3DMark News

Today, we’re thrilled to launch 3DMark Steel Nomad and 3DMark Steel Nomad Light. This update includes two new non-raytraced cross-platform benchmarks – Free for all 3DMark users.



[h2]Time to Move on[/h2]

Since Time Spy launched in 2016, there’s been a truly gigantic number of submitted results:

Almost 48 million.

Over time, the average Time Spy score has approximately quadrupled. This, alongside game and hardware technology developments over the last eight years, meant that Time Spy was starting to show its age, and a new non-ray-traced benchmark was needed.



We’re not fully retiring Time Spy just yet, but we suggest you use our latest benchmarks to get the best benchmarking experience on modern hardware.

[h2]Steel Nomad strides into town[/h2]
Steel Nomad is a non-raytraced, cross-platform GPU benchmark that uses graphics technologies just like your favorite new game titles.


Running at a native 4k resolution, it improves upon Time Spy with more modern implementations of graphics technologies and is roughly three times heavier for your PC than Time Spy, and almost seven times heavier than Fire Strike. You can see this is not reflected in the data from a high-end GPU from 2024, as CPU bottlenecking is negatively impacting frame times in Fire Strike and Time Spy.

Steel Nomad launches today on Windows and Windows-on-Arm using the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs, Android using Vulkan, and iOS using Metal. As a cross-platform benchmark, we’ll be releasing support for new APIs and platforms throughout the year. Also, due to popular demand, we’ve brought back sound for this benchmark.

Stay tuned for information on macOS soon! As for Linux gamers, unfortunately you’ll have to wait a bit longer, but we are still committed to releasing 3DMark Steel Nomad for you as well.

[h2]“This town is big enough for the both of us”[/h2]



PC gaming is more accessible, portable and flexible than ever. Desktop rigs are pushing more frames than ever, laptops are capable of comfortably playing top-end games, phones and tablets have the power to deliver full gaming experiences, and we’ve seen the rise of portable handheld gaming PCs in recent years.

With so many hardware configurations, Steel Nomad arrives alongside Steel Nomad Light, letting gamers, reviewers, and enterprises test all their gaming hardware in a non-ray-traced gaming workload.

With the addition of these two benchmarks, the 3DMark application provides a complete set of benchmarks for testing modern gaming hardware in both raytraced and non-raytraced gaming situations.



[h2]Explore the Frontier[/h2]


In Explorer mode, you’ll be able to explore the benchmark scene and toggle or change graphics settings. Hidden in the world are several secret locations for you to find and many Easter eggs referencing the last 25 years of 3DMark Benchmarks. We recommend enabling sound for the full experience. Explorer mode for Steel Nomad and Steel Nomad Light is available for everyone who has purchased 3DMark.

[h2]Available now[/h2]
3DMark Steel Nomad is available as a free update to all 3DMark users. 3DMark is available to purchase on Steam for $34.99. To celebrate the launch of Steel Nomad, 3DMark will be 75% off for one week.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/223850/3DMark/


[h2]What's new in 3DMark v2.29.8256 [/h2]
This update supports the launch of the 3DMark Steel Nomad and Steel Nomad Light. Other benchmark scores are not affected.

New

• Added Steel Nomad - A very heavy cross-platform non-raytraced benchmark for high-end gaming PCs.
  
• Added Steel Nomad Light - A heavy cross-platform benchmark for high-end lightweight devices.
  

Fixed

• Fixed an issue where Wild Life Extreme would crash on Arm-based Windows devices.
  

3DMark Demo

• Added Steel Nomad
  
• Added Steel Nomad Light
  

This is a minor update. Benchmark scores will not be affected.

Fixed

• Fixed a rare issue where SystemInfo hardware information would fail to parse.
  
• Fixed an issue where systems with the Microsoft OpenGL, OpenCL and Vulkan compatibility pack installed would incorrectly show as 'not supported' for Solar Bay and Wild Life Extreme.
  

Updated

• SystemInfo updated to 5.72 - Updated CPUID module to attempt to solve an issue that could cause the scan to hang on some AMD-based systems.
  

UL benchmarks use a component called SystemInfo to identify the hardware in your system. This patch updates SystemInfo to version 5.71.
[h2]SystemInfo 5.71[/h2]

• Updated CPUID module to improve compatibility with latest hardware and to fix a compatibility issue with Threadripper 7000 series systems.
  
• Fixed issue that could cause the scan to hang on some systems.
  

UL benchmarks use a component called SystemInfo to identify the hardware in your system. This patch updates SystemInfo to version 5.70.
[h2]SystemInfo 5.70[/h2]

• Updated GPU detection module to improve compatibility with latest hardware.
  
• Updated CPUID module to improve compatibility with latest hardware
  

Last month, we introduced you to 3DMark Steel Nomad, our cross-platform successor to Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme as our recommended non-raytracing benchmark.

We’re happy to announce that Steel Nomad will be a free update for all 3DMark users.



Games and PC hardware have changed significantly since Time Spy launched, and recent high-end hardware is starting to reach the limit of what Time Spy is able to give relevant scores for.

To appropriately measure the performance of such a wide range of devices, 3DMark Steel Nomad will include two benchmarks:

[h2]Steel Nomad[/h2]

Steel Nomad will be our recommended benchmark for measuring the non-raytraced gaming performance of high-end computers running Windows, macOS, and Linux.

[h2]Steel Nomad Light[/h2]

Steel Nomad Light will be our recommended benchmark for measuring the performance of Lightweight devices, such as Windows laptops with integrated graphics, Windows-on-Arm devices, Apple Silicon Macs, iOS, and Android devices.

[h2]Arriving soon[/h2]
3DMark Steel Nomad will launch in the first quarter of next year for devices running Windows and Windows-on-Arm on Steam, the Epic Games Store, or direct from UL Solutions. Steel Nomad and Steel Nomad Light for macOS and Linux, and Steel Nomad Light for Android and iOS devices, will launch later in 2024.

We want 3DMark to provide gamers, overclockers, hardware reviewers and those in industry with a set of gaming benchmarks relevant to real-world gaming performance. With many games featuring a range of ray tracing workloads, a range of benchmarks are also required for a true measurement of a PC’s performance.


[h2]Get a broader view of gaming performance in one application.[/h2]

Steel Nomad and Steel Nomad Light are designed to sit alongside our three ray tracing benchmarks, Speed Way, Port Royal and Solar Bay, to give you the best understanding of your PC’s gaming performance from a single application.

• Speed Way is a DirectX 12 Ultimate ray-traced benchmark — and our heaviest benchmark. It will stay our recommended test for those of you looking to measure the full capabilities of the very best hardware available for Windows PC gamers.
  
• Solar Bay is our lightest ray-traced benchmark, and our recommendation for those looking to measure the ray tracing performance of lightweight Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices.
  
• Port Royal is a Windows raytracing benchmark that sits between Speed Way and Solar Bay and helps you build a complete overview of a PC’s raytraced gaming performance.
  
• Steel Nomad will be our heaviest non-raytraced benchmark, designed to run on the latest high-end gaming hardware.
  
• Steel Nomad Light will be the recommended benchmark for non-raytraced performance on lightweight devices.
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/223850/3DMark/