Futuremark has officially released its new Time Spy DirectX 12 benchmark, which is an upgrade to the 3DMark benchmarking software with DirectX 12 support, Async Compute, explicit multi-GPU and multi-thread.

According to Futuremark, the new Time Spy benchmark was developed with input from AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Microsoft and all other members of the Benchmark Development Program and should leverage the advantage of DirectX 12 as a low-level graphics API. Being a low-level API, the DirectX 12 has lower CPU overhead and should bring better utilization of modern GPU hardware.

The Time Spy test for 3DMark will implement DirectX 12 features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter and multi-threading.

The new 3DMark Time Spy benchmark renders at 2560x1440 resolution and includes the Demo, Graphics tests and the CPU test.

The Time Spy upgrade will be a free update for all Windows edition of the 3DMark except for the Advanced and Professional versions for which the Time Spy test is now available at a promotional price of US $4.99 (for those that bought 3DMark Advanced Edition before July 14, 2016). The Advanced and Professional versions will also have an ability to disable Async Compute.

According to some early tests, Async Compute brings similar performance improvements on both Nvidia Pascal and AMD's latest Polaris graphics cards, ranging from 6 to 10 percent. The Time Spy also scales quite well in multi-GPU systems, which suggest that DirectX 12 will bring some impressive multi-GPU performance.

The 3DMark Time Spy benchmark will surely become an important part of future graphics card testing.

Futuremark is currently having a sale of 3DMark on Steam that runs until July 23 and includes all 3DMark benchmarks, as well as the new free Time Spy upgrade and VRMark Preview for US $9.99/€10.













Source: Futuremark.com.