Sky Diver, the newest PC benchmark from Futuremark, maker of the PCMark and 3DMark suite of system-testing programs, is out right now.
Futuremark says that Sky Diver is best for testing PCs with mid-range graphics cards, mobile-class GPUs, and integrated graphics chips.
Futuremark slots Sky Diver right in between Fire Strike, which is meant for testing out the capabilities of high-end systems, and Cloud Gate, a test that’s ideally suited for use average consumer PCs. Sky Diver taxes your system by putting it through graphics, physics, and joint tests as well.
“Some people think that 3DMark is only for high-end hardware and extreme overclocking,” Futuremark CEO Jukka Mäkinen said. ”Yet millions of PC gamers rely on 3DMark to choose systems that best balance performance, efficiency, and affordability. 3DMark Sky Diver complements our other tests by providing the ideal benchmark for gaming laptops and mainstream PCs.”
Running Fire Strike on a less-than-high-end system may cause consumers to falsely think that their PC is out of date, when the test itself is simply too demanding for systems that aren’t considered top notch.
If Sky Diver delivers on what it promises, it could offer mid-range PC and notebook owners greater insight into their system’s capabilities. That could translate into untold amounts of dollars that end up being saved, instead of getting unnecessarily spent on new PCs that those people simply don’t need.
Sky Diver is packaged as an update for 3DMark, along with 3DMark Basic Edition.
You can watch an official Futuremark 3DMark Sky Diver video below, courtesy of YouTube.
