Via NordicHardware: "3DMark Next is the name of the successor to 3DMark 06. The developers at Futuremark have been rather quiet about the upcoming 3D benchmark, but we do know that it will be Vista and DirectX 10 / Shader Model 4.0 exclusive.

Publishers Minimum System

• x86/x64 single core CPU with SSE2 support. Performance similar to Intel Pentium D 3.2 GHz or better.
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 256 MB
• 1024 MB RAM
• 2 GB Free Disk Space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)

Publishers Recommended System

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or equivalent AMD CPU.
• Fully D3D10/SM4.0 compliant graphics card, 512 MB
• 2048 MB RAM
• 2 GB Free Disk Space
• Windows Vista (Server editions not supported)"

Even though synthetic benchmarks aren't an indicator of real world performance, the demand for a standardized benchmark for everyone to compare each other to is still something people demand and Futuremark is happy to supply. Many users will probably be peeved at the fact that this version of 3DMark is Windows Vista only but times are a changin'. It's getting to the point where Microsoft Vista is slowly becoming accepted, especially amongst new PC buyers whose system come equipped with the OS. When Vista first came out I gave it a shot for a month and promptly formatted the garbage. Not only was the visual design a mess and completely inconsistent across the system, but it just performed terribly. These days Redmond is issuing hotfixes and patches left and right to improve performance but try asking anyone running Vista x64, Creative X-Fi and 4GB's of RAM whether they think their experience has been great...

Have you ever run a 3DMark benchmark on your system?

Yes.

No.

Source @ NordicHardware