Support ending for 3DMark 11, PCMark 7 and other benchmarks

With Microsoft planning to bring Windows 7 support to an end next month, UL Benchmarks is also planning to sunset some of its well-known benchmarking tools. From the 14th of January 2020, there will no longer be support or updates for 3DMark 11, PCMark 7, Powermark, 3DMark Cloud Gate or 3DMark Ice Storm. 

All of these benchmarks released between 2011-2013 and while they were incredibly useful for testing hardware at the time, they are no longer deemed useful for testing modern hardware. In each case, there is a newer, up to date benchmark that can be used instead.

So 3DMark 11 is replaced by 3DMark Time Spy, 3DMark Cloud Gate and Ice Storm are replaced by 3DMark Night Raid and PCMark 7 has been replaced by PCMark 10. With PCMark 10, it also doubles as a replacement for Powermark, as it includes a battery life test.

3DMark 11, PCMark 7, Powermark, 3DMark Cloud Gate and 3DMark Ice Storm will no longer be sold on app stores or Steam from January 14th 2020, nor will they get customer support or receive updates. Users who do own 3DMark 11 on Steam can continue to download it and use it from their library.

Once support for these benchmarks come to an end, they will join UL's legacy benchmark page, which contains downloads for tests going all the way back to 3DMark99, although these are provided for entertainment value and are not guaranteed to work with modern operating systems.

KitGuru Says: Every piece of software has a life cycle and while these benchmarks have served us well over the years, they have all been replaced by more modern tests. Did any of you use any of these benchmarks back in the day? Do any of you still use any of them when testing out new upgrades? 

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