Futuremark Corporation today launched a new competition for PC overclockers. The "THROWDOWN" competition will see contestants worldwide aiming to achieve the highest combined 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage scores using Intel and GIGABYTE hardware.
The Throwdown contest runs for four weeks from November 1–28 and features two 
competition categories. For the first time there will be a category for PCs with integrated graphics using Intel’s H55 chipset and 3DMark Vantage with the entry preset. The other category for discrete graphics adapters has a new twist - contestants must combine 3DMark06 and 3DMark Vantage scores to enter. Prizes will be awarded to the top three scores in each category.
Futuremark Overclockers Throwdown Prizes include
- GIGABYTE GA-H55-USB3 and GA-X58-UD9 motherboards
- GIGABYTE GV-R5750OC-1GI ATI Graphic Card
- Antec DF-35 Dark Fleet Gaming Case
- Kingston HyperX H2O DDR3 Memory
- Enermax MODU87+ 700 Watt Power Supply
- GlacialTech ALASKA Cooler
Additional weekly lucky draw winners will be chosen randomly to win hardware and a FREE copy of "Shattered Horizon", Futuremark’s innovative multiplayer FPS for PC.
"We are excited to bring overclockers new ways to compete with our new Throwdown competition," said Jukka Mäkinen, Futuremark CEO. "Featuring our first ever overclocking competition for integrated graphics and a fresh twist on the top score category, the competition promises to be a lot of fun."
“This THROWDOWN competition represents new challenges to all overclockers worldwide with categories and prizes for both discrete GPU overclocking as well as integrated H55 overclocking. This should be a no gloves fight to the finish,” said Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at GIGABYTE Technology Co. Ltd.
"Antec’s Dark Fleet cases were designed with the needs of PC gamers and power users in mind,” said Scott Richards, senior vice president of Antec. “We’re pleased to show our support by rewarding the talents of the competition’s top participants with one of our newest, innovative and unique products: the Dark Fleet DF-85 full-tower chassis.”
“Extreme performance is what overclockers are looking for. Through stringent testing and quality assurance, Kingston’s HyperX DDR3 memory modules are tailor-made for extreme performance. By using HyperX overclockers will be able to challenge themselves and reach the extreme limits of this competition,” said Ann Bai, DRAM Memory Sales Director of APAC Region, Kingston.
Contestants will be competing to see who can achieve the highest Entry-preset score in 3DMark Vantage using Intel H55 integrated graphics only and the highest combined score using a discrete graphics adapter with 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark06, two benchmark programs from Futuremark that measure a PC’s gaming performance using DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 respectively. Featuring a combination of real-time visual and numerical computation tests, 3DMark is the standard for measuring PC gaming performance and is supported by an online database containing over 45 million results.
For further details of the competition please visit the offical competition page.
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