Check Out The 3DMark Port Royal Raytracing Benchmark Launching January 8th
Gamers and benchmarkers have been using 3DMark software to test out their video card prowess for many years. As GPU makers add new graphics card capabilities, the benchmarks have to change to keep up with the times. Not long ago we saw that the NVIDIA RTX 2080 was putting quite the beatdown on the Titan XP in the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. Other than a raw performance increase in the RTX family, the other big deal that NVIDIA ushered in with the new graphics cards was real-time ray tracing. UL Benchmarks is rolling out a new 3DMark benchmark specifically to test out ray tracing capabilities.
The benchmark is called 3DMark Port Royal, and late last month some screenshots for the demo were rolled out to the public. The screenshots certainly don't do the benchmark justice, as you will see if you watch the video demo of the benchmark below. Previously, 3DMark had issued a statement about the new benchmark that promised the test would display "[enhanced] reflections, shadows, and other effects that are difficult to achieve with traditional rendering techniques." It certainly made good on that promise.
We mentioned in late November that the first glimpse at the benchmark would come today, and UL is right on time. If you are itching to run the Port Royal benchmark on your PC, it will be released to the public on January 8th, 2019. If you already have 3DMark Advanced Edition or Professional Edition, you will be able to unlock Port Royal for $2.99. From January 8th onward, it will be included in the $29.99 price for 3DMark Advanced Edition.
