Futuremark Corporation today announced that its online database of 3DMark and PCMark benchmark results has now topped 30 million records making it the world's largest source of PC system comparison data. Futuremark benchmarks are used by millions of gamers and hardware enthusiasts from all around the world. The ORB, Futuremark's online database of benchmark results, has been collecting scores since March 2001, and currently sees a new result added every 4 seconds on average.
For ten years, 3DMark has been an important part of PC performance testing for consumers, press, OEMs and semiconductor companies allowing architects, designers, gamers and overclockers to explore the limits of hardware and software.

Tero Sarkkinen, CEO of Futuremark, said, "We're very proud to celebrate 10 years of our flagship product by reaching this milestone of 30 million results. The long lasting popularity of the 3DMark series comes from providing a useful service to gamers who wish to optimize their hardware. Instant access to over 30 million benchmark scores in the ORB database gives them unprecedented power to search and compare their gaming system to others."

More information on 3DMark can be found at www.3dmark.com
The ORB online benchmark database is at service.futuremark.com

Information for Editors: A brief history of 3DMark software
3DMark benchmarks a PC's graphical capabilities by simulating the load placed on the processor and GPU by common game requirements such as rendering realistic 3D environments with lighting and shadows as well as calculating the physical interactions between game objects.

Each version of 3DMark introduces new techniques in real time 3D, anticipating the trends of what players can expect to see in future games. In this way the scenes in 3DMark have always lead the way in showcasing advanced gaming graphics.

3DMark Vantage
The most recent version of 3DMark introduced DirectX 10 and Windows Vista bringing with it a new generation of technology. With GPU-accelerated physics, procedural volumetric effects and a highly optimized native DirectX10 engine, 3DMark Vantage is the state of the art in real-time 3D.

3DMark06
3DMark06 pioneered the large-scale application of DirectX 9 Shader Model 3, demonstrating true HDR rendering in game-like settings, advanced light post-processing effects, a million triangles on screen, and acclaimed cascaded smooth shadow map technology.

3DMark05
The first benchmark to fully support, and require, Shader Model 2 and which also used Shader Model 3 if available on the hardware.

3DMark03
The first DirectX 9 benchmark. Cutting edge real time effects included procedural textures, real- hair simulation and anisotropic lighting models as well as Havok physics and FMOD audio.

3DMark2001
3DMark2001 introduced DirectX 8 with vertex shaders, pixel shaders and cube maps and showcased unprecedented dynamic water and foliage rendering.

3DMark2000
3DMark2000 used DirectX 7 pushing up to 50,000 triangles in view with 8 dynamic lights and environment bump mapping.

3DMark99
3DMark 99, designed for DirectX 6 and featuring 20,000 triangles per scene was cutting edge game graphics at the time.