Futuremark said on Thursday that 3DMark for Windows will be launched on February 4, 2013 at 18:00 UTC (13:00 EST / 10:00 PST) after a "feverish few weeks of polishing and honing." Slated as "one benchmark for all your devices", this version will include the Fire Strike, Cloud Gate and Ice Storm game tests.
"3DMark uses a combination of in-app features and online web services to help you understand the performance of your hardware," the company said. "For components that support it, 3DMark records frames per second (FPS), GPU and CPU temperatures as well as CPU power and clock speed during the benchmark run."
Futuremark said the suite's performance graphs are interactive, allowing users to zoom in, change the scale and pan the chart to focus on a specific part of the benchmark run. Users can even click on the lines to get the numbers for that particular period during the benchmark which is ideal for checking the peak temperatures as the hardware is pushed to the limits.
The Android, iOS and Windows RT versions will follow soon after pending app store approvals, the company said. There will also be a free Basic Edition on all platforms, a paid Advanced Edition with more options for enthusiasts, and a Professional Edition for business users.
Here's a bit more on the three included tests:
Fire Strike
* DirectX 11
* For high performance Windows gaming PCs
Is the most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will be available only in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
Cloud Gate*
DirectX 11 Engine limited to Direct 3D feature level 10, DirectX 10
* For Windows notebooks and home PCs
Cloud Gate includes two graphics tests and a physics test. It will initially be available only in the Windows editions of 3DMark.
Ice Storm*
DirectX 11 engine limited to Direct3D feature level 9, OpenGL ES 2.0
* For Android, iOS and Windows mobile devices
Ice Storm includes two graphics tests focusing on GPU performance and a physics test for measuring CPU performance.
