Futuremark 3DMark05 countdown started

Yesterday Futuremark launched the countdown for the newest version of its popular benchmark software, 3DMark05. Many people thought it would be released when the counter hit 0, but in fact the 0 wasn't a digit but the letter O.

Currently the counter shows the letter W. Speculations have arisen that 3DMark05 will be launched when the counter has shown all the letters of a word. But which word? Some think that it's 'OWNE' and others think 'OWNAGE' or even other variants.


3DMark05 Minimum System Recommendations/Requirements:

* DirectX 9 compatible graphics adapter with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 or later, and graphics memory of 128 MB or above.
* x86 compatible processor with SSE support, 2GHz or above
* 512 MB system memory or more.
* 1.5 GB of free hard disk space.
* Windows 2000 or XP operating system with the latest Service Packs and updates installed.
* DirectX 9.0c runtime installed with the latest updates.
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 installed, for some 3DMark functionality.
* Microsoft Excel 2000, 2003 or XP, for some 3DMark05 Pro functionality.
* Microsoft DirectX 9 Summer Update 2004 System Development Kit is required to run the image quality test using the reference rasterizer (3DMark05 Pro).





The normal version of 3DMark05 will be available for free. The Pro version, 3DMark05 Pro, which offers some more features will be available for $29.95 on CD-ROM, or $19.95 when you download it. And the Business Edition of 3DMark05 will be shipping on CD-ROM for $250.

More info over at Futuremark. Don't forget to turn of popup-blockers, as they could block the pop-up counter.