I would like to bet that almost all enthusiastic gamers are running 3DMark at some point. For years, it has been a go-to benchmark for comparing GPUs whether on a pc, laptop, tablet or smartphone. It can run on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.  

But even if you want to see a bigger score, the benchmark will not last forever. Ultimately, the old 3dmark benchmarks will be limited to the CPU and independent of their original purpose of measuring graphics performance.

UL Solutions, which is behind the ever-popular 3DMark benchmark software, has released an update called Steel Nomad. It is now designed to replace the spy standard of aging time. It incorporates the latest graphical enhancements and it's about three times heavier for your PC than time Spy. Even if you lack ray tracing, you can still use Speed Way or Port Royal, but it's still a handy 4K benchmark for measuring the relative performance of different devices. It has the option to run in DirectX12 or Vulkan mode and most importantly is a free update for owners of the 3dmark suite.

There are 2 versions of Steel Nomad. Apart from the standard version, which is ideal for discrete graphics cards and gaming laptops, devices with integrated graphics, as well as Ta It runs in 1440p and is not as punishable as the standard version. Interestingly, there is no CPU test, and a single test is very short in just 1 minute.

As a graphics card reviewer and former overclocker, I've run 3dmark literally thousands of times, so every time a new benchmark arrives, I know I'm going to be using it a lot. My first run was Intel Core i5 13600K, Asus ROG Strix Z790I WiFi, G.Skill DDR5-6400 was a 32GB, RTX4060 daily Mini-ITX system 24 hours a day 365 days. The result was a score of 2,310 or 23.11 FPS. Its score is probably on the low side for such a configuration because it has been a whole bunch of other apps running as well. The same system recorded 10,275 FPS, or 79.45 FPS, on the Steel Nomad Light benchmark.

My first impression was that Steel Nomad was influenced by the opening scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

It has the distinctive orange sunlight tint and earthy tint common to 3DMark05 and 3DMark benchmarks dating back to 06. I wouldn't say I was blown away by the visual quality of it. In my opinion, some games like Unreal Engine5 demos and Cyberpunk2077 have clearly contributed to that lack of ray tracing, but it looks practically good

Apart from the benchmark itself, there are stress testing options and Explorer mode. The purpose of stress testing is self-evident. This is just a loop, which is useful for testing overclocking stability, thermal performance, clock speed fluctuations, etc. At the end of the test, you will see data about the frame rates for the best and worst loops, the scores for each loop, and some system monitoring information. It's convenient

In Explorer mode, you can move around the scene freely. It allows you to experiment with various rendering and post-processing settings. I found a couple of Easter eggs, including flying robots from the Port Royal test and butterflies from the 3dmark01 test — for almost a quarter of a century ago. I suddenly got older.

I decided to run Steel Nomad on something more high-end. Currently, the test bench setup consists of AMD Ryzen9 7950X, MSI B650I Edge, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, and RTX4090Founders Edition. The final score was 9,348, or 93.49 FPS. 

That number of FPS is considered highly playable in real-world scenarios. It's not too low to be a slideshow as it happens with lower-tier GPUs in a speed way, but at the same time, the benchmark is too quickly with high FPS

Due to CPU limitations I welcome the release of Steel nomads. Nvidia has a reputation for industry-leading ray tracing performance, but raster performance is still important. It's easy to see things through the lens of Discrete500 or more discrete graphics cards, but ray tracing is not very relevant to users with older cards or mobile devices, so it's a good idea for users with devices that will be a serious bottleneck due to lack of frustration with ray tracing. Steel Nomad will be welcomed by you.

3dmark Steel Nomad is free to download by existing owners of 3dmark suite. For PC gamers who don't own a 3DMark, it's available on Steam for available34.99/AU5 50.95, but 1 week is 75% off, or 8 8.75/AU.Available at 12.74.

Apart from the Windows version, Android and iOS users can get it from their respective app stores. LINUX and macOS users will have to wait a bit more, but UL says support will come.