3D Mark benchmarking tool arrives on macOS
Following a debut of 3DMark Steel Nomad Light on iPhone, the full 3D Mark testing suite has arrived on macOS for a native testing experience.
Released on Thursday, the Mac native version even in demo mode includes the Wild Life Extreme, Solar Bay, Steel Nomad, and Steel Nomad Light, some of which weren’t in the iPhone version and only on Windows.
The native Mac version was developed because the company noted that one in six iOS results were being run on Mac. Notably, running an iOS application on a macOS device can impact the results, as iOS application maximum frame rates are limited to the system’s display refresh rate.
All of the benchmarks are native, using the Metal API. This particular benchmark suite is designed to test the device’s 3D rendering and CPU power as a whole, rather than AI tasking, general workloads, and the like.
Unlike some benchmarking packages, the developer says that the results are fully cross-platform. That means that the results are comparable across Windows, iOS, and Android devices.
Paid features include Explorer Mode for Steel Nomad benchmarks. This allows the use of a controller to explore the scenes, and take custom imagery.
Other paid features include saving results to an account, sound, a custom mode for benchmarks at different resolutions, looping of benchmarks for thermal testing, and HDR.
The 3DMark suite for macOS is available through Steam. It will also roll out to the Epic Games Store and directly from 3DMark.com soon.
The demo is free. The paid version sells for $35, is cross-platform, and oddly has Steam achievements. It requires an Apple Silicon Mac.
AppleInsider will be adding the benchmark to our testing suite. If you run the package on your Mac, we’d like to see your results in the forums.
