These guidelines contain important information about using and distributing 3DMark2001 SE. Please consult the appropriate guide below before distributing the software or publishing results. If you have any questions related to these matters, please contact us!

Usage Guidelines

Before starting, please review the System Requirements.
In order to get accurate and repeatable results, please make sure you have done the following:

Recommended Testing Procedure

• Restart the computer before running the benchmark.
• Set all your display properties settings to "Default" under Direct3D.
• Run the tests at least three times to verify that the results are reproducible. Follow a standard testing procedure each time you run the tests.
• Compare 3D accelerators using the same CPU and the best (default) rendering pipeline setting.
• Compare 3D accelerators using the the same settings - resolution, color depth, texture resolution, z-buffer format, buffering mode, Full-Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) and refresh rate.
• Compare CPUs using the same system configuration (where possible).
• Stop all other programs. Under the 32-bit Windows operating systems, other tasks can preemptively run during the tests, thus affecting the results. You will want to eliminate as many of these types of tasks as possible, such as automatic updates in operating systems, e-mail clients or other tasks from your StartUp folder. This action also maximizes your available memory.
• Disable any network connections and file sharing. Background network activity may affect results.

Additional Recommendations for Testing

• We recommend testing CPUs with the fastest available 3D accelerator using the CPU Test in 3DMark2001 SE.
• We recommend that you use the same monitor and monitor settings (refresh rate) for all tested 3D accelerators. Refresh rate affects benchmark results in a small way even when VSync is off.
• We recommend that you test 3D accelerators on a "clean" system only. You should use a program like "Symantec Ghost" (http://www.ghost.com) to restore a clean system for every 3D accelerator test.
• We recommend you disable the System Restore feature on Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. For more information, please see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q267951.
• We recommend that you use only the latest official drivers for your system. You can find links to the latest drivers on our Drivers Page.
• 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.

These measures help to ensure that your results are consistent.
All benchmark tests run with VSync disabled to eliminate the refresh rate dependencies within different test environments. However, older display card drivers might not support this feature. Take care that you observe whether VSync is disabled or not.

3DMARK2001 SE BENCHMARK RESULTS ARE INCOMPATIBLE WITH ANY PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF 3DMARK. YOU SHOULD NOT COMPARE THE RESULTS OF DIFFERENT VERSIONS AGAINST EACH OTHER.

Publishing Results

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

• Include the official 3DMark2001 SE 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 3DMark2001 SE 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\3DMark2001\shot0001.bmp.

Available Versions

3DMark2001 SE 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 3DMark2001 SE 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 3DMark2001 SE (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 3DMark2001 SE 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 3DMark2001 SE 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.