Mark Hachman talks at Extremetech about AMD’s Game! Initiative and some of the problems associated to PC gaming. He makes his proposal of a rating system to state what PC do you need to run what games, and what games you can run with your PC. The proposal is not bad, but I think most gamers would agree in that there is already a de facto standard for PC gaming benchmarks: 3DMark. But there are 2 steps lacking to use 3D Mark values as a true rating system for the PC gaming industry:
- State the mark achieved in PCs and graphics cards.
- State the mark needed to run the game in the “system requirements” area. Something like: 1500 for Basic experience, 3000 for Standard experience, 9000 for Extreme experience, or similar. Experience levels should be defined to match a given resolution and image quality.
Maybe a benchmark better than 3D Mark could be developed, but I think a benchmark-based aproach is the ideal. My laptop scores 360 in 3DMark 06 and that tells to any gamer that it’s not suitable for playing most games: I don’t have to say anything more about its specs. You get the idea.
Other approaches are possible: i.e., I’ve been wondering for a long time about the creation of a database joining graphics cards with frames per second achieved in games: if enough people contributed, it would be useful. The point is: to create an objective way to relate performance offered with performance needed, and use it in PCs and games. Does it seem so difficult?
Update: more info about the topic at Ars Technica, Digital Trends, Engadget, Gizmodo. I find specially interesting the article about AMD Game! at PC Perspective.
