Futuremark has finally released the latest edition to the 3DMark benchmark suite after teasing it a few weeks ago. The “Time Spy” benchmark and stress test is now official. If you are a 3DMark Basic or 3DMark Advanced user you will have limited access to Time Spy. Advanced users will have the option to unlock the full feature-set of “Time Spy” with an upgrade key that is priced at $9.99. If you are looking to purchase 3DMark Advanced the price has been raised to $29.99 from its original $24.99. All new 3DMark Advanced purchases will include the fully-unlocked “Time Spy” benchmark. Futuremark has also announced a limited-period offer that Advanced users can get a “Time Spy” upgrade key for only $4.99 (till July 23rd).
The “Time Sky” benchmark has been developed with input from AMD, NVIDIA, Intel, and Microsoft and will take advantage of the new DirectX 12 API. For this reason the test does require Windows 10. The test exponentially increases the 3D processing load over “Fire Strike,” by leveraging the low-overhead API features of DirectX 12, to present a graphically intense 3D test-scene that can make any gaming/enthusiast PC of today break a sweat. The benchmark also includes several beyond-4K resolutions to really push things to the limit.
