Graphic cards of computer have come a long way. Last time when 3DMark was released, it was a graphic card killer. Then come Vantage and Crysis. Till now the only apps/games that can actually kill the latest graphic card is Metro 2033, and yet you can still get decent results if you have a tri-SLI GTX 580 with an overclocked Core i7. But now, the much awaited 3DMark 11 will be the latest for graphic cards to crunch, until Crysis 2 is out. 3DMark series has been a very popular benchmark, and now Futuremark has launched the 3DMark 11 which will contend as the best graphic benchmark for the year 2011. Obviously, there will be a free edition and the usual paid versions as usual by Futuremark.

The minimum requirements for 3DMark 11 are as follow:

• 3DMark 11 requires DirectX 11, a DirectX 11 compatible video card, and Windows Vista or Windows 7.
• OS: Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7
• Processor: 1.8GHz dual-core Intel or AMD CPU
• Memory: 1 GB of system memory
• Graphics: DirectX 11 compatible graphics card
• Hard drive space1.5 GB
• Audio Windows Vista / Windows 7 compatible sound card

Graphics Test 1

• Based on the Deep Sea scene
• No tessellation
• Heavy lighting with several shadow casting lights

Graphics Test 2

• Based on the Deep Sea scene
• Medium tessellation
• Medium lighting with few shadow casting lights

Graphics Test 3

• Based on the High Temple scene
• Medium tessellation
• One shadow casting light

Graphics Test 4

• Based on the High Temple scene
• Heavy tessellation
• Many shadow casting lights

Physics Test

• Rigid body physics simulation with a large number of objects
• This test runs at a fixed resolution regardless of the chosen preset

Combined Test

• Runs rigid body physics simulation on a moderate number of objects
• Soft body physics using DirectCompute and the Bullet physics library running on the GPU
• Medium tessellation
• Medium lighting

SOURCE via Guru3D