3DMark

Publisher: Futuremark


3DMark is arguably the most popular synthetic benchmark around today. The DirectX 11 portion, Fire Strike, comes in three flavours: Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme and Fire Strike Ultra, which run at 1080p, 1440p and 4K respectively. All cards are tested in Fire Strike using the default settings, as anyone can download and run this exact benchmark for free so you can easily compare your own system's score with those you see below. More powerful cards are tested in Fire Strike Extreme and Fire Strike Ultra as appropriate, but you'll need to pay to unlock these benchmarks yourself.

3DMark also recently added Time Spy, a DirectX 12 benchmark that runs at 1440p. It is designed to properly utilise the advantages of the DirectX 12 API. The benchmark is available for free but you'll need to pay to change any of the settings, including the resolution. Nonetheless, it still serves as a useful at-a-glance comparison of performance in this increasingly important API.

VRMark

Publisher: Futuremark


VRMark is another synthetic GPU benchmark from Futuremark, this time specifically designed to assess a system's ability to handle VR gaming, with no VR headset is required. The Orange Room test assesses whether a system is capable of meeting the current minimum requirements for an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR headset. We run the test with its default settings, so users can easily compare scores here to the free version of this benchmark where settings cannot be changed.