Futuremark, the developer of benchmarks like 3DMark and PCMark, announced that as of April 23, it will be dissolving its name entirely. Although its business of developing benchmarks and supporting the existing testing solutions will continue and there will be no structural changes to Futuremark itself, it will henceforth be known as UL.
The history of Futuremark is in many ways, the history of 3D benchmarking itself. What began as an offshoot of Remedy Entertainment — the developer of the first two Max Payne games — became Futuremark, which became Mad Onion for a time, and then it became Futuremark again before being purchased in 2014 by UL, a global testing and inspection company. Just as it can provide certification for carpet safety, it can it tell you if your PC is VR-ready.
In less than two weeks’ time though, the Futuremark name will be officially retired. It has been very clear in its announcement that nothing about Futuremark itself will change, but the name will be gone. Benchmark brands like 3DMark, PCMark, and VRMark will continue as they are, though the Futuremark website will be dissolved too. All future downloads and key purchases will happen through UL’s website.
You can look at a preview of the “benchmark” corner of the UL website here. Although the URL will change, any attempts to go to the old Futuremark site will still direct you there, so don’t fear losing track of where to download your benchmarks from.
If you’re an avid follower of any of Futuremark’s social media accounts, you won’t need to worry about finding them. All existing accounts will remain active and will simply be rebranded as UL Benchmarks.
Although this represents the end of an era for a company name that has been around since the late 1990s, it shouldn’t leave fans concerned about ongoing innovations. The same Futuremark team has been working hard to stay on the cutting edge of PC graphics developments and recently announced itself as leveraging new ray-tracing technology for future 3DMark releases. Considering how pretty (and taxing) that benchmark has been in the past, any new developments under the UL banner should be just as impressive.
