These guidelines contain important information about using and distributing 3DMark03. Please consult the appropriate guide below before distributing the software or publishing results. If you

Usage Guidelines

Before starting, please review the System Requirements.
In order to get a valid and fully comparable result, please make sure you have done the following:

Required Procedure

• Download and install 3DMark03 Build 340.
• Download and install any suitable graphic card drivers which have been approved to be used with 3DMark03 Build 340. You can find the list of drivers here.

Only by using the combination of 3DMark03 Build 340 and any of the reviewed & approved drivers will give you a valid and comparable 3DMark03 result.

Recommended Testing Procedure

• Restart the computer before running the benchmark and after making any driver/hardware changes.
• Set all your display properties settings to "Default" under Direct3D.
• Disable any networking connections and file sharing. Any network activity is likely to affect the tested system and its performance.
• Close any open applications and background programs.
• Run each test more than three times. This will help to ensure that the effect that any anomalous result has on the final result is kept to a minimum.
• Do not attempt to initiate any other system activity while 3DMark03 is benchmarking.

During all tests, 3DMark03 will instruct the graphics adapter drivers to disable Vsync. However, some driver revisions and older pieces of hardware will ignore such instructions. Futuremark therefore recommends that users make additional checks to guarantee that Vsync is disabled.

Additional Recommendations For Testing

• Always use the same monitor and monitor settings, such as refresh rate
• Compare hardware and detailed settings only by running benchmarks on "clean" systems. This can be done using applications (such as Norton Ghost http://www.ghost.com) that can restore a system configuration to an exact format for each testing run
• Disable the System Restore feature on Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. For more information, please see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q267951.
• It is highly recommended that you have the latest official version of DirectX installed. Please note that no beta versions of DirectX are supported by Futuremark. You can find the latest DirectX version for your operating system here.
• If you want to benchmark using Anisotropic Filtering and/or Anti Aliasing, please use the settings found in 3DMark03. That way you can be sure that the correct type of filtering and anti aliasing will be applied. Set the display adapters properties to "Application Specific".

These measures help to ensure that your results are consistent.

No benchmark results from 3DMark03 can be compared to those obtained from any previous version of 3DMark, as each one uses a completely different rendering system and test procedure to obtain the final results.

Publishing Results

When publishing results, we'd kindly request you to make sure that you do the following:

• Include the official 3DMark03 logo with the results
• Include a referral to www.futuremark.com in connection with the results
• Identify the exact system setup that was used for benchmarking

Please refer to the license agreement for more detailed information about publishing results.

Default Scores

In order to keep the reported scores comparable, we highly recommend that the default setting be used for generic references (i.e. 3500 3D marks running on 1024x768 resolution, 32 bit color, compressed textures, 24 bit z-buffer and double buffering, VSync off) in addition to the other reported scores. Referring to the default setting will make comprehending the results easier for the mainstream end users who run 3DMark03 in their own systems.

Taking Screen Shots

You can easily take screen shots for publishing or comparison by pressing F12 at any time when running the program. All screenshots are automatically captured and stored into your installation directory as sequentially numbered .bmp files, for example C:\Program Files\Futuremark\3DMark03\shot0001.bmp.
NOTE: Taking a screenshot affects your test result by a temporary performance drop. Therefore the result of the current test will be discarded, when you take a screenshot.

Available Versions

3DMark03 is available for public distribution. However, we'd kindly request that you to follow the distribution guidelines specified in the license agreement as it is important for us to keep count of the number of distributed copies.
You may distribute the unregistered copy of 3DMark03 under following conditions:

• If you keep track of the number of distributed copies.
• If you notify Futuremark that you are distributing the unregistered copies of 3DMark03 (distribution@Futuremark.com) prior to the start of distribution.
• If you inform Futuremark about the number of distributed copies upon request.
• If you include the official 3DMark03 logo and the web site address (www.Futuremark) in the media used for distribution.

The software may not be distributed with commercial products without a written permission from Futuremark, the only exception being Magazine Cover-CD Distribution. You may not charge for distributing 3DMark03 under any conditions. Please contact Distribution@Futuremark.com for more details regarding magazine cover CD distribution.

DirectX, Windows 98/ME/XP and Windows 2000 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. 3DMark is a registered trademark of Futuremark Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.