On May 22nd, UL Solutions officially launched the new 3DMark benchmark tool "Steel Nomad," which will replace the popular Time Spy. It is designed for heavy non-ray tracing workloads and supports cross-platform and cross-system comparisons.
First, let's talk about Time Spy. It was released in 2016 and has accumulated nearly 48 million benchmark runs over the past eight years!
At its inception, it was tested on GTX 10 series graphics cards, scoring only around 5000 points. Today, it has increased to around 14000 points, almost doubling its performance.
The native resolution of Steel Nomad is 4K, utilizing the latest graphics rendering and computing technologies. Its workload is approximately three times that of Time Spy and nearly seven times that of Fire Strike, with the CPU processor no longer being a bottleneck.
Today's release of Steel Nomad is just the first wave, with DX12 and Vulcan API being used on Windows and Windows on ARM systems, Vulcan on Android systems, and Metal on iOS systems.
The macOS system version will be added soon, while the Linux system version will require a bit more waiting.
It also supports Explorer Mode, allowing you to switch various settings for in-depth exploration. There are several secret locations within the scene, along with numerous Easter eggs themed around 3DMark's 25-year evolution.
In the future, Time Spy will gradually be phased out, and 3DMark will consist of six main projects:
For ray tracing tests, recommended benchmarks for high load, medium load, and light load are Speed Way, Port Royal, and Solar Bay respectively. The first two are limited to Windows, while the latter is cross-platform.
For non-ray tracing tests, recommended benchmarks for high load, medium load, and light load are Steel Nomad, Steel Nomad Light, and Wild Fire Extreme, all of which are cross-platform.
If you have already purchased 3DMark, Steel Nomad can be updated for free.
Furthermore, starting now, different versions of 3DMark will undergo a comprehensive renaming: 3DMark Basic Edition will become 3DMark Demo, 3DMark Advanced Edition will become 3DMark, and 3DMark Professional Edition will become 3DMark Enterprise Edition.
