D was just starting on our PCs. There are many cards called “3D accelerators” and certain graphics chips are starting to combine 2D and 3D functions, but this is not yet a revolution.
A scene inspired by WipeOut
Consider that even a behemoth like Blizzard Entertainment does not necessarily seem to completely believe in it and its Diablo IIalthough marketed eighteen months later (in June 2000) is only in 2D “bitmap”.
MadOnion believes, however, that users will need references to evaluate the 3D performance of their graphics cards. Other tools already exist, but the idea is to offer something closer to current games and the first version of 3DMark stands out with a scene that is fiercely reminiscent of WipeOut.
A second scene this time resembles a first-person action game, an FPS in short, with a science fiction theme. 3DMark is then complemented by various tools to evaluate very specific aspects in 3D.
Modules or “DLC” today
For MadOnion, success did not take long and 3DMark quickly became one, if not THE reference for 3D measurements. The test suite returns a result that allows a simple evaluation, even if, year after year, 3DMark versions follow one another and the results are not comparable.
In 2002, the company changed its name – to FutureMark – before being purchased by UL Benchmarks in 2014 and taking the name of its owner four years later. During this time, 3DMark has evolved, but since 2013, there is no longer any question of attaching a version number to it. The “3DMark suite” evolves over the modules (DLC) that you can purchase as you wish.
Thus, in 2013, the module FireStrike has been published. In 2016, it is still very popular TimeSpy which is added before Royal Port will focus on ray tracing in 2019. Finally, SpeedWay is the latest graphics module, it was released in 2022, and at Clubic we have not yet completely adopted it.
Happy Birthday 3DMark!
Source : UL Benchmarks
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