Dan,
FWIW, here's FutureMarks take on the issue
Correct usage of AMD's Athlon specific K7 DLL with 3DMark? 99 MAX
In conjunction with the launch of AMD's Athlon (K7) processor AMD has distributed an Athlon specific version of Futuremark's 3DMark 99 MAX. Although this happened with the permission of Futuremark Corporation, it is not meant to replace 3DMark 99 MAX as the official benchmarking product. We must emphasize the following items related to the usage
of AMD's Athlon specific K7 DLL with 3DMark 99 MAX:
- This Athlon specific DLL has been done by AMD engineers, at AMD labs, independently by AMD, and without any support from Futuremark.
- No other CPU manufacturers have been given a chance to make optimizations. As such, it is inappropriate to compare the AMD special DLL version results with the official 3Dmark 99 MAX version results.
- No end-users will be given the opportunity to verify and replicate the performance using the AMD special DLL version as the DLL will not be made available to the general public.
- This DLL should not under any circumstances be treated as an official product release. It is not under any circumstances meant to replace or be a new version of 3DMark.
- The official use and/or reporting of scores should be based solely on 3DMark 99 MAX as provided by Futuremark, and should not include results based on any AMD specific engineering version of the software.
Any other use or reporting of the scores is considered to be a violation against Futuremark's trademarks. 3DMark 2000 will incorporate full scale testing features for all new technology available at the time of its launch. Futuremark strives to give the industry testing professionals as in-depth performance information as possible.
3DMark? and Futuremark? are trademarks of Futuremark Corporation. All other brands and names are property of their respective owners.
For more information please refer to futuremark.com or:
Nathan Harley, Vice President, Marketing and Sales
e-mail: nathan@futuremark.com
Sounds to me that FutureMark is saying that AMD's test are to be ignored and that only tests using FutureMark's version of the software count for anything.
However, as someone else posted, while this is interesting, I don't believe it has anything to do with Rambus.
Dave |
