Thread: 3dmarks

Originally Posted by Ynot

Most companies write specific optimisation code for the common benchmarking tools, and when the device detects it's being bechmarked, switches over to a pre-programmed setting

Wow, really? I had no idea.

It's true, Firefox has a 93/100 in the Acid 3 tests, but when you go to a site that uses a lot of different stuff at once, it starts looking nothing like a 100/100 browser.

Lots of times its more about the engine than the graphics card. A well designed graphics engine will always be faster than a poor designed engine running on a better system. Case and point: DOOM3 vs Halo. DOOM3's engine was much better designed and almost never lags, Halo can lag during regular gameplay sometimes, even on a good system.

Most of the time the only way to properly benchmark is to test your system in different high-end games, then compare your average FPS rate to other systems, or simply conclude that running Crysis at max-settings with a stable 60 FPS is probably pretty good.

Good benchmark games are some of the following:
Crysis
Unreal Tournament 3
Left 4 Dead
Portal/Team-Fortress 2/Half-Life2: Episode 2

These games utilize some of the industry's most frequently seen engines, such as Crytek 2, Unreal Engine 3.0, Source Left 4 Dead build and Source Episode 2 build.