UL Benchmarks has launched Solar Bay Extreme, a significant enhancement to its cross-platform ray tracing benchmark. This new version dramatically increases the ray tracing workload, offering a more demanding test for modern GPUs and processors across a wide range of devices. It introduces advanced ray-traced effects like specular reflections, glass reflections, and soft shadows, all within an expanded and visually richer benchmark scene.
Key Takeaways
- Enhanced Ray Tracing: Features 3-5x higher ray tracing loads compared to the original Solar Bay, including ray-traced specular reflections on various surfaces and soft shadows.
- Cross-Platform Support: Available for Windows, Windows on Arm, macOS, iOS, and Android, utilizing native APIs like Vulkan, Metal, and DirectX 12.
- New Benchmark Scene: Includes an expanded environment with an additional assembly bay for a more complex and visually intensive test.
- Free Update: Solar Bay Extreme is a free update for all existing 3DMark owners.
- Performance Monitoring: Offers a stress test mode to track performance over time and detect throttling.
A More Demanding Ray Tracing Experience
Solar Bay Extreme elevates the benchmark by incorporating more sophisticated ray tracing techniques. This includes ray-traced specular reflections on both rough and glossy surfaces, as well as integrated ray-traced reflections with light refraction on glass. Furthermore, the benchmark utilizes ray tracing to accurately calculate soft shadows for directional lighting, providing a more realistic and taxing visual experience.
Expanded Benchmark Environment
The benchmark scene itself has been expanded with the addition of a second assembly bay. In this area, a rival team is depicted constructing a solar array, adding geometric complexity and varied lighting conditions. This enhancement makes the test more visually intensive and better equipped to highlight performance differences between various GPUs and driver implementations.
Broad Device Compatibility
Designed for broad compatibility, Solar Bay Extreme runs natively on multiple platforms. It leverages the Vulkan API on Android, Apple’s Metal API on iOS and macOS, and DirectX 12 on Windows. This ensures that the benchmark accurately reflects real-world gaming performance across different operating systems and hardware, supporting GPUs from major manufacturers like AMD, Apple, Intel, ARM, Nvidia, and Qualcomm.
Availability
Solar Bay Extreme is available now as a free update for all users who already own 3DMark. The 3DMark suite can be purchased through platforms such as Steam, the Epic Games Store, or directly from the 3DMark website.
