Maxon has released a new version of Cinebench to download and use! The previous version of Cinebench (R11.5) was released in 2010, so this update is big new as this is one of the most widely used free benchmarks even in the circle of extreme overclockers.

Maxon has spent significant time towards the design of the OpenGL test scene to make the task of benchmarking a bit more exciting. The car chase used in this test is designed for a PAL-standard of 25 fps. If you open the scene in Cinema 4D (Maon's animation software), the reported polygon count is roughly 280,000 polygons. This doesn't fully reflect the polygon count processed by the graphics card, which is between 500,000 and 1 million polygons. The OpenGL benchmark requires a graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.1 and has at least 512 MB of graphics memory.

Not only have all the tests been updated and revamped, but the scoring system has changed. Previous Cinebench versions reported scores in the range of about on to fifty, while Cinebench R15 reports much higher CPU scores with decimal accuracy. You can download Cinebench R15 here.

• Benchmark page at HWBOT: http://hwbot.org/benchmark/cinebench_r15/
• Benchmark launch competition at HWBOT: http://hwbot.org/competition/cinebenchr15_launch

PS: in the twenty minutes it took to see the news, add the benchmark application, configure the competition, and write this news post, Flexjenl already submitted the first Cinebench R15 benchmark result. A new form of benchmark sniping at HWBOT? Awesome!