The brainy benchmarking nerds at Futuremark dropped us a note to let us know about a 3DMark 11 update now available for download. It's a relatively minor update with a handful of tweaks, and any results produced following the patch are compatible and comparable with results produced by earlier versions, the Finnish software maker claims.

Futuremark originally delayed the release of its much anticipated 3DMark 11 benchmark in order to "fix a couple of difficult bugs rather than patching the benchmark immediately after launch." Mission accomplished, as today's update to version 1.01 doesn't quite qualify as "immediately," though it does come just two weeks after the benchmark went live.

"Unfortunately such wide scale use has brought to light a few issues that weren't caught by our own testing," Futuremark told us in an email. "So today we are releasing an update to 3DMark 11 to fix those problems and add a couple of requested features. Note, until Nvidia release new drivers SLI will continue to be unavailable in 3DMark 11."

There are eight fixes and feature additions for all editions for 3DMark 11, three for the Advanced and Professional editions only, and three for the just the Professional edition.

Specifics and download info can be found here.

Futuremark has some good news for all you benchmarking braggarts looking for new scores to boast in your favorite forum(s). Following what turned out to be a short delay, the much anticipated 3DMark 11 has gone gold.

3DMark 11 is the latest addition to Futuremark's GPU benchmarking suite and is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware through six all new tests. There are three versions to choose from:

• 3DMark 11 Basic Edition: Free download offering an unlimited number of benchmark runs using the performance preset
• 3DMark 11 Advanced Edition: Offers all presets, custom settings, benchmark looping, unlimited online results storage, offline results management, and a few other goodies for $20.
• 3DMark 11 Professional Edition: The only edition licensed for commercial use. Includes all features, such as command automation, an image quality tool, logo-free demo looping, and priority support. This one runs $995.

New features added to 3DMark 11 include additional language support (including German, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Finnish), a native DirectX 11 engine, open source Bullet Physics library, and an improved online service.

3DMark 11

Futuremark, the Finland-based maker of several popular benchmarking tools, today announced that 3DMark 11 will be released on November 30, 2010, with pre-orders beginning today.

The free version includes the Performance PC benchmark preset, an audio/visual demo fixed at 720p, the ability to browser, search, and compare results online, and store one result online.

For $20, the Advanced Edition ups the ante with Entry-level and Extreme PC benchmark presets, custom benchmark settings, custom resolutions for the audio/visual demo, benchmark looping to test stability, unlimited online results storage, hide results from public view, advert-free online service, and offline result management.

3DMark is largely a graphics card benchmarking utility with the upcoming release putting a heavy focus on DirectX 11, including tessellation and volumetric lighting created with DX11.

Teaser preview below.