UL benchmarks have shared the generational GPU performance increase within its 3DMark benchmark across 48 million tests.
3DMark Steel Nomad Benchmark & Shares GPU Performance Progression Through The Last 8 Years
Before diving into the statistics, let's look at the new stuff by UL Benchmarks. In a press release, the firm has announced the release of 3DMark Steel Nomad and 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, both of which are a "non-raytraced, cross-platform GPU benchmark" and a much heavier version of the Time Spy and utilize modern-day GPU technologies. It natives runs on 4K resolution and, according to the company, is "three times" more potent than Time Spy, which shows that to test the ultimate limits of your GPUs, Steel Nomad is the way to go.
Along with the release of Steel Nomad, UL has provided us with an overview of how 3DMark Time Spy test has contributed over the years to the GPU benchmarking industry. Released in 2016, the software has witnessed a total of 48 million submitted tests, and with time, the markets saw the influx of newer generations of hardware, especially GPUs. Time Spy average scores soared by huge margins. With that, UL says there was a void for a more powerful benchmark tool, which is now fulfilled with Steel Nomad.
The graph clearly shows that during the quarters of 2020, when we saw the release of NVIDIA's Ampere "GeForce RTX 30" and AMD's RDNA 2 "Radeon RX 6000" GPUs, the 3DMark Time Spy scores rose massively, and the trend seemed to be consistent with architectures in the coming quarters as well. This shows that generational improvements have been steady in the GPU industry, and with the advent of native GPU technologies, performance has seen a tremendous gain.
The overall gain in 3DMark Time Spy performance averages around 3x which started off with GPUs scoring around 4500 points and can now reach up to 14,000 points. With the coming generation in the second half of this year such as NVIDIA's RTX 50 "Blackwell" GPUs, we can see another graphics disruption, potentially reaching 20,000 points.
However, it seems like Time Spy's time might be over, as UL Benchmarks themselves recommend using Steel Nomad for future benchmarking on newer architectures. And with that, it might be safe to say that Time Spy did serve us well, and don't worry, the software will still be available for use.
News Source: UL Benchmarks
About the author: Muhammad Zuhair is a hardware and technology reporter for Wccftech, specializing in the semiconductor industry and the complex interplay between technology, manufacturing, and geopolitics. His coverage focuses on the corporate strategies and technological roadmaps of industry giants like TSMC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Intel. Zuhair's expertise lies in deconstructing complex topics such as fabrication nodes (e.g., 2nm process), the economic impact of policies like the CHIPS Act, and the strategic development of AI infrastructure from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
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