Gigabyte Throwdown 2010

[Pasi_FM]

We have another competition with Gigabyte starting next week, November 1st.

Gigabyte Throwdown

This time we have two different categories for Gigabyte motherboards with Intel chipsets.

As an additional twist, in the "Any GPU"-segment your overall score will be your score in 3DMark Vantage _plus_ your score in 3DMark06.

You can enter this segment with either one of the benchmarks, but naturally your score just increases if you run the other one as well.

Contest runs from four weeks from November 1st to November 28th.

There are prizes for top 3 and lucky draw prizes given out each week randomly drawn among all users who submit a valid score for the contest with either 3DMark Vantage or 3DMark06.

Here are the requirements for the two categories:

The GIGABYTE H55 Integrated Graphics Competition

Hardware Requirements:
GIGABYTE-brand motherboard with Intel H55 chipset.
Integrated Intel HD Graphics only, no discrete graphics cards allowed.

Benchmark Used:
3DMark Vantage - Entry preset

Scoring:
Your Integrated Graphics score is 3DMark Vantage (E) score.


The GIGABYTE X58/P55/H55 Overall Competition

Hardware Requirements:
GIGABYTE-brand motherboard with Intel X58, P55 or H55 chipset.
The graphics card manufacturer, based on the subsystem vendor ID must be GIGABYTE,ATI/AMD or NVIDIA, graphics cards from other manufacturers are not allowed.

Benchmark Used:
3DMark Vantage - Performance preset and/or 3DMark06 - default settings

Scoring
User overall score is 3DMark Vantage (P) score + 3DMark06 score.

Users can enter the contest with just one benchmark; in that case the score for the other benchmark is 0.

Read more: Gigabyte Throwdown

[idchoppers]

Awesome! Physx invalidates scores, right?

[Pasi_FM]

Awesome! Physx invalidates scores, right?

Yes. Standard scoring validity rules apply, so submits need to have approved drivers and no PhysX run on the GPU or other shenanigans.

We should also have the latest Intel HD Graphics drivers approved for use before the contest begins.

Edit:

These are now the latest approved drivers for Intel HD Graphics to use with 3DMark Vantage:

32bit: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...&DwnldID=19333
64bit: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...&DwnldID=19336

Please use these drivers to ensure score validity for the H55 Integrated contest!

[Pasi_FM]

Small change to the contest rules.

The H55 integrated part of the contest will be using 3DMark Vantage Entry preset only.

[Pasi_FM]

We have an upgrade to the prizes:

Antec has graciously upgraded the 2nd prize in both high scoring categories to a DF-85 case. The DF-35 cases have been added to the 3rd place prize.

The contest page will be changed to reflect this.

[ChrysoGo5u]

Where do we post our scores. Not sure what ORB is.

[Langaleer]

Where do we post our scores. Not sure what ORB is.

Once you have ran 3DMark, it has a button of "Submit to ORB"

[Pasi_FM]

Where do we post our scores. Not sure what ORB is.

ORB is the Futuremark online service that should be easy to reach with both benchmarks once you've run the benchmark.

Remember you also have to register for the ORB so we know who to contact if you win and make the score public for validation (except if your using the trial edition of 3DMark Vantage, then you will be identified through the email you requested the trial key with).

So after submitting the score:

1) Choose register from the left hand column and fill in the form.
2) Log in
3) Click on "My results"
4) Click on "Make Public" on the result you're entering to the contest

[BOG_DAN]

Hi, i have a question.
For Nvidia video cards latest approved drivers for Vantage/3dmark 2006 are 258.96?

[Pasi_FM]

Hi, i have a question.
For Nvidia video cards latest approved drivers for Vantage/3dmark 2006 are 258.96?

Yes, this is correct for the time being.

However, we should have the newer 260.99 drivers approved before the contest period ends.

Should this happen, any results submitted with these drivers during the contest period become valid for the contest, regardless of when the submit was made.