Futuremark ends support for Peacekeeper benchmark

I have run my fair share of browser benchmarks ever since I founded Ghacks to compare browser performance. Among the benchmarks that I used regularly in the past couple of years were SunSpider, Mozilla's Kraken benchmark, Google's Octane benchmark, and Futuremark's Peacekeeper.

All benchmarks have in common that they test JavaScript performance of the browser by letting it perform complex operations and calculating scores based on that performance.

Peacekeeper has a lot going for it that other benchmarks don't offer. First, it is highly visual and not just displaying test names and results in its interface.

Second, it keeps track of scores and makes it easier to compare them across devices. And finally, it includes tests that simulate several real-world scenarios such as rendering, playing games or using Web Workers.

Futuremark announced a moment ago that it will end support for Peacekeeper. This does not mean that Peacekeeper will be pulled from the web but that Futuremark won't support it anymore nor develop new versions of it.

The company explains that speed differences between browsers are largely negligible nowadays and that other things, such as extensions, memory use or supported features have moved into focus of Internet users.

The impact

There won't be any short term impact. Peacekeeper remains available on the Internet so that it can still be used to benchmark web browsers. Results can be saved and accessed as well on the website.

Long term though, it will be of limited use when it comes to benchmarks. It won't support new technologies for instance which may become important in the coming years.

Futuremark suggests to use other company products, PCMark most notably, as it includes web browsing performance tests as well. Unlike Peacekeeper, PCMark is not free.

Other changes

Futuremark announced additional changes to its portfolio. It made the decision to pull 3DMark Windows RT version from Windows Store, and do the same for 3DMark Vantage from Steam.

The company notes that bought copies will remain supported, and that 3D Mark Vantage will remain available on the company website, and that 3DMark for Windows RT will be offered on request only.

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