3DMark06 lets us obtain an indicator on how the latest or future games will work in our computer. It's made to work on the last generation graphic cards (from the GeForce 6800GS / ATI X1600). For older cards, or without support for Pixel Shader 3.0, it will be more adequate to use the previous version, because this one will work extremely slow. Besides the Pixel Shader 3.0 analysis, this version includes a new pointing system that shows us a separate score for the performance of our CPU, our graphic card using SM 2.0 and SM 3.0, as well as a complexity in the scenes never seen before.
Although for many people the value it shows in the end of the test will not mean anything, there's no doubt it will help many others to evaluate the performance of their system in the coming games and make decisions about future upgrades.
In the free Basic edition, you can't change any of the options, choose the different test or execute the games; you just can make the test with the default options. While the Advanced edition, which is not free, lets you use the program at its best, and the Professional Edition (which is very expensive) only adds commercial use rights.
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