PCMark® Vantage Reviews

Reviews of PCMark Vantage

• accelenation
  "There is little doubt that PCMark Vantage is the definitive Vista testing package. We are not particularly overjoyed by the incorporation of advertising, but that is more a sign of the times than anything else. Maybe a more appropriate name would have been Ad-Vantage. We also have concerns regarding both Vista’s ability to deliver consistent results and the price of the full Professional version. However, the principle benefit of Vantage, as with all FutureMark products, derives from the ability to compare specific system metrics with a vast online database. This is extremely useful when trying to ascertain any performance bottlenecks or issues bogging down a particular system. Overall, we were particularly impressed by the stability of this initial release and the broad range of included tests. We expect that PCMark Vantage will eventually become the authoritative Vista benchmarking suite of choice, and as the uptake of Vista increases, so will the success of Vantage."
  
• Björn3D.com
  "I am quite impressed by PCMark Vantage. Futuremark has worked hard to find all sorts of relevant tests and overall I think they succeeded. I must admit I would never have come up with the idea of testing how good a computer is of cataloguing music or images but that is a real useful test that could tell you that the reason your computer is slow is not because the CPU is crappy but because that old hard drive is being the bottleneck. Overall Futuremark has managed to put together test suites that make sense."
  
• Club Overclocker
  "Futuremark's testing philosophy has always been an interesting one. The idea that you can assign some kind of calculated number to measure a systems relative performance has always been the subject of intense debate. In order to have the most fair rating system, the method of determining this number must be perfectly fair. Of course, this is impossible, because each user has a different definition of an ideal system. So, in response, PCMark Vantage separates all the tests into different "User Scenarios", so that the end user can determine for themselves what suites are important and which ones are not. Want to build an HTPC? Then judge your system by the TV and Movies Suite. How about a gaming rig? Then go by the Gaming Suite."
  
• Crave
  " Will we integrate PCMark Vantage into our standard test methodologies for Vista-based desktops and laptops? What I've seen so far is promising; but I reserve making my final decision until I've had the chance to try it out on more systems."
  
• EliteBastards
  "Ever since PCMark was first released by FutureMark some years ago now, each iteration of the benchmark has further improved upon the company's remit to provide reproducible testing based around real-world system usage patterns. From that angle, PCMark Vantage is the most polished version of this application so far, fitting in tightly with both the look and functionality offered by Windows Vista. It's certainly good to see this application taking note of items like High Definition video playback and transcoding, which is only going to become more popular as time goes by, while other items such as audio encoding, web browsing, gaming and so on are always guaranteed to be at the top of most users priorities."
  
• PC Perspective
  "I applaud Futuremark for going after a more application-based and real-world-centric testing configuration this time around with PCMark Vantage. They quite obviously spent a lot of time on the new software suite and it shows – there are many more tests with more specific tasks in mind than we have ever seen in a Futuremark benchmark.
  The testing scenarios are both useful and seem to be fairly accurate for normal users and how they utilize their systems. Image manipulation, video encoding and editing, music encoding, gaming, productivity: they are all covered."
  
• PlanetX64
  "FutureMark has thought of that though, what they have done is to create a suite of tests that can run multiple threads (each one running a different calculation) simultaneously. This allows for much more of a real-world test and gives reproducible “numbers” that really do reflect what your system is capable of. We here at Planetx64 will be using PCMark Vantage for our testing and to help provide you with more and more accurate evaluations."
  
• Techgage
  "Is the new version worth giving a try? Of course it is. Whether you are an enthusiast overclocker or a casual user, seeing where your computer ranks against others is fun. Although the $6.95 price tag for the Basic Edition might rub a few the wrong way, it's understandable as considerable development time has gone into Vantage, and it's obvious, even though most of the suite is run behind the scenes. Those who regularly purchase the Advanced Edition whenever a new version is available will not be effected by the pricing changes."
  
• X-bit labs
  "The new complex performance benchmark – Futuremark PCMark Vantage - will become a very useful tool for a lot of users out there. Of course, it will be of interest to professionals, such as chipset, processor and graphics card developers and system integrators. Reviewers on numerous hardware review web-sites will also hardly do without it. However, PCMark Vantage will also be very useful for ordinary users thanks to the new Microsoft Windows Vista OS support and to the real applications used as basis for its tests."