A new challenger has appeared as 3DMark Steel Nomad could be set to replace the Time Spy benchmark, relied upon by so many overclockers and testers over a great seven-year stretch.
The best graphics cards and gaming CPUs are always put through their paces using 3DMark Time Spy. You’ve seen plenty of tech influencers use it before, but the time has come to look to other software, and it’s no surprise that the next big development is coming from a familiar source.
UL Solutions, the company behind 3DMark – which is celebrating its 25th year – has revealed three incredible screenshots from the new Steel Nomad software and, while we know it won’t include ray-tracing tests, the images we’ve seen are very pretty.
Following seven exceptional years of Time Spy testing, which has seen over 42 million results posted, UL believes that now is the right time for a new heavy testing software, and we’d be inclined to agree.
You may, however, ask about the absence of ray tracing in this ‘heavy’ software. Well, there are plenty of other testing solutions for ray tracing, like 3DMark’s Port Royal. Steel Nomad will focus solely on pushing your CPU and GPU to their limits and let you showcase your results to the testing community.
No release date has been confirmed for Steel Nomad but we’re not expecting to hear anything else until 2024. In the screenshots provided, UL has pointed out that the new testing software will contain nods to previous programs that the community can have fun identifying.
While 3DMark software is used to push your gaming rig to the max, you need to make sure you have some of the best RAM for gaming, as well as a speedy gaming SSD to ensure you get the best overall results. Will you be trying out Steel Nomad when it arrives?