3dmark?

Zardon

You know the drill, vote!

MIG-31

my vote: Waste of time, I dont need benchies ! they are only numbers at the end of testing...

my preference is what you see on screen and are pleased with the results in gameplay,then im happy at that.

bug77

Useful, from time to time

I usually run them after changing the video driver, just to check that I didn't break anything, or smth. And I used 03's sound test yesterday to check the fps impact. I'm currently debating if it's worth to switch from SoundStorm to a SoundBlaster Live! 1024...
So yes, you can find some use to them.

jasonbourne

i voted for i only benchmarks with games cuz they're much more precise.

pr0digal jenius

I bench with FRAPS in games.

I only use 3dmark to go "ha, look what I can do" simply because everyone else uses it.

bananaman

i mostly use 3dMark to show my girlfriend pretty GFX

:/

nana

Sandok

Useful from time to time... I've fixed a few probs thx to 3dmark03

daedal

Not much use. Tried it a few times, takes too long to complete.
I much prefer benching with games.

Sargentwhitey

Useful from time to time, I get in that mood for benchmarking everyonce in a while and go download 'em again. Either that or testing a new video card But I usually just use the Unreal benchmark in 2003.

The_Neon_Cowboy

Actually their not their the most inaccurate, unfair, comparison tool available...


Only time you can trust game benchmarks is if their all the same bench being run. On the exact same system. To compare the same brand of card. Other wise you into duce variables which make it not anywhere as trustworthy as synthetics. Wich run the exact same on each card an setup...

their great if your wanted what you hardware, software, driver change has made on your system. But as a buying and comparison tool for graphics cards games just don't hold up. Especially when you look at it from the angle of drivers highly optimized for a game and games highly optimized for any given brand of card. With 0 policing! Least with 3dmark there some one to look for benchmark specific optimizations.


Games them self’s commonly run differently on different cards thus can’t be fairly compared. Unless your comparing the exact same flavor of card to it self. 9600XT to 9600XT, X800 to X800, 6X00 to 6X00…

Thats my 2 bits...

CDsDontBurn

I'm a 3Dmark benchmarking junkie . I love to push my system to it's limits and then some .

Ubergrendle

I think that's why they're useful ... they're the lowest common denominator, something everyone can use consistently and in the same way. They're not an end objective, just a measurement tool.

swimtech

Games matter the most, but it is difficult to obtain precise repeatable results. In the end, the picking order of how all the cards stack up under 3DMark are, with one or two flip-flops, the same as they bench in games, so I said they are useful from time to time - especially when shopping for a new card sight unseen as one tool for comparison.

I like HardOCP's method of testing them in games at their "best" settings as another tool. You can see game differences in detail. I, of course, use DH's benchies as still another tool - the simple methodology makes them very repeatable and believable (but a home user would be hard put to spend the time wiping and loading the machine without ruining their application setups and so forth...). Plus, the graphs are so cooool...

HawgsHead

I like to "push it" also.But then I get all pissed off cause I cant push it a little farther.I'm tring like mad to get to 10,000 with my SLI system with 3DMARK05.Almost obsessed with it.....Not good.I think I'm gonna have to water cool the GFX cards before that will happen.

Shadow Lady

they help me sometimes, but generally benchmarking (even if it from games) is so unreliable, just when testing driver chnages is... useless, some games have performance gain, some have performance loss, and if i had to benchmark only with games would be unfair as some games gain some others dont, its impossible to determine just by those numbers, however i use them sometimes, also games for benchmark i use.

anyway after that nonsense, 3dmark games helpme sometimes

Judas

imo, only good comparing system spec to system spec... being same.... to see if there is any apparent problems...

Asmoday

I voted "Useful from time to time"
But i rarely use them anymore, i use them mainly to see if my new overclock rendered any more performance... And to check for artifacts when overclocking the videocard....

teh_moleman

I usually run these benchmarks only when I change drivers to see if there are any problems. Helped me once when I went from 5000 pts down to 1000 after a driver change. Back then I didn't have any graphics intensive games, so I didn't notice anything different in those, but 3dMark proved there was something wrong.

Still, I'm not sure if keeping a couple of gigs of benchmarks for that kind of limited usage is worth it.

Oh, and voted useful from time to time

e v o

like going both ways with games and 3dmark that is, so "time to time" it was

No_Style

I use them for stress testing purposes...

It's best to use a synthetic benchmark like 3DMark which can be run the same time over and over again to stress a system in between various driver changes. Like Shadow Lady said some games become broken and introduce artifacts which are not necessarily triggered by a system which has been stressed beyond its limits.

itchy5

use them to push my 6800 :P

GeneralClaymore

i dont use 3dmark to see if i can play a game. i play the game it self, as numbers mean nothing and they cant tell u if u can play a game or not. it only usefull when u testing out ur system overclock thats it.

>GSXR<mrbusa

after each driver install or bios hack for my card i use 3dmark03 build 360.i dont care about the rest,2001 is outdated and 2005 is like watching a slideshow on my card.

ExitiosuS

I agree completely.

Danhill

They are useful from time to time.

I like checking the drivers from time to time and that my score keeps in the same range.

Sonata

They are probably a waste of time, but they do have their uses. How else to get an idea how your system compares to other peoples? Or in the case below my own!
Funny I should see this post I only just bench marked my system the other day, I was curious to see how my newish AMD64 1.8GHz with A8V Deluxe and Powercolor 9800Pro compared to my old Intel 3.0GHz with P4P800 Deluxe and same video card. It turns out that the AMD does do a little better than the Intel system in these benches.

Also the benches seem pretty close to real world system performance with the AMD feeling a bit snappier


3D 01SE 18761, 3D 03 6738, 3D 05 2472

TJ-

couldnt have said it better