Futuremarks testsThese synthetic 3D benchmarks from Futuremark allow you to evaluate the expected performance of a system with different generations of games. As each 3DMark uses different features and quality settings, it allows you to get an idea of how your system will perform.
3DMark013DMark01 has become more and more a system benchmark rather than a graphics card benchmark over the years. Nowadays, you can really see the difference in DDR2 and DDR3 memory setups, high and low FSB setups and so on.
3DMark033DMark03 is very GPU dependant, which comes down to: the more cores, the higher the score. SLI and CF performance increase is spectacular in this benchmark.
3DMark05This product of the 3DMark series is again more CPU dependant than its predecessor, meaning that an overclocked CPU will have a big influence on the end score.
3DMark063DMark06 is known to stress the GPU to the maximum and provides SM2.0 and SM3.0 test to compare products.
Aquamark3While this 3D benchmark is aging quickly, it still serves as a good evaluation tool for system performance, as it stresses the VGA, CPU and memory subsystem, any advantage had from a faster motherboard or memory setting will be apparent.