Futuremark Changing Name To UL, Launches New Website

The benchmarking artists formally known as MadOnion will soon be formally known as Futuremark. Back in 2014, safety and certification giant UL acquired Futuremark. As a long-time maker of accurate, reliable gaming and PC benchmark suites, Futuremark’s ideals seemed to align with UL’s. Ultimately, the acquisition seemed like a good thing to ensure continued growth for Futuremark, and perhaps gain even more worldwide respect.

Today, Futuremark has announced that its merging with UL is effectively complete, and soon, its name will go away in lieu of UL. Going forward, we’ll refer to 3DMark as “UL 3DMark” rather than “Futuremark 3DMark”. In all respects, the Futuremark name is done, done, done. And, I consider it a bit of a pity. The name is forward-thinking, incredibly apt for a company that makes benchmarks to help us gauge future content demands. UL 3DMark doesn’t quite have the same amount of punch to it.

Largely, I may feel that way simply due to nostalgia. Back before the turn of the century, MadOnion delivered multiple GPU benchmarks that simply wowed anyone who was lucky enough to watch a run play out. 3DMark 2001 was arguably the company’s most popular ever, almost taking on a cult classic status. Remember this?

This beauty of a benchmark was MadOnion’s first to use DirectX 8, and its “SE” edition added 8.1 support. The benchmark was well-known for its use of the Max Payne lobby scene, which was inspired a bit by The Matrix, with its slow-motion “bullet time” feature. After the name-change to Futuremark, the first 3DMark to carry the branding was the 2003 version:

Futuremark went on to release 3DMark 05, 06, Vantage, 11, and finally, “3DMark”. Nowadays, the company works under a single program name, and adds tests as time goes on. This makes it convenient from the company’s development standpoint, as well as the end-user’s, since dealing with one install is better than dealing with two.

Nonetheless, after April 23, the Futuremark name is going to be no more. The official URL for UL’s benchmarks can be found here. Futuremark’s website will be removed at the same time, and because of that, I’d like to draw your attention to the company’s legacy benchmarks page if you want to relive some of the company’s older 3DMarks. I can’t find a similar page on the new site, so there’s a chance they will not be moved over.

Ultimately, a name change doesn’t really mean too much. Futuremark remains committed to continuing doing what it’s done for the past 20 years, and that’s create robust benchmarks that properly push hardware, are simple to use, and are accurate. The first GPU benchmark ever on Techgage was of 3DMark 2001, and I suspect the company’s benchmarks will continue to remain an integral part of our digital toolbox for some time to come.