3dMark 2001 must use Direct X 8 and is made for cards fully DX8 compatable. The Geforce2 GTS can't even run many of the test, and the Radeon does only a little better. It is therefore not made for the majority of graphics cards.
Most of these newer benchmarks test features which are not available in most games, even newer titles, so the test does not even reflect capability of current cards to run current games. Therefor 2000 is more applicable to performance in current games.
Many people cannot run DX8 properly because of a lack of support for their hardware. Certain sound cards and video cards are suceptable to DX8 incompatability.
Because of compatability issues, DX8 can slow many systmes down, resulting in a loss of performance in games. Since it is very difficult to uninstall DX8, installing it just to run 2001 would be foolhardy for many configurations, as it would hurt game performance.
3dMark 2001 is not applicable to most hardware and most games. As hardware and games progress, it will become more aplicable. It is a good test for the future compatability/performance of a system, not the current comatability/performance.
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