Should I buy 3dmark?

[Darkraivids]

I've read the descriptions both on the website and here on steam, reviews, etc. However, I'm still having some trouble understanding what this is for. At the least, I know 3dmark is meant to measure in detail the overall performance of a computer in various "game-like" aspects.

But my question is, will 3dmark tell me if my computer is able to run certain games? Meaning, can I use this to avoid manually having to compare game requirements to my computer specs before buying a game?

This whole issue started when I decided to buy a game or two that I wasn't sure would run on my computer, but I was still able to get to work, despite hardware benchmark lists, "can you run it" info, and opinions. Bottom line is, I want to be able to know what games will work on my PC without having to second guess myself or having someone tell me something that they aren't sure about that I might later find out was wrong. And if this isn't good to get, even when it's on sale, what should I do instead? Thanks in advance.

[Dave1029]

It tells you if your pc sucks or not and you can compare it to the current top GPU setups.

[Darkraivids]

Originally posted by Dave1029:

It tells you if your pc sucks or not and you can compare it to the current top GPU setups.

What's the point of knowing your setup compared to other people's setups if you don't know its practical use in terms of playing games?

[Dave1029]

Originally posted by Darkraivids:

Originally posted by Dave1029:

It tells you if your pc sucks or not and you can compare it to the current top GPU setups.

What's the point of knowing your setup compared to other people's setups if you don't know its practical use in terms of playing games?

It tells you a score. 60 fps constant is around 12k score. If you score 12,000ish... you're going to be able to play any game at that resolution at 60 constant. There's three main ones, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme, and Firestrike Ultra. Firestrike is 1920x1080p, Extreme is 2560x1440p, and Ultra is 4K. For reference I scored 7,341 on Ultra. That means that I should be near 60 fps consistently @ 4K on most games right now.

[Darkraivids]

How important is a pc's performance on a high fps? Does it really measure what games I can play or simply how fast the frames in the game will display? Wouldn't it be better if I just looked up the fps for the game I want to buy and compare my computer's performance to a game near that that I already have?

[Dave1029]

Originally posted by Darkraivids:

How important is a pc's performance on a high fps? Does it really measure what games I can play or simply how fast the frames in the game will display? Wouldn't it be better if I just looked up the fps for the game I want to buy and compare my computer's performance to a game near that that I already have?

It emulates the literal toughest game at that resolution. Meaning if you can run playable frames on 3Dmark, you can run playable frames in any game @ that resolution.

[HammerFall]

It takes all the shaders and anti allising etc and runs it whatever fps. Its the consistancy that it runs at certain levels before say heating up or bottlenecking. You dont have to run the tests all ballz out, but The higher the performace level the more likeky it is to run whatever game your tring to run. Also if your having issues it can show you what aspect of the game is the prob. Malfunctions or just undergeard

[Darkraivids]

Originally posted by Dave1029:

Originally posted by Darkraivids:

How important is a pc's performance on a high fps? Does it really measure what games I can play or simply how fast the frames in the game will display? Wouldn't it be better if I just looked up the fps for the game I want to buy and compare my computer's performance to a game near that that I already have?

It emulates the literal toughest game at that resolution. Meaning if you can run playable frames on 3Dmark, you can run playable frames in any game @ that resolution.

Originally posted by HammerFall:

It takes all the shaders and anti allising etc and runs it whatever fps. Its the consistancy that it runs at certain levels before say heating up or bottlenecking. You dont have to run the tests all ballz out, but The higher the performace level the more likeky it is to run whatever game your tring to run. Also if your having issues it can show you what aspect of the game is the prob. Malfunctions or just undergeard

Thank you, both of these posts made it more clear to me. So... I can even find out why the game I'm running won't run well at high settings. One last question... which may seem kinda dumb so late in the discussion. It should run on my pc, right?

Windows 8 ( 64 bit )
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 8510G
RAM: 6 GB
Processor: AMD Quad-Core A8-5545M APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.7 GHz
DirectX: Version 11

[Dave1029]

Originally posted by Darkraivids:

Originally posted by Dave1029:

It emulates the literal toughest game at that resolution. Meaning if you can run playable frames on 3Dmark, you can run playable frames in any game @ that resolution.

Originally posted by HammerFall:

It takes all the shaders and anti allising etc and runs it whatever fps. Its the consistancy that it runs at certain levels before say heating up or bottlenecking. You dont have to run the tests all ballz out, but The higher the performace level the more likeky it is to run whatever game your tring to run. Also if your having issues it can show you what aspect of the game is the prob. Malfunctions or just undergeard

Thank you, both of these posts made it more clear to me. So... I can even find out why the game I'm running won't run well at high settings. One last question... which may seem kinda dumb so late in the discussion. It should run on my pc, right?

Windows 8 ( 64 bit )
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 8510G
RAM: 6 GB
Processor: AMD Quad-Core A8-5545M APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.7 GHz
DirectX: Version 11

It'll run on any system... that isn't a dinosaur.

[Darkraivids]

hahaha! Thanks for being so helpful, both of you.

[Gespenst Gaming]

It's not a dinosaur, but it's not meant to play games.
All you have is an integrated graphics chip, it's not REALLY meant for 3d graphics and really only deisgned for web pages and videos.

There's nothing you can do to get better perforamnce out if either, as laptops aren't upgradable. If you want to build/get a computer that can actually play 3d games, it'll cost about $500-600 USD

[Darkraivids]

Originally posted by Gespenst Mk-II:

It's not a dinosaur, but it's not meant to play games.
All you have is an integrated graphics chip, it's not REALLY meant for 3d graphics and really only deisgned for web pages and videos.

There's nothing you can do to get better perforamnce out if either, as laptops aren't upgradable. If you want to build/get a computer that can actually play 3d games, it'll cost about $500-600 USD

I'll take that into consideration. In any case, I can keep 3dmark for whenever I decide to get a better PC and possibly raise my expectations. And for the record, it does actually play a lot of games in my opinion. Of course, not something of today's best console graphics, but it's not bad.

[Dave1029]

Originally posted by Darkraivids:

Originally posted by Gespenst Mk-II:

It's not a dinosaur, but it's not meant to play games.
All you have is an integrated graphics chip, it's not REALLY meant for 3d graphics and really only deisgned for web pages and videos.

There's nothing you can do to get better perforamnce out if either, as laptops aren't upgradable. If you want to build/get a computer that can actually play 3d games, it'll cost about $500-600 USD

I'll take that into consideration. In any case, I can keep 3dmark for whenever I decide to get a better PC and possibly raise my expectations. And for the record, it does actually play a lot of games in my opinion. Of course, not something of today's best console graphics, but it's not bad.

It's just a great benchmark tool for comparisons sake. And all reputable benchmarkers will release 3dmark scores so you can compare other cards scores to your own systems to know how much of a gain you will get by upgrading. The scaling is usually pretty accurate when seen in real game scenarios. Meaning, typically a 30% gain in 3dmark means a 30% gain ingame.