3DMark is now available for macOS computers

UL Solutions has released a full version of 3DMark for macOS. The updated release uses the Metal graphics API and for the first time allows you to directly compare the performance of Mac devices with Windows systems, as well as with mobile gadgets running iOS and Android.

At the time of release, four main benchmarks are available in the macOS version of 3DMark: Steel Nomad, Steel Nomad Light, Solar Bay and Wild Life Extreme. In addition to the standard tests, Steel Nomad and Steel Nomad Light have Explorer Mode – a free movement mode in which users can explore test scenes and find hidden elements added by the development team.

The release is accompanied by a trailer, and the package itself is already available for download via Steam. Users who previously purchased 3DMark will have access to the macOS version at no additional cost. There is also a free demo.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark has been released, positioned as the successor to 3DMark Time Spy. On this occasion, UL Solutions shared some interesting statistics. They collected all 48 million 3DMark Time Spy results over the past 8 years to demonstrate the growth in average graphics card performance over this period.

The resulting graph showed significant jumps in average 3DMark Time Spy results at times when AMD and NVIDIA released new generations of graphics cards. The largest performance gains were observed in 2020 and 2022. In 2020, Nvidia Ampere and AMD RDNA 2 3D accelerators entered the market, and in 2022 – NVIDIA Ada Lovelace and AMD RDNA 3. In just eight years, the average benchmark scores increased by about 2.8 times.

This growth shows how much graphics card performance has improved and highlights the importance of new architecture releases from leading GPU manufacturers.