Video Card Upgrade Install Guide
Video Card Upgrade Benchmark
A video card performance benchmark utility. This is a must-have in order to measure the performance of your video card so you can verify it is working as well as expected. The widely accepted and referenced standard is from Futuremark (formerly known as Madonion). I suggest getting at least 3DMark2001 Second Edition. 3DMark2001 Second Edition requires DirectX 8.1. Futuremark also has the more up-to-date 3DMark03 which can be used on computers with DirectX 9.0 installed.
They are available for free! That's the good news. They are huge downloads though, about 40MB for 3DMark2001 Second Edition and a whopping 170MB for 3DMark03. Dial-up users may find it difficult to download 3DMark2001 Second Edition and virtually impossible to download 3DMark03. It's very important to have at least one of these benchmarks so that you can verify the video card is performing up to expectations after the installation is complete.
The Futuremark benchmarks can be installed now by double-clicking on each downloaded file image. Optionally, they can be run against the existing video card already in the computer before the upgrade so you'll have an idea of how much performance has improved with the new video card. Note that 3DMark2001 Second Edition benchmark won't install unless you have at least DirectX 8.1 on your computer and that 3DMark03 won't install unless you have DirectX 9.
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© 2001-2015, Rob Williams, all rights reserved.
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