UL Declares Termination Of Various Benchmarks Including 3DMark Sky Diver

What is news regarding 3DMark Sky Diver and others?

Benchmarks do not have extended longevity. They expire if they are unable to produce correct results on the latest hardware systems. When old benchmarks are utilized with new equipment, the outcomes can be misrepresented in a way that diminishes their correctness and pertinence.

In the wake of assessing the newest product offerings, we’ve chosen to terminate support for 3DMark Sky Diver, the 3DMark API Overhead component test, PCMark 8, Servermark Media Transcode, and VRMark for Android. January 14, 2021, onwards, these incompatible benchmarks will not get the below-mentioned benefits:

• UL, Steam, or other application stores, will not sell them.
• UL’s Online services are not guaranteed to work with it.
• It will not get updates from now on.
• Customer assistance will not be available.

Read the notes beneath for more data and recommendations for elective tests.

3DMark Sky Diver

PCs that have integrated graphics use 3DMark Sky Diver is a DirectX 11 for the benchmark. Presently due to excessive lower heft, it is not supported by modern-gen systems. UL suggests 3DMark Night Raid (DirectX 12) or 3DMark Wild Life (Vulkan) should be used to benchmark laptops, notebooks, PCs, and various systems that contain integrated-graphics.

3DMark API Overhead component test

The 3DMark API Overhead component test was launched in 2015 to match with the release of Windows 10 and DirectX 12. The test analyzes the draw call performance of illustrations APIs. At the time of its release, this was the main contrast between old-APIs and recent low-level APIs like Metal, DirectX 12, and Vulkan.

At present, engineers are bound to pick a graphics-API dependent on compatibility and feature support. Draw call performance factor, at this point, is not the integral factor. UL has no intention to either replace or update the underlying test.

PCMark 8

PCMark 8 is a great benchmark tool, released in 2013 for systems running Microsoft Windows 8, that estimates PC performance for office as well as home use. As per Statcounter, a mere 5% of systems run on Windows 8 presently. UL prescribes utilizing PCMark 10 to benchmark current office PCs that run Windows 10.

Servermark Media Transcode

Servermark Media Transcode is a benchmark to test the performance while transcoding media servers. It was released in 2017 for benchmarking a small range of software libraries and processors, which presently are not utilized in the modern era. UL doesn’t have any plans regarding the benchmark either to replace or to update.

VRMark for Android

Released in 2018, VRMark for Android was intended to benchmark the performance levels of Google Daydream gadgets. Google has authoritatively said that support for Daydream VR in Android 11 has ended officially.

One can benchmark PC-Dbased VR systems using the Windows variant of VRMark because UL has no plan to make a brand-new VR benchmark for smartphones.

Legacy benchmarks are allowed to download

Legacy benchmarks have made their return to 3DMark99 and are allowed to be downloaded from the UL Benchmarks site for free. These incompatible benchmarks are given for entertainment and don’t guarantee to work with present hardware or OSs.

Sources: Videocardz, UL announces end of support for 3DMark Sky Diver, API Overhead test, PCMark 8 and other benchmarks, 17th December 2020.