Using 3DMark2000
When you create a new 3DMark benchmark, the main dialog opens up with a lot of information in it. The main goal behind the interface is to show you all the required details within the same view. You can read through all settings and launch your benchmark with only one click.
1. Edit Description - edit the project name and add your own comments.
2. Select Tests - change which tests will be run.
3. Options - change the playback options, such as looping.
4. Display and CPU Settings - change the Rendering Platform, Resolution, Color Depth, Buffering Modes and Processor Optimizations.
5. Run - run the ResultBrowser, Help file, Demo mode or Benchmark.
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1. Edit Description
Project Name allows you to write a full name for the test. The Project Name is used to identify the current project when you browse results.
Comments field allows you to expand further on the project name. Some items that you might want to write here:
- Name of the tester
- More detailed description of the test and test environment
- Installation procedure for the current 3D accelerator.
- Visual problems observed during testing.
2. Select Tests
If you want to run only some of the tests, you can select them by overall category in the 'Normal' Page, or any of the individual tests in the 'Custom' Page. See Test Descriptions for a detailed information on the tests.
Note: Image Quality tests are only available in 3DMark2000 Pro.
3. Options
Benchmark Options
- Disable title screens between tests
- Disables the info screen that appears between the benchmark tests- Test repeat count
- You can force 3DMark to loop each test several times for greater accuracy.- Looping
-The benchmark restarts itself with the selected tests after each benchmark round has been completed.Demo Mode Options
- Disable music
- No music will be played during the demo mode.- Looping
-The demo mode restarts itself automatically until interrupted.4. Display and CPU Settings
The Display and CPU Settings dialog controls the screen output of 3DMark. The right side of the dialog shows the amount of total texture memory and available texture memory on the selected 3D accelerator. These figures change depending on the options selected on the left side, so you can track how much memory each option consumes, and how much is left for textures.
Rendering Platform
If you have multiple 3D accelerators in your system you can select on which accelerator the tests are run. The options below change according to what is available on the selected 3D accelerator.
Screen Resolution and Color Depth
You can choose which resolution, color depth and texture format to run 3DMark in. All resolution and color depth combinations available on your system and currently selected 3D accelerator are displayed here. 32-bit color depth and textures produce better visual quality but consume twice the memory compared to 16-bit.
As the 32-bit modes use more memory, this also means that to be able to render a single frame, the 3D accelerator needs to move more data. This usually causes degraded performance when compared to 16-bit color modes.
The default settings for 3DMark2000 are 1024 x 768 resolution, 16 bit colors, 16 bit Z-buffer and triple frame buffer.
Z-Buffer Depth
Z-buffer is used to help sorting the 3D scene so that polygons are rendered in correct order. Modern 3D accelerators support both 16 bit and 24/32 bit Z-buffer modes. 16 bit Z-buffers have some limitations. If the game needs to draw far away objects and also detailed objects up close, 16 bit Z-buffer might not be enough. Therefore in some applications 24 or 32 bit Z-buffer results in better visual quality. The downside is that these 24 and 32 bit Z-buffers consume more memory, and usually also affect negatively on the performance.
You can run 3DMark in 32 bit color and 16 bit Z or vice versa, but some 3D accelerators may not support this "mixed mode".
Frame Buffering Mode
Select whether 3DMark will use one, two or three screen buffers. This can affect results. See Testing Guidelines for more information.
Single buffering: Use front buffer only. You will see flickering screen output as the screen is drawn constantly. This is normal behaviour for single buffer.
Double buffering: Use a front and a back buffer. Front buffer is displayed while back buffer is being rendered to. When render is complete, buffers are swapped.
Triple buffering: Use a front buffer and two back buffers. This is similar to double buffering but prevents the situation where the system would have to wait for vertical sync and screens to be swapped before it can start rendering another frame. Although 3DMark attempts to disable vertical sync automatically when benchmarking, some 3D accelerators may not support it, and therefore 3DMark still defaults to triple buffering.
CPU Optimization (3D pipelines)
Select which 3D pipeline (CPU optimizations or Hardware T&L) 3DMark uses. 3DMark always defaults to the best available setting on your computer. The default optimization is selected based on the capabilities of your processor and display accelerator. The following settings are available in 3DMark2000:
- D3D Software T&L: Generic Pentium, Pentium II, Celeron optimizations that run also on other Intel compatible processors. This selection is always available.
- Intel(r) Pentium III(r): This selection is only available on Pentium III and later processors that support the Streaming SIMD Extensions.
- AMD Athlon(tm): This selection is available only on Athlon processors.
- 3DNow!: This selection is available only on processors that support 3DNow! instruction set, such as AMD K6-2, K6-III or Athlon.
Information
Total Video Memory is the amount of video memory in kilobytes that the 3D Accelerator reported. The amount of Video Memory limits how high resolutions the 3D Accelerator is able to use.
Video Memory Used shows how much the currently selected:
settings consume memory. The formula that calculates the Used Video Memory is:
- Screen Resolution
- Color Depth
- Z-Buffer Depth
- Buffering Mode
Used Video Memory = (Xsize*Ysize) * (ColorDepthBits/8) * AmountOfFrameBuffers + (Xsize*Ysize) * (ZbufferBits/8)
So for example if you are you are using 640*480 Resolution, 16-bit color, 16-bit Z-Buffer and Double Buffering, the result is:
(640*480) * (16/8) * 2 + (640*480) * (16/8) = 1 843 200 bytes
If you are unable to run 3DMark2000 at the highest resolutions your card supports, please check that your monitor supports those resolutions. Also, sometimes changing the Windows desktop resolution to a lower setting (640*480 16 bit) may free just enough memory to make those highest resolution settings work in 3DMark2000.
Texture Memory Available shows how much texture memory is available to the 3D Accelerator. Most AGP 3D Accelerators report most of the system memory available as texture memory in addition to their internal video memory.
The Texture Format can be selected freely, independent of the color depth if the current 3D accelerator supports both 16 and 32 bit textures. Depending on your hardware, using 32 bit color texture format in 16 bit display color depth may get you almost the same image quality as using both 32 bit textures and color depth, but with less performance penalty.
Remember that 32 bit textures take twice as much memory as 16 bit textures.
5. Run
Benchmark - Launches the benchmark with the selected display settings, tests and options.
Demo Mode - Launches the non-interactive demonstration.
Help - Launches your default browser with these HTML help files.
Result Browser - Launches the ResultBrowser program (only available in 3DMark2000 Pro). See MadOnion.com for details.
Batch Run - Launches the Batch Run Wizard.
System Info - Shows the system info dialog.
Menus and Toolbar
The functionality of 3DMark can be controlled from the main dialog, but also from the menus and the toolbar of the main window.
For the menus and the menu items, standard names are used wherever possible. Other item names have been selected as descriptive as possible. Also, the toolbar has tooltips, which means that a short description appears, when the pointer is held over one toolbar button long enough. All of this should make user interface of 3DMark look familiar and easy to use already on the first time you use the program.
The menus and the menu items are as follows:
File
New - opens a new 3DMark project.
Open - opens an existing project.
(Recent files) is a list of shortcuts to the most recently created or opened projects.
Exit exits the application
Run
ResultBrowser opens ResultBrowser for the currently open project (only available in 3DMark2000 Pro)
System Info - opens the System Info dialog.
View
Toolbar displays or hides the toolbar of the main window.
Status Bar - displays or hides the status bar of the main window.
MadOnion.com
Online ResultBrowser - opens MadOnion.com's online benchmark result analysis tool with your current benchmark result
Submit Saved Results - Sends a previously saved benchmark result to MadOnion.com's Online ResultBrowser for further analysis.
MadOnion.com Settings - allows you to view or change settings related to MadOnion.com online services.
Go to MadOnion.com - Opens MadOnion.com in your default browser.
Register (menu is visible only in the free version of 3DMark2000)
Register 3DMark through this option you can upgrade your free 3DMark2000 to 3DMark2000 Pro.
About 3DMark2000 Pro - Shows you the benefits of purchasing 3DMark2000 Pro.
Help
Help Topics opens a web browser and displays this help text.
About 3DMark2000 - opens the About dialog, which includes a nice dynamic image.
The Toolbar Buttons are:
[] - opens a new 3DMark project.
[] opens an existing project.
[] closes an existing project.
[] saves the current project.
[] opens the System Info dialog.
[] opens ResultBrowser for the currently open project.
[] opens the Project Description dialog.
[] opens the Select Tests dialog.
[] opens the Options dialog.
[] opens the Display and CPU Settings dialog.
[] runs the demo.
[] runs the benchmark.
[] starts a batch run.
[] displays this help text.
[] opens the About 3DMark dialog.
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