3DMark Solar Bay finally supports iOS and Mac models

In August of this year, with the introduction of the Solar Bay test in the new 3DMark, UL Solutions set out to assess the real-time ray tracing performance of Android and Windows devices. Just before Apple’s autumn unveiling of the iPhone 15 series, UL Solutions announced that the Solar Bay would also be compatible with iOS devices, and even with Mac models featuring the Apple Silicon processor.

For iOS devices and Macs, the Solar Bay testing will leverage Apple’s Metal API to evaluate the real-time ray tracing effects on these devices. Moreover, only iPhones or iPads equipped with the A13 processor or later are supported for the Solar Bay test on iOS devices. For Macs, only those with the Apple Silicon processor are compatible.

The Solar Bay test is built upon the Vulkan 1.1 API and includes two novel test procedures, namely “Port Royal” and “Speed Way.” These tests encompass more than three different scenes, doubling the linear test scale at each stage to compute the device’s performance in real-time ray tracing operations.

A single run of the Solar Bay test takes approximately 20 minutes and provides users with a graphical result, enabling them to gauge the specific performance of their device. The outcome is then adjusted for discrepancies across different device platforms, allowing users to compare the computational performance between iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac devices using the same metric.

With this update, UL Solutions has also rebranded their app originally listed on the App Store as “3DMark Wild Life Benchmark” to simply “3DMark”, facilitating user recognition and download.

Currently, 3DMark offers free versions for iOS and Android. The Windows version is available for purchase at $34.99, while Macs equipped with the Apple Silicon processor can download the iOS version via the App Store.