3DMark Sky Diver Benchmark Now Available

By Nathan Kirsch

3DMark Sky Diver has been released with the most recent update of Futuremark 3DMark (version 1.3.708). Sky Diver is a new DirectX 11 benchmark test for gaming laptops and mid-range PCs. It’s ideal for testing mainstream graphics cards, mobile GPUs, integrated graphics and other systems that cannot achieve double-digit frame rates in the more demanding Fire Strike test. Together, Sky Diver and Fire Strike let you test the full range of DirectX 11 graphics hardware. Fire Strike is equivalent to testing a system with a modern DirectX 11 game on ultra-high settings. Sky Diver is more like running a game on normal settings. As a general guide:

  • If a system scores less than 2800 in Fire Strike you should run Sky Diver.
  • If a system scores more than 12000 in Sky Diver, you should run Fire Strike.

So, 3DMark now has a benchmark test for pretty much every class of hardware:

  • Fire Strike, for high performance gaming PCs
  • Sky Diver, for gaming laptops and mid-range PCs
  • Cloud Gate, for notebooks and typical home PCs
  • Ice Storm, for smartphones, tablets and entry level PCs

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Sky Diver includes a Demo, two Graphics tests, a Physics test and a Combined test. The Graphics tests measure GPU performance, the Physics test measures CPU performance, and the Combined test stresses both GPU and CPU. The Demo does not affect the score.
Graphics test 1 focuses on tessellation and uses a forward lighting method. Graphics test 2 focuses on pixel processing and uses compute shader-based deferred tiled lighting.
The Physics test introduces a new approach that extends the performance range for which the test is relevant. The test runs through four levels of work starting with the lightest and continuing to the heaviest unless the frame rate drops below a minimum threshold.
The Combined test contains both graphics workloads and physics simulations to stress the CPU and GPU. The test uses a compute shader-based deferred tiled lighting method.
You can check out videos of the 3DMark Sky Diver Demo and Benchmark below. As you can tell ASUS is the exclusive sponsor of the 3DMark Sky Diver Demo. Futuremark says that this paid sponsorship enabled them to offer Sky Diver as a free update for existing users. Thanks ASUS!

3DMark Sky Diver – Full Demo:

3DMark Sky Diver – All Tests: