Futuremark Releases Major Update for PCMark 8

Futuremark released a new major update to the popular benchmarking application PCMark 8 that accommodates the latest changes in Adobe After Effects and provides better support for NVMe SSDs. This is a major update that will affect scores, which also means that results from this version shouldn’t be compared to older versions of the software. The new version is PCMark 8 v2.6.512 and it is ready now.

While the changes to Adobe After Effects and NVMe support provides better scores thanks to optimizations, the Home, Creative, and Work benchmark scores are not affected and can be compared to previous versions without trouble. Changing the scores dramatically, like it happened in this case, is never something good. But it is something that can be necessary to do at times, seeing how our technology evolves.

“Whenever possible, we avoid making workload changes that affect scores. But occasionally there are post-launch changes in 3rd party applications that affect our tests. Or new technologies appear that we could not have predicted when developing the benchmark.”

The latest version of Adobe After Effects CC no longer supports output to compressed Windows Media Video, which was the format that previously was used for the tests. As a result, Futuremark had to change the test to output to uncompressed AVI format instead. The better NVMe support will provide better scores on those drives in most cases, but the change won’t affect other types of drives.

Change Log

Adobe Applications benchmark

• Adobe Applications benchmark has been updated to version 2.0. Scores should not be compared with earlier versions.
• The After Effects test output has been changed to uncompressed AVI format as the latest version of Adobe After Effects CC no longer supports output to compressed Windows Media Video format.
• Use Compatibility mode to compare scores with historical result data. This also requires an older version of After Effects that supports Windows Media Video.

Storage benchmark

• The Storage and Expanded Storage benchmarks have been updated to version 2.0. Scores should not be compared with earlier versions.
• The tests now provide better support for NVMe drives. Scores from NVMe drives will improve in some cases. The faster the drive, the bigger the difference. Other types of drive are unaffected.

Improved

• General stability and error handling have been improved.
• SystemInfo module updated to 4.41 for improved hardware compatibility.

Fixed

• Video Chat test now works even when there is no audio device in the system.
• Fixed a bug that could cause PCMark 8 to crash when the SystemInfo module failed.
• Fixed several issues found on non-English language Windows installations.

Professional Edition only

• Command line now offers temp path selection.
• XML output now shows battery life in minutes not seconds for more intuitive results.

As always you can find the full information about the entire benchmark application on the official website or download your own version. If you already have the app installed, then it should prompt you with an update notification next time that you run it.