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GFXBench Changelog

What's new in GFXBench 5.0

Jun 6, 2022
  • The next version of GFXBench allows to measure performance with using new low-level APIs and introduces VR testing mode.
  • Designed for the new low-level, high-efficiency APIs (Vulkan, Metal and DirectX12) and introducing VR support, GFXBench 5 allows users to measure the performance characteristics of latest devices showcasing demanding game-like content. The benchmark takes advantage of low-level API techniques and features and is written to scale well from mobile to desktop devices.
  • Giving developers direct access to the hardware capabilities, low-level APIs reduce driver overhead, ease CPU load and increase energy efficiency, which is vital on mobile devices. Aztec Ruins is based on an entirely redesigned, in-house rendering engine that utilizes Vulkan’s advantages to achieve higher quality at a lower energy budget.
  • One of the most important additions to the rendering engine is Dynamic Global Illumination, which enables showing intricate details in regions of the scene that are only lit by indirect bounced light.
  • “With Vulkan we can take advantage of multiple standardized API features to make dynamic global illumination feasible on mobile devices as well. For example, multi-threaded command buffers and using sub-passes in our deferred renderer help decrease driver overhead, improve bandwidth usage and boost performance”, says Ferenc Pinter, technical lead at Kishonti.
  • Aztec Ruins engine based on Vulkan features:
  • Multi-threaded command recording to reach better efficiency: Scaling to multiple threads eases CPU load. The overall occupancy gets lower by using many small work items, instead of a single monolithic one which can get stalled.
  • Pre-recorded command buffers for post-process effects: This technique simplifies issuing the same work to the GPU every frame by reducing the amount of commands necessary.
  • No need to resort to instancing when rendering many objects, we can use many unique pieces: Complex animations and unique details can now be easily authored to enrich our virtual worlds.
  • Sub-pass based deferred rendering and blending: Geometry and lighting passes can take advantage of local memory caches that boost performance, especially on mobile.
  • Introducing VR testing mode:
  • As virtual reality is growing both on mobile and desktop and is expected become a USD 40 billion market by the end of 2020, measuring hardware efficiency with demanding 3D content specifically for VR will become increasingly important.
  • To this end, GFXBench 5 will introduce a VR testing mode of the Aztec Ruins scene, which measures FPS, rendering stability (frame drops) and latency data. Additionally, a VR demo mode is also included, where users can discover the scene of Aztec Ruins with their VR headset (this mode does not provide scores).

New in GFXBench 4.0 (Jun 6, 2022)

  • Bringing the popular GFXBench benchmarking suite to desktop OpenGL and OpenGL ES 3.1 plus Android Extension Pack, GFXBench 4.0 enables measuring mobile and desktop performance with advanced graphics effects and increased workloads. Car Chase is the first benchmark to test devices with game-like content utilizing Android Extension Pack features such as hardware tessellation.
  • Utilizing latest API features: hardware tessellation, geometry and compute shaders, ASTC textures:
  • The main addition to the test suite is Car Chase, a new high-level test scene makes which makes use of latest OpenGL ES 3.1 plus Android Extension Pack features. Two kinds of tessellation techniques are used to provide realistic graphics content: to improve the details of the background rock mountain environment up-close, the scene features hardware-based tessellation with displacement maps. The smooth surface of the car is provided by Bézier-curves and adaptive tessellation that enables further refinement based on the camera view.
  • The scene uses geometry and compute shaders for HDR tone mapping and bloom, and also for post-process effects such as lens flares and particles. A highly scalable, compute shader-based motion blur algorithm is responsible for plausible camera and object movements. Texture compression is enhanced by the recent possibility to use ASTC, instead of ETC2.
  • The graphics pipeline is based on deferred rendering combining physically-based materials and image-based specular reflections. The scene has dynamic lighting with cascaded shadows for a more realistic sense of depth. Additional post effects include depth-of-field, and screen-space ambient occlusion - which further enhances the details provided by tessellation.
  • GFXBench 4.0 introduces Car Chase to test Android devices with high-end graphics features
  • November 05, 2015
  • Bringing the popular GFXBench benchmarking suite to desktop OpenGL and OpenGL ES 3.1 plus Android Extension Pack, GFXBench 4.0 enables measuring mobile and desktop performance with advanced graphics effects and increased workloads. Car Chase is the first benchmark to test devices with game-like content utilizing Android Extension Pack features such as hardware tessellation.
  • Utilizing latest API features: hardware tessellation, geometry and compute shaders, ASTC textures
  • The main addition to the test suite is Car Chase, a new high-level test scene makes which makes use of latest OpenGL ES 3.1 plus Android Extension Pack features. Two kinds of tessellation techniques are used to provide realistic graphics content: to improve the details of the background rock mountain environment up-close, the scene features hardware-based tessellation with displacement maps. The smooth surface of the car is provided by Bézier-curves and adaptive tessellation that enables further refinement based on the camera view.
  • The scene uses geometry and compute shaders for HDR tone mapping and bloom, and also for post-process effects such as lens flares and particles. A highly scalable, compute shader-based motion blur algorithm is responsible for plausible camera and object movements. Texture compression is enhanced by the recent possibility to use ASTC, instead of ETC2.
  • The graphics pipeline is based on deferred rendering combining physically-based materials and image-based specular reflections. The scene has dynamic lighting with cascaded shadows for a more realistic sense of depth. Additional post effects include depth-of-field, and screen-space ambient occlusion - which further enhances the details provided by tessellation.
  • Sustained performance measurement:
  • GFXBench 4.0 continues the tradition of including sustained performance test, iterating for 30 test runs to stress test the hardware and look at how performance changes over test runs.
  • “Providing ways to measure how the hardware performs during prolonged periods of time is a vital part of our mission”, says Ferenc Pinter, Development Lead of Kishonti.
  • Besides the new additions including Car Chase and a new low-level tessellation test, GFXBench 4.0 carries over all tests from previous versions for comparison and supports on-screen and off-screen test modes. Including Manhattan tests for OpenGL ES 3.0 and 3.1, GFXBench 4.0 is a comprehensive GPU benchmark measuring device performance with all the latest high-end graphics features. The benchmark automatically detects the device's capabilities and selects the most appropriate test set to provide accurate information.
  • List of tests:
  • Car Chase
  • Manhattan 3.1
  • Manhattan
  • T-Rex
  • Tessellation
  • ALU 2
  • Texturing
  • Driver Overhead 2
  • Render Quality
  • Battery and Stability
  • GFXBench 4.0 introduces Car Chase to test Android devices with high-end graphics features
  • November 05, 2015
  • Bringing the popular GFXBench benchmarking suite to desktop OpenGL and OpenGL ES 3.1 plus Android Extension Pack, GFXBench 4.0 enables measuring mobile and desktop performance with advanced graphics effects and increased workloads. Car Chase is the first benchmark to test devices with game-like content utilizing Android Extension Pack features such as hardware tessellation.
  • Utilizing latest API features: hardware tessellation, geometry and compute shaders, ASTC textures
  • The main addition to the test suite is Car Chase, a new high-level test scene makes which makes use of latest OpenGL ES 3.1 plus Android Extension Pack features. Two kinds of tessellation techniques are used to provide realistic graphics content: to improve the details of the background rock mountain environment up-close, the scene features hardware-based tessellation with displacement maps. The smooth surface of the car is provided by Bézier-curves and adaptive tessellation that enables further refinement based on the camera view.
  • The scene uses geometry and compute shaders for HDR tone mapping and bloom, and also for post-process effects such as lens flares and particles. A highly scalable, compute shader-based motion blur algorithm is responsible for plausible camera and object movements. Texture compression is enhanced by the recent possibility to use ASTC, instead of ETC2.
  • The graphics pipeline is based on deferred rendering combining physically-based materials and image-based specular reflections. The scene has dynamic lighting with cascaded shadows for a more realistic sense of depth. Additional post effects include depth-of-field, and screen-space ambient occlusion - which further enhances the details provided by tessellation.
  • Sustained performance measurement
  • GFXBench 4.0 continues the tradition of including sustained performance test, iterating for 30 test runs to stress test the hardware and look at how performance changes over test runs.
  • “Providing ways to measure how the hardware performs during prolonged periods of time is a vital part of our mission”, says Ferenc Pinter, Development Lead of Kishonti.
  • Besides the new additions including Car Chase and a new low-level tessellation test, GFXBench 4.0 carries over all tests from previous versions for comparison and supports on-screen and off-screen test modes. Including Manhattan tests for OpenGL ES 3.0 and 3.1, GFXBench 4.0 is a comprehensive GPU benchmark measuring device performance with all the latest high-end graphics features. The benchmark automatically detects the device's capabilities and selects the most appropriate test set to provide accurate information.
  • List of tests:
  • Car Chase
  • Manhattan 3.1
  • Manhattan
  • T-Rex
  • Tessellation
  • ALU 2
  • Texturing
  • Driver Overhead 2
  • Render Quality
  • Battery and Stability
  • Cross-platform and cross-API benchmarking:
  • GFXBench 4.0 is the first graphics benchmark designed to close the gap between desktop and mobile graphics by measuring the performance of desktop OpenGL and OpenGL ES 3.1 plus Android Extension Pack implementations. In order to provide cross-API comparability, DX12, Metal and Vulkan support is planned, too.

New in GFXBench 3.1.10 (Jun 1, 2015)

  • Compute shaders added to Manhattan for lightning effect, depth-of-field and HDR
  • Geometry asset optimizations in the Manhattan test (30% less geometry)
  • New, more extensive low-level tests replacing the original low-level tests of GFXBench 3.0. The new low-level tests better approximate the workload of the Manhattan test: Fill 2, Driver Overhead 2, ALU 2
  • New UI features: all test results now include temperature, CPU & GPU frequency, and frame time graphs to provide additional in-depth information. Just press and hold the score on the results tab to view them
  • ASTC texture support as developer-only, corporate feature

New in GFXBench 2.7.0.47 (May 1, 2013)

  • DXBenchmark is now called GFXBench