UL Solutions celebrates 3DMark’s 25th year at the forefront of benchmarking with the reveal of 3DMark Steel Nomad. This demanding benchmarking tool will replace the aging 3DMark Time Spy, which has long dominated the synthetic graphics card benchmarking space.
Time Spy puts your GPU and gaming CPU through their paces with several hardware-intensive subtests, and provides a score based on how they’ve performed. Although UL Solutions hasn’t expressly said, we imagine Steel Nomad will work much the same.
UL Solutions claims that Time Spy, which is now seven years old, a lifetime in the hardware space, has experienced “more than 42 million submitted results” in its lifespan, and it’s high time for an upgrade.
It says “Steel Nomad will be our most demanding non-ray tracing benchmark and will not only support Windows using DirectX 12, but also macOS and iOS using Metal, Android using Vulkan, and Linux using Vulkan for Enterprise and reviewers.”
For those familiar with 3DMark’s past benchmarking tools, Steel Nomad is set to enjoy “callbacks” and fun easter eggs from previous iterations. UL Solutions has not given a Steel Nomad release date yet, so it could be some time before the new tool is released to the public.
Benchmarking tools are useful to ensure you’re getting the most out of your rig. But there’s only so much mileage you can get from aging hardware. Check out our best graphics card list if you’re looking for an upgrade.
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