Microsoft today announced that ExtremeTech, the technology enthusiast's web site launched last year by Ziff Davis Media, will use the critically acclaimed action fantasy game Dungeon Siege as a key part of their benchmark suite to test the performance of the computer systems, processors, and graphics cards they review.

Dungeon Siege's unique architecture allows testing of a broad range of resources on nearly any PC system available today. The benchmark is a non-interactive demo in which the character runs through various aspects of the world. Dungeon Siege's "continuous world" technology incorporates resources from CPU, memory, and graphics during gameplay, making it a superb all-around system test for benchmarking standards.