With NVIDIA releasing their GeForce PhysX drivers, users of the PhysX accelerating GeForce cards were at an advantage over their Radeon counterparts, reason being that in a certain CPU test routine of the 3DMark Vantage benchmark, the physics processing abilities of the computer are tested, and since the physics API used happens to be PhysX, users of GeForce get higher scores despite not having a physics processor device such as an Ageia PhysX card. This differs from a real-life scenario where a GeForce accelerator does both graphics and physics and the overhead of physics processing affects the graphics processing abilities.

The relation of GPU acceleration for gaining higher 3DMark scores in physics tests has been controversial to say the least. Futuremark has now decided to update its Hall of Fame to exclude all results using PhysX on a GPU, simply because this was not how they intended it to work. It has also been updated to organise the results better for easier comparison. You will be able to use GPU physics processing to get a 3DMark score, you will not be able to make it to the Hall of Fame using it. You can use an Ageia PhysX card to assist your 3DMark score to make it to the Hall of Fame, as that's how Futuremark intended PhysX processing scores to assist your final scores.

Benchmarks of Nehalem derivatives are on a roll. We had seen the Bloomfield 2.66 GHz scores and thought it was great. A couple of days ago, Tom's Hardware showed off their newest toys to the world in which was a 2.93 GHz Bloomfield we covered here. Interestingly, they had then stated that Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) prevented them from releasing any benchmark data, though following ChipHell's publication, they thought they would disclose theirs as well.

They carried out their tests on the Foxconn Renaissance X58 motherboard with dual-channel Crucial Ballistix 2x 1GB DDR3 1600 MHz, ATI Radeon HD 4850, Windows Vista SP1 and hotfix_vista32-64_dd_ccc_hd4800series_64906 patch. A 750GB Seagate SATA II hard drive was used.

In 3DMark 06, it secured a CPU score of 5183. In PCMark 05, a CPU score of 9583 with a memory score of 9010 was noted. In 3DMark Vantage, the CPU score was 17966 (CPU Test1: 2515.1 Plans/S, Test2: 23.08 Steps/S). 2.93 GHz Bloomfield had a Mere 11% performance advantage over a QX6800 (that clocks at 2.93 GHz). It is also said that this 2.93 GHz chip is 23% faster than a Phenom X4 9950.

ChipHell carried out the first comprehensive evaluation of the Intel Bloomfield 2.66 GHz processor, a derivative of the eagerly anticipated Nehalem architecture, which already has fan-sites mushrooming all over the internet.

The most prominant benchmarks used by enthusiasts and overclockers, 3DMark Vantage (CPU Tests), Super Pi 1M, Cinebench and SANDRA were run on this processor.

In the 3DMark Vantage test, the processor secured a CPU score of 16294. It crunched Super Pi 1M in 15.475 seconds. With the Cinebench, it secured 3048 with a single thread, the multi-threaded bench belted out 12627 CB-CPU hinting at the processor's high multi-core efficiency. And finally, Bloomfield takes SANDRA out on a date. You have to look at the red dot compared to a QX9770 yourself.

I'm appetised and looking forward to a great processor architecture and so could you.

Intel Nehalem Posts Impressive CPU Scores with 3D Benchmarks

The rather lucky Taiwanese team of Tom's Hardware got their hands on an Intel Bloomfield engineering sample that has a clock-speed of 2.93 GHz, running on a Intel X58 chipset based motherboard made by Foxconn called Renaissance to evaluate a Gainward Radeon HD4850 sample. System details are provided below.

AMD, Austin have managed a benchmark score of X12515 in the 3DMark Vantage benchmark using two Radeon HD4870 X2 cards in CrossfireX, a feat that takes three GeForce GTX 280 cards in 3-way SLI to achieve. The R700 boards were clocked at 778 MHz core, while the GDDR5 memory was clocked at 980 MHz QDR (effectively 3.92 GHz). This brings the total on-board video bandwidth to a stellar 250.8 GBps.With inputs from TG Daily

Eran Badit of NGOHQ.com successfully modified NVIDIA CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) to operate on an ATI GPU and has been able to run the NVIDIA PhysX layer on an RV670, the Radeon HD 3850.

He tells that enabling PhysX support on Radeon cards is not particularly difficult, leading us to believe that physics on graphics cards may not so much be a technology problem but an issue of corporate dynamics.

On his first run, Eran got a 22,606 CPU score in 3D Mark Vantage, enhancing the overall score to P4262. A comparable system without PhysX-support will cross the finish line at about P3800.

Futuremark has released an update for their Windows Vista only 3DMark Vantage that brings the benchmark application up to version 1.0.1. Below are the full hotfix notes. Go ahead and download the hotfix only (15.5MB) or the Full Install (450MB).

Jaakko Haapasalo, project manager of 3DMark Vantage, confirmed on the Futuremark/YouGamers forums that a hotfix for the Vista exclusive benchmark is on the way. The patch is said to fix all current issues such as having to enter the product key twice, and having to ponder about an error popup on the first run. In addition the patch may enable owners of the Advanced version to save their benchmark scores offline. Futuremark will make an announcement with more info on the update this week.

In relation to the new 3DMark Vantage benchmark, all ATI owners that experience some problems with the benchmark, or just want to try some new drivers for their cards can now try 3DMark Vantage Catalyst hotfix driver for Windows Vista 32/64-bit. The 3DMark Vantage Catalyst hotfix (737-33840) includes bug fixes and performance enhancements for all Radeon HD 2400/2600/2900/3400/3600/3850 and 3870 cards. If you experience problems downloading the hotfix please be patient, all servers are currently overloaded.

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Reserved to be available on April 22nd, Futuremark's next-gen 3DMark Vantage failed to make it on time and is now rumored for an April 28-29 release, a week later than expected. 3DMark Vantage is a DirectX 10 benchmark that works with Windows Vista only, since it's the only OS to support DX10. Benchmarkers will be offered a new physics test and God knows what. The final system requierements remain unchanged (read the full story).

The long awaited Futuremark 3DMark Vantage will be released on April 22nd it has been learned from a picture posted on PCPOP.com. Most notably 3DMark Vantage will differ from previous 3DMark video benchmarks with its DirectX 10 API. DirectX 10 support also means the program will work on Windows Vista only. When started 3DMark Vantage will run through three tests to determine your PC's performance - Jane Nash, Calico and Aeroplanes. If your PC is equipped with an AGEIA PhysX card, there will be a fourth test for physics only. The full list of all NVIDIA/ATI video cards capable of running 3DMark Vantage can be found here. An online test to see if your PC is up to the task for 3DMark vantage is also running online.

Approaching the February 20th release date, Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage was pictured once more. This time we have some benchmark scores. The 3DMark Vantage RC0 build interface and some of the future tests are pictured below. The card that was running the benchmark and scored 4203 marks is supposed to be a GeForce 8800 GTX.