As someone who has clocked over 100 hours in 3DMark, the visuals and sounds of running this benchmark series are etched into my brain. Now Epic Game store fans can experience the same thrilling feeling of putting your gaming rig through its paces with this suite of benchmark tools.
The primary goal of this software is to run a variety of system performance benchmarks that deliver an overall score which you can compare to get a sense of a system’s overall performance capabilities. You can run 3DMark benchmarks focusing on graphics, processor and storage performance.
For those of us that run multiple benchmarks a month, score results can also be saved online. These results, saved on your account, can then be retrieved for comparison when needed. Each result entry keeps a detailed log of the device being tested along with details of the benchmark run with performance metrics at each stage for you to analyse.
The installation size for all the benchmarks and feature tests comes in at 8.8 GB. You can get the Basic Edition of 3DMark for free and have access to a few basic benchmarks, or pay just over R300 for the Advanced Edition and get access to the entire suite. There are some free DLC you can download, including various other tests, while the 3DMark Storage benchmark DLC will cost you R32.
Epic Games Store is also running a launch special on 3DMark, and you can get 75% off the price (R78,75) if you grab it before the 27th of June.
If you are curious to see what 3DMark can test for, below is an extensive list of its features and capabilities. If you do not yet own a copy, grab it and share your gaming rig’s performance with us in the comments below.
3DMark benchmark tests:
• Speed Way is a DirectX 12 Ultimate Benchmark test for modern ray tracing capable graphics cards. It uses new features such as DirectX Raytracing 1.1 and mesh shaders.
• Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for gaming PCs running Windows 10. Time Spy Extreme, the world’s first 4K DirectX 12 benchmark test, is an ideal benchmark test for gaming systems with the latest high-end graphics cards and new processors with eight or more cores.
• Port Royal is a DirectX 12 benchmark for graphics cards that uses a mix of traditional rendering and real-time ray tracing. The benchmark runs on any graphics card that supports DirectX Raytracing.
• Night Raid is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for notebooks, laptops and tablets with integrated graphics. Night Raid also has native support for Always Connected PCs powered by Windows 10 on Arm.
• Wild Life and Wild Life Extreme are cross-platform benchmarks for Windows, Android and Apple iOS. Use Wild Life benchmarks to test and compare the GPU performance of the latest notebook computers, tablets and smartphones.
• Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. Use Fire Strike Extreme for high-end systems with multiple GPUs, or try Fire Strike Ultra, a 4K Ultra HD benchmark.
• The 3DMark CPU Profile is a dedicated CPU benchmark showing how CPU performance scales with the number of cores and threads used.
• The 3DMark Storage Benchmark—purchased separately as DLC—extends 3DMark with a dedicated component test for measuring the gaming performance of SSDs and other storage hardware.
3DMark feature tests:
• The DirectX Raytracing feature test measures the pure ray-tracing performance of the latest graphics cards. Instead of relying on traditional rendering, the whole scene is ray-traced and drawn in one pass. The result of the test depends entirely on ray-tracing performance.
• The Mesh Shader feature test shows you how game engines can improve performance by using the mesh shader pipeline to cull geometry that is not visible to the camera efficiently. There is also an interactive mode that lets you experiment with different settings and visualization tools.
• The PCI Express feature test measures the bandwidth available to your GPU. PCI Express (PCIe) is a standard interface that provides high-bandwidth communication between devices in a computer. New PCI Express 4.0 devices provide up to twice the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0. With more bandwidth, games can transfer more data, reduce loading times, and support more complex scenes.
• The Sampler Feedback feature test shows you how games can boost frame rates by using sampler feedback to optimize shading operations. There is also an interactive mode that lets you experiment with different settings and visualizations.
• The VRS feature test helps you compare performance and image quality differences when using Tier 1 or Tier 2 Variable-Rate Shading. There is also an interactive mode in which you can change VRS settings and export frames for comparison.
• The NVIDIA DLSS feature test is designed for testing and comparing the performance and image quality of DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). You can run the test using DLSS 3, DLSS 2, or DLSS 1. You can select between 3 image quality modes for DLSS 2 and later. DLSS 3 uses DLSS Frame Generation. You need an NVIDIA graphics card that supports DLSS to run this test.
• The Intel XeSS feature test is designed to help you test how XeSS affects performance and image quality. You can select four different XeSS Quality modes. Use the frame inspector tool to compare image quality with an interactive side-by-side comparison of XeSS and native-resolution rendering.
• The AMD FSR feature test helps you compare the performance and image quality of AMD’s FSR 2 with a traditional rendering approach using Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA). The frame inspector tool helps you make side-by-side comparisons using interactive controls to zoom and pan around.
• Use Stress Tests to check the reliability and stability of your system after buying or building a new PC, upgrading your graphics card, or overclocking your GPU. Stress testing can also identify faulty hardware or the need for better cooling.
Available Editions
3DMark Basic Edition — free
Benchmark your PC with Time Spy, Night Raid, and Fire Strike.
3DMark Advanced Edition — R315
3DMark Advanced Edition unlocks more tests and features.
• Unlock Speed Way, a DirectX 12 Ultimate benchmark
• Unlock Time Spy Extreme, the 4K DirectX 12 benchmark.
• Unlock Port Royal, the real-time ray tracing benchmark.
• Unlock Wild Life, a cross-platform test for mobile devices.
• Unlock Wild Life Extreme to test mobile computing devices.
• Check your PC’s stability with 3DMark Stress Tests.
• Test CPU performance with the CPU Profile benchmark.
• Test the pure ray-tracing performance of your graphics card.
• See how mesh shaders can boost game frame rates.
• Measure the bandwidth available to your GPU.
• See how sampler feedback can improve game performance.
• Test and compare VRS performance and image quality.
• Test and compare DLSS performance and image quality.
• See the frame rate you can expect in a selection of games.
• Explore your PC’s performance limits with custom settings.
• Automatically save your results offline.
3DMark Storage Benchmark DLC — R32
DLC, purchased separately, for 3DMark Advanced Edition.
• Test SSD performance for gaming activities.
3DMark Professional Edition — from $1495 (USD) per year
• Licensed for business and commercial use.
• Includes all benchmarks and feature tests.
• Command line automation and scripting.
• Verify driver implementation with the Image Quality Tool.
• Keep sensitive results private with the offline results option.
• Export result data as XML for further analysis and reporting.
• Compatible with Testdriver benchmark automation.
