UL Solutions introduced 3DMark Solar Bay, a new cross-platform benchmark

Today, 3DMark introduced “Solar Bay,” a cross-platform ray tracing benchmark tailored for assessing the graphical prowess of ray tracing on Windows PCs and high-end Android devices. It’s worth noting that Solar Bay doesn’t intend to supplant “Port Royal” and “Speed Way.” The latter duo was meticulously crafted for the PC landscape, benchmarking systems equipped with top-tier GPUs. In contrast, Solar Bay endeavors to facilitate ray tracing tests even on Android devices powered by mobile processors.

Employing the Vulkan 1.1 API, Solar Bay furnishes two novel benchmarks for ray tracing-enabled hardware. The first is a rapid-fire benchmark gauging real-time performance, while the second delves into the resilience of the device, examining how it fares under sustained heavy loads.

The ray tracing workload of Solar Bay is methodically segmented into three escalating phases, each incrementally surging by 100%. The eventual output delineates the average frame rates across these three scenarios, coupled with an aggregate score. Analogous to other benchmarks, a loftier frame rate directly corresponds to a superior score. The stress test, on the other hand, subjects the device to a continuous 20-minute Solar Bay load, culminating in a graphical representation delineating performance oscillations throughout the trial. Ideally, this should yield a consistent set of outcomes, implying an unhindered performance.

For the incumbent 3DMark aficionados, Solar Bay is graciously rolled out as a complimentary update. A simple upgrade to the latest 3DMark iteration unlocks it. Moreover, the Android rendition of 3DMark is inherently free of charge. Those wielding phones with SoCs that embrace ray tracing are heartily invited to indulge in this benchmarking spectacle.