Futuremark, the developer of the world’s most popular benchmarking software, on Monday announced 3DMark 11, the latest version of their industry standard benchmark for real-time 3D graphics. Designed to measure the performance of DirectX 11 gaming PCs, 3DMark 11 uses a native DirectX 11 engine created in-house.

"For over 10 years 3DMark has shown gamers what to expect from the next generation of real-time 3D graphics. So we are especially excited to announce 3DMark 11 and show the possibilities of DirectX 11 with the release of the Deep Sea trailer," said Jukka Mäkinen, chief executive officer of Futuremark.

The 3DMark 11 exclusively utilizes DirectX 11 application programming interface (API), which is somewhat untraditional for Futuremark. Earlier versions of 3DMark utilized several versions of DirectX, for example, 3DMark Vantage utilized both DirectX 10 and DirectX 9. The sole utilization of DX11 underlines the importance of the latest API.

In addition to formal announcement of the 3DMark 11, Futuremark also unveiled tech demo called Deep Sea. The Deep Sea is a demonstration of DirectX 11 technologies created using an early development build of the 3DMark 11 engine. The Deep Sea trailer features submersibles exploring the sea floor. Volumetric lighting illuminates the seabed with tessellation used to add rich detail to the rock, coral and manmade structures. Post processing delivers depth of field and other lens effects. The music is an original composition.

3DMark 11 will be released in the third quarter of 2010. There will be a free edition available at launch. 3DMark 11 will join existing Futuremark benchmarks 3DMark Vantage for DirectX 10 and 3DMark06 for DirectX.

Tags: Futuremark, 3DMark, DirectX