PC system owners prepare to return to Proxycon and welcome back that queasy inadequate feeling. GameSpot will premier 3DMark06, Futuremark's newest 3D benchmarking program, on Wednesday, January 18.

Longtime 3DMark users will recognize many of the tests from previous versions, but Futuremark has increased the complexity of each test to take advantage of the latest graphics hardware. 3DMark06 has an upgraded Canyon Flight test originally introduced in 3DMark05 and a brand new Deep Freeze test that make extensive use of Shader Model 3.0 and HDR rendering, two highly touted features available in the latest GPUs from Nvidia and ATI.

While 3DMark05 could only measure single-core CPU performance, the new 3DMark06 CPU test suite has support for single-core and dual-core processors. Acknowledging the increasing importance of AI and physics calculations in-game, the 3DMark06 now includes CPU performance in the overall 3DMark06 score.