The launch of Futuremark's anticipated DirectX 11 graphics benchmark suite 3DMark 11, has been delayed. The software was earlier slated for release on the 30th of November, with pre-ordering already underway. The company is citing last-minute bugs as a reason for the delay. In a circular to the press, Futuremark said: "Over the weekend we made the difficult decision to postpone the launch of 3DMark 11 by a few days. Our aim is that 3DMark 11 should provide accurate, reliable and consistent results from the start. With that goal in mind we are taking some extra time now to fix a couple of difficult bugs rather than patching the benchmark immediately after launch."

The company does not have a new release date at hand, as it doesn't know how long the last-minute bug-squashing will take. "It might take a day, it might be a week, but either way we'll be in touch again soon to confirm the new launch date...," the circular added. 3DMark 11 is a comprehensive 3D hardware performance benchmark suite that makes use of the DirectX 11 API, making use of the very latest in consumer 3D graphics. It also provides an insight into what level of detail and realism one can expect from this generation of graphics processors.

Today during a keynote address at Computex 2009 in Taipei, Microsoft's OEM Division Corporate Vice President Steve Guggenheimer revealed that the company is confident with the progress made with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and that as a result, Microsoft will deliver Release to Manufacturing (RTM) code to partners in the second half of July. Windows 7 will become generally available on Oct. 22, 2009, and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be broadly available at the same time.

"As we've said many times, quality is our primary goal," Guggenheimer said. "We announce each milestone once we're confident of where we are in the development cycle and that it is ready to be shared with customers and partners. We've received great feedback from our partners who are looking forward to offering Windows 7 to their customers in time for the holidays."