Futuremark, the benchmarking specialist formerly known as MadOnion.com, has announced that it is officially retiring its 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage products.
Known more for its 3DMark family of benchmarks, and less for its unsuccessful attempt to enter the games market, Futuremark has long been a part of the overclocking and performance PC scene - even after a sale to Underwriters Laboratories in 2014 gave it reason to focus more on the professional and industrial end of the performance-measuring market. Those using its Vantage-branded products, though, are advised that their time has come: 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage, written when Windows Vista was still new and shiny, will enter end-of-life status on April 11th.
Designed to test a system's DirectX 10 gaming performance, 3DMark Vantage is undeniably a little creaky around the edges in a world which has long moved on to DirectX 11 and in some cases the Windows 10-exclusive DirectX 12. PCMark Vantage, by contrast, is still a little more useful as a general-purpose benchmarking package, though has itself been replaced by PCMark 7 and PCMark 8, for Windows 7 and Windows 8 respectively, while Futuremark has PCMark 10 for Windows 10 waiting in the wings.
From April 11th, the company has confirmed, customer support for both 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage will end, as will the benchmarks' ability to submit and verify results with Futuremark's online database. The company isn't deleting them entirely, though: both packages will be made available for free download indefinitely, though will receive no updates for bug fixes or compatibility issues from April onwards.
The company's move to end support for 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage follows the latter's removal from Valve's Steam digital distribution platform in July 2015, at the same time as the company retired its 3DMark for Windows RT and Peacekeeper browser benchmarks.
Known more for its 3DMark family of benchmarks, and less for its unsuccessful attempt to enter the games market, Futuremark has long been a part of the overclocking and performance PC scene - even after a sale to Underwriters Laboratories in 2014 gave it reason to focus more on the professional and industrial end of the performance-measuring market. Those using its Vantage-branded products, though, are advised that their time has come: 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage, written when Windows Vista was still new and shiny, will enter end-of-life status on April 11th.
Designed to test a system's DirectX 10 gaming performance, 3DMark Vantage is undeniably a little creaky around the edges in a world which has long moved on to DirectX 11 and in some cases the Windows 10-exclusive DirectX 12. PCMark Vantage, by contrast, is still a little more useful as a general-purpose benchmarking package, though has itself been replaced by PCMark 7 and PCMark 8, for Windows 7 and Windows 8 respectively, while Futuremark has PCMark 10 for Windows 10 waiting in the wings.
From April 11th, the company has confirmed, customer support for both 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage will end, as will the benchmarks' ability to submit and verify results with Futuremark's online database. The company isn't deleting them entirely, though: both packages will be made available for free download indefinitely, though will receive no updates for bug fixes or compatibility issues from April onwards.
The company's move to end support for 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage follows the latter's removal from Valve's Steam digital distribution platform in July 2015, at the same time as the company retired its 3DMark for Windows RT and Peacekeeper browser benchmarks.
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