Futuremark Lords of Overclocking Contest Offers Final Three Places at MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2012

HELSINKI, FINLAND – July 20, 2012 – Futuremark® has announced its fourth annual Lords of Overclocking competition in partnership with MSI, Intel, Kingston and IN WIN. One of the year's most anticipated contests, Lords of Overclocking 2012 will bring together the top overclocking talent from around the world to compete for the final three "money-can't buy" places at the prestigious MSI Master Overclocking Arena (MOA) event in Taipei, Taiwan later this year. Lords of Overclocking 2012 starts July 27, runs until August 23, and is open to everyone with MSI brand mainboards and graphics cards. Prizes, rules and full details can be found on the contest page: http://www.3dmark.com/competitions/MSI-LOC-2012/

Jukka Mäkinen, Futuremark CEO, said, "Futuremark is pleased to partner with MSI in our fourth consecutive year of supporting competitive overclocking at the highest level. Lords of Overclocking is the final qualifying event for MOA and we look forward to seeing new records set in what promises to be an exciting and closely fought competition."

Zona Lin, Marketing Manager at MSI said, "This year, MSI is investing in its largest ever campaign to support, grow and promote the overclocking community. MSI invites enthusiasts everywhere to enter the Lords of Overclocking contest and experience overclocking with the performance, stability and quality of MSI military class mainboards and graphics cards."

With regional qualifying for Master Overclocking Arena now complete, Futuremark's Lords of Overclocking contest is the final chance for overclockers to earn a place in the MOA grand final. With three places up for grabs, contestants will be competing in three separate categories using 3DMark 11, the world's most popular gaming benchmark for DirectX 11 PCs. 3DMark 11 can be downloaded for free from http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/

Winner 1: Highest 3DMark 11 overall score using the Performance preset. Contestants must use a single MSI graphics card and an MSI mainboard.

Winner 2: Highest 3DMark 11 Physics score, a test of pure CPU performance using simulated rigid body physics. Contestants must use an MSI mainboard and graphics card.

Winner 3: Highest 3DMark 11 Graphics score using the Performance preset, a measure of GPU performance. Contestants must use an MSI mainboard and MSI brand graphics cards only. There is no limit to number of GPUs in this category.

Prizes for the top scores entered during each week of the four week long contest include the new "OC Certified" MSI Z77 MPOWER motherboard and the HD 7870 Hawk video card equipped with Military Class III components certified to MIL-STD-810G military standards in seven different categories. Additional prizes from Kingston include HyperX 3K SSDs 90GB and HyperX T1 DDR3-2400 4GBx2 Dual Channel Memory modules, and from IN WIN, a pair of GR one Grey Full Tower and H-Frame ATX PC cases.

While competition for the top scores is sure to be fierce, everyone who submits a qualifying entry score has a chance to win a weekly lucky draw prize chosen from an MSI ZH77A-G43 mainboard, MSI HD 7770 Power Edition 1GD5/OC graphics card, In Win Commander III 800W 80Plus Gold power supply or a Kingston DataTraveler Elite 3.0 USB drive 32GB. There are no limits to the number of times you can enter the contest.

Lord of Overclocking 2012 overclocking contest – July 27 - Aug 23 http://www.3dmark.com/competitions/MSI-LOC-2012/

MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2012 http://www.msi-moa.com

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ABOUT MSI MASTER OVERCLOCKING ARENA

The MSI Master Overclocking Arena (MOA) is hallowed battleground for global overclocking masters. Every year, MSI invites worldwide overclocking gurus through on-line or on-site qualifications for a high-tech showdown. Equipped with today's most powerful computers, each invited master challenges the limit of their equipment with their excellent overclocking technique to win the honor of being crowned the worldwide overclocking master. These overclocking masters break world records under close watch of global media and fellow overclocking enthusiasts. MSI has achieved notable milestones in the field of extreme overclocking. Apart from the players-focused annual MOA contest, many other overclocking events are also hosted online or on-site to break worldwide overclocking records. The globally watched MOA competition has become the flagship of these overclocking competition series. http://www.msi-moa.com

ABOUT 3DMARK®

3DMark is the world's most popular benchmark and PC test. 3DMark uses specifically designed tests featuring high-end real-time graphics to accurately and consistently measure PC gaming performance. Futuremark currently offers 3DMark06 for Windows XP, 3DMark Vantage for Windows Vista, and 3DMark 11 for Windows 7. New versions of 3DMark for Windows 8 and Android are currently in development and are expected to be released in 2012. Find out more and download 3DMark for free from http://www.3dmark.com

ABOUT FUTUREMARK®

Futuremark® creates the world's most popular benchmarks and PC performance tests. Futuremark's free 3DMark®, PCMark® and Peacekeeper™ tests have helped millions of people measure and improve their PCs' performance for games, media, applications and the web. Futuremark has offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland. http://www.futuremark.com/

© 2012 Futuremark® Corporation. Futuremark® and 3DMark® trademarks and logos, character names and distinctive likenesses, are the exclusive property of Futuremark Corporation. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact:

Futuremark, North America
Oliver Baltuch, President, Futuremark
Phone: +1 408 517 0910 (PST)
Email: ollie at futuremark dot com