Unigine released the latest version of Unigine Heaven, one of the industry's first DirectX 11 compliant 3D graphics benchmark applications. Version 2.5 of the software expands its feature set a little, the product is also branched into two variants: a free "basic edition" that gives most of the product's functionality to consumers, overclockers, and gamers; and a paid "professional edition", that gives data-logging and specific-functionality to aid professionals such as analysts, and reviewers, priced at US $495. The professional variant is also backed by technical support.

As far as new features go, Heaven 2.5 introduced support for new DirectX 11 features such as indirect occlusion (SSDO) to simulate real-time global illumination, improved hardware support, improved quality of ambient occlusion, and a number of stability improvements that help maintain long sessions of benchmarking. It also added a new help file, and a snappier installer. The professional edition includes command line automation support, data-logging in CSV format, stress-testing, a commercial use license, and technical support. The professional edition can be purchased from here.DOWNLOAD: Unigine Heaven 2.5 Basic Edition

Patriot Memory, a global pioneer in high-performance memory, NAND flash and computer technology, today announced the release of their Tri-Channel Viper II Series bundle packs with Futuremark 3DMark Vantage software.

Patriot Memory and Futuremark have teamed up once again to offer PC enthusiasts and overclockers the tools necessary to build the ultimate performance system. Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage, the world's #1 benchmarking software, offers consumers the chance to see how their system performs and stacks up against worldwide contention.

Despite the infamous SuperPi application being criticized as being "very simple, and horribly single-threaded", it is a very popular benchmarking application. And it has been quite the benchmark tool to measure just how amazing a certain persons CPU is. However, all that is about to change. A strain of SuperPi is coming that will allow SuperPi calculations to be carried out by the graphics processor. This new code, which will be helped out by CUDA, should be available in about one month's time.

Oh snap, another world record in the intense world of benchmarking. MemoryExtreme Team ITALY recently nabbed the 3DMark crown in both 3DMark05 and 3DMark06. System specs and screenshots are below. Enjoy.

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 @ 5800MHz
• ASUS P5E3 WS
• 2 x 1024 Cellshock DDR3 1800
• 2 x Radeon HD 2900XT 1250MHz/1880MHz
• Ultra X3 1600W power supply
• CPU pot MM rev3
• GPU pot Tek 9 3.0
• 80 liters of liquid nitrogen

Most of you know that Microsoft created a new Service Pack for Windows Vista, and is in the middle of getting it out to people. Some select testers, such as CNET, already have a copy of the final batch, and were obliged to give it a test drive. What they found confused and made people wonder why Microsoft worked so hard in the first place. While, yes, Vista SP1 is a lot more stable, and there are performance boosts in some areas, there are a sizable chunk of tests where Vista SP1 performed worse in than it's predecessor. The CNET tests concluded that while Vista SP1 definitely oozes with effort, most users will hardly notice the difference between vanilla Vista and Vista SP1. Most of the performance hits were seen when copying or transferring files. If you'd like to read the full review, please check out CNET here.

The 3DMark series is one of the most popular set of benchmarking tools in the world of computer enthusiasts. 3DMark Next, or so it will be called, is the official successor to 3DMark06. Unfortunately for a lot of enthusiasts, 3DMark Next will be Windows Vista and SM4 exclusive, which will almost certainly speed up the adoption of both on enthusiast computers. And now, without further ado, the system requirements (and the recommended system requirements).

3DMark Next System Requirements:

• x86/x64 single core CPU with SSE2 support. Performance similar to Intel Pentium D 3.2 GHz or better.
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 256 MB
• 1024 MB RAM
• 2 GB Free Disk Space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

3DMark Next Recommended System Requirements:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or equivalent AMD CPU.
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 512 MB
• 2048 MB RAM
• 2 GB Free Disk Space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)