Driver status - Not FM Approved ?

[Jarnis]

I'll have to investigate this a bit - it'll be tomorrow before the team is again at the office.

[JackalJackal]

Thank you. [yes]

[Jarnis]

By the way, one thing you could try, if you have any desktop monitors/projectors/TVs available - connect your laptop to an external display and set that as primary and run the benchmark. Might solve your issue.

[JackalJackal]

Unfortunately, I do not have such options. Tomorrow help me please. Thank you.

[dragomirc]

There is no help. You need 1280x1024 resolution in order to run default settings bench and get a score.
You should read

Requirement: Fully DirectX10-compliant graphics hardware Display Device Capable of 1280x1024 resolution

Your display 1600x900 do not meet requiremet.

[JackalJackal]

Thank you, waste of money, okay, thanks. My mistake.

[dragomirc]

Thank you, waste of money, okay, thanks. My mistake.

No, it is not waste of money. You own the benchmark, and could use it on your future hardware.

[Jarnis]

Also, if this is the issue (I'll have to check one thing tomorrow), it is possible that it will be changed in the future. It is on the list of things we hope to patch in 3DMark Vantage. Unfortunately I don't have any ETA on such a patch yet.

[JackalJackal]

Thank you. [yes]

[Jarnis]

Okay, I've fully investigated this (sorry, took a while) and it seems that you have uncovered a new bug in the product that causes it to work wrong on your computer and that causes the "no 3DMark score" problem. Driver status/approval ultimately has nothing to do with this (and unless you are interested in chasing world records on a leaderboard, it really isn't that important concern, especially with laptops and their custom drivers).

Here is the deal:

Basic Edition of 3DMark Vantage offers no options to change - it should only run at Performance preset (1280x1024 resolution).

In your case, it has automatically switched to your panel resolution (1600x900) while still provably running CPU tests (which always run at 1280x1024) just fine, indicating that your system *can* switch to 1280x1024 and should be able to produce a benchmark score.

This "auto-switch" to Custom (1600x900) is the bug. It shouldn't do that. It is also the reason you get no 3DMark score as Custom presets get no overall score (only GPU and CPU scores).

The fix would be to force Performance preset, but Basic edition doesn't have that option.

So I'm sending you a private message (check your forum PMs) with a complimentary 3DMark Vantage Advanced Edition key. With that key you unlock all the benchmark options and should be able to force the benchmark to work as it should (switch to Performance preset) and get a 3DMark score.

Note that the benchmark itself will either run "stretched" on your panel or with black bars on right and left sides of the screen - this is normal due to the type of panel your laptop has. It is just a visual flaw - the main thing, dependable, comparable 3DMark score should still be generated as the run is done at the Performance preset resolution (1280x1024) required.

We'll note this issue as something to be fixed in a future patch.