3DMark 07 is the coming benchmark suite from Futuremark and now when the developer Niklas Renqvist reveals some details about it, it turns out that it will be Windows Vista only and that it requires a DirectX 10 compatible graphics card. This comes as no surprise since 3DMark has always been about the latest hardware and support for the very latest graphics interfaces and effects. This means that pretty much all enthusiasts that haven’t already switched to Vista will do so soon. There’s no word on AGEIA and PhysX, but maybe later.
“We have been working really hard on new advanced volumetric effects for the next 3DMark. 3DMark06 has some nice volumetric rendering going on, and though we were very pleased with the results, we want to go into 6th gear in the next 3DMark. This (along with the other cool things we have in the pipeline) will bring the next 3DMark into an era of “cinematic rendering”, as we like to call it. :)”
