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3DMark06Available 18/01/06

128mb cards will work but very poorly
Q:Although 3DMark05 only required 128MB of video memory as a minimum requirement, in testing we found that many driver/hardware combinations allocated far more than this for the 3 games tests. Does this mean that you will increase the minimum requirement to 256MB for the next release or stay with 128MB? If it's the former, how would this affect such cards as Radeon 9800s or GeForce 6600 GT’s, which have reasonable shader performance, but only 128MB of local memory?

A: The next 3DMark will require 256MB to ensure that there is no unnecessary swapping going on (System RAM <-> Video RAM). According to our mission of producing forward looking benchmarks to show performance of new hardware, we wanted to take a leap forward, and let the artists have more freedom to create visually stunning content. This doesn’t mean that the next 3DMark won’t run on 128MB hardware, but the performance hit can be quite severe. Several games are already limited by the amount of VRAM (at very high detail settings, which is comparable to the detail level in the next 3DMark), so I don’t see any problems with our decision. It is a known fact that VRAM has an impact on performance if the game is using a load of huge textures & data. Enable AA & AF on top of that and you need 512MB to have acceptable fps. The way we see it is that 256MB is nowadays the standard/default amount of VRAM for relatively high-end cards. 128MB was still a pretty decent amount 1-2 years ago, but things have changed pretty rapidly since. I wouldn’t be surprised if 512MB would be seen as a new standard/default in less than 2 years. Bring on 1GB cards!
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So I'd better prepare for a chugging slideshow :o
 
Velocity219e said:
LoL, I wonder how my FX5950 Ultra will handle it :) ... I'll try it when I get my sandiego in :D
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Haha, I'll be doing the same, currently in the process of bodging together a rig to put the old 5950 in, I think it will probably go on fire...
6800GS will no doubt get ravaged and cry, why do we do it to ourselves?
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
Haha, I'll be doing the same, currently in the process of bodging together a rig to put the old 5950 in, I think it will probably go on fire...
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i predict that it will be like watching a glorified powerpoint presentation. :D
 
err i am touch typing on a black screen, my 9800pro just jumped out of my case and smashed thru the double glazed window and ran down the street!!!
 
Bomag said:
3Dmark06 will be more like 3d2k1 than 3d2k05 in that it will be going back to being a proper system benchmark. Which is really good news for my x2 at 2.7ghz!
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Me too ;)

Should be interesting to see how good the X2 advantage will be over a single core.

Just need more games to be multi-threaded. . . still it's the way forward. :D
 
i bet spie is rubbing his hands with glee at this. all those rigs being brought to their knees and people will be shopping for new parts just because their score sucks..... :D
 
3D Mark always seems to give an unfavorable veiw of how a PC actually performs in games. No games I own run as badly as 3dm 05, even at the highest settings, and no doubt 06 is going to make it look even worse.

It isn't a realistic guide as to how your PC is going to perform in real life...maybe a guide to how games will perform in 12/18 months, otherwise it's just there to make us feel inadaquate.
 
redline said:
It isn't a realistic guide as to how your PC is going to perform in real life...maybe a guide to how games will perform in 12/18 months, otherwise it's just there to make us feel inadaquate.
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That's exactly what they're aiming at though; how games will run in the future!
 
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