Cross-platform benchmark, 3DMARK Steel Nomad, will launch Q1 2024 for free

3DMARK Steel Nomad will be launching for free to users in early 2024

Last month, UL Benchmarks revealed 3DMARK Steel Nomad, a new benchmarking tool that will arrive as a cross-platform successor to both Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme.

Steel Nomad is due to launch in Q1 2024, and UL Benchmarks has confirmed that the benchmark will be free to all users of 3DMARK. The benchmark will be the company’s most demanding non-raytraced benchmark. The tool will also support Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android. However, the benchmark will only support Windows and Windows-on-ARM at launch. Support for other OS’ will arrive later in 2024.

3DMARK Steel Nomad will arrive in two forms, Steel Nomad and Steel Nomad Light. Steel Nomad is designed for comparing high-end PCs and laptops using Windows, macOS, and Linux. Steel Nomad Light is intended for thin and light devices using Windows-on-ARM, Apple Silicon, iOS, or Android.

While ray tracing has become increasingly common in games, Steel Nomad avoids this technology entirely. Gaming performance outside of ray tracing remains an important factor for gamers and analysts. This is why 3DMARK needs a new non-raytraced benchmark. The growing popularity of Linux gaming PCs like Valve’s Steam Deck has also created the need for a multi-platform gaming benchmark.

Steel Nomad will sit alongside Port Royal, Speed Way, and Solar Bay. This gives gamers a suite of tests to cover all modern gaming scenarios. This includes no raytracing, light raytracing, and heavy raytracing workloads. All of these new benchmarking tools have been released fairly recently, and that gives reviewers and hardware enthusiasts a suite of new tools to compare their systems with others.

You can join the discussion on 3DMARK Steel Nomad being free to all users on the OC3D Forums.