3DMark Steel Nomad Is Finally Here To Punish The Most Powerful GPUs
3DMark Steel Nomad Is Finally Here To Punish The Most Powerful GPUs
Those paying attention to GPU benchmarks will certainly know 3DMark and its GPU benchmark suite, with Time Spy (and its Extreme variant) being the most famous test subjected to the GPUs. However, as GPUs get more powerful these days – with no signs of slowing down – the benchmark is starting to show its age. This is where 3DMark’s new raster-based benchmark, Steel Nomad, comes in. The new benchmark is now available on Windows, Windows on Arm, Android, and iOS.
Like Time Spy, the Steel Nomad benchmark is available in two versions: Steel Nomad (top) for heavyweight GPUs, and Steel Nomad Light (bottom) for lightweight systems, such as laptops. Unlike its predecessor, however, the compatibility support will soon include macOS and Linux (via Metal and Vulkan API respectively). Android and iOS devices will only get access to the Light version at this time.
German outlet PCGamesHardware has given the benchmark a quick test drive, and the results has shown its appetite for processing power. Take RTX 4090 for example – the most powerful consumer GPU available today by a wide margin – it only registered 113FPS (the benchmark runs on 4K resolution), while mid-range GPUs like RTX 4060 and AMD’s Radeon RX 7600 clocked below 25FPS.
Keep in mind that Steel Nomad does not involve ray tracing here, despite the seemingly demanding requirements to keep the framerates high. It’s a benchmark for a reason – and for ray tracing duties, 3DMark has the Port Royal, Solar Bay, and Speed Way to stress that part of the GPU.
Pokdepinion: Time to get familiar with the new scores and leaderboards.
