Some Governments Begin Selecting PCMark To Detail Minimum Requirements For PC Performance

In the 17 years that Futuremark has existed, it's name has become well-known among PC hardware-focused sites like HotHardware, as well as PC enthusiasts in general. While we've largely trusted the company's benchmarks in our testing for quite some time, it seems that some governments are just starting to wise up to their usefulness.

In its latest press release, Futuremark goes into detail about four governments that have adopted its PCMark 8 benchmark, one that's designed to test the overall capabilities of a PC. For starters, the EU's Directorate-General for Informatics, or DIGIT, has used the benchmark to gauge minimum performance for over 100,000 PCs to be deployed to over 50 organizations.

Further, the government in Brazil has used the benchmark to help decide an order for 61,000 desktops and 13,000 notebooks, while France has made use of it to ultimately fill an order of 60,000 PCs. While a smaller order compared to the others, Northern Ireland has also used PCMark 8 to help process a contract for over 20,000 PCs.

No matter the number of PCs that results from PCMark's guidance, to see the benchmark used by governments is a major win for Futuremark. Given that it's starting to catch on, I can't help but wonder if we'll see governments on these shores pursue Futuremark's wares in the near-future.