New benchmarks for your iPhone and iPad

3DMark Sling Shot

Already available on Android, and released today on the Apple App Store, 3DMark Sling Shot is an advanced, cross-platform benchmark for the latest smartphones and tablets. 

3DMark Sling Shot tests the full range of OpenGL ES 3.0 API features including multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. The test also includes impressive volumetric lighting and post-processing effects.  

On Android, you can additionally test OpenGL ES 3.1 performance. And we're working on a version that will use Metal as well.

3DMark Sling Shot is compatible with iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and later models.

3DMark API Overhead feature test

The 3DMark API Overhead feature test lets you compare the performance of Metal and OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics APIs on your iPhone and iPad. 

Games typically make thousands of draw calls per frame, but each one creates performance-limiting overhead for the CPU. New APIs like Metal reduce that overhead allowing more draw calls. With more draw calls, a game engine can draw more objects, textures and effects to the screen, which means games look better and run smoother.

The 3DMark API Overhead feature test measures API performance by making a steadily increasing number of draw calls. The result of the test is the maximum number of draw calls per second achieved by each API before the frame rate drops below 30 fps. 

The test is the same as the one in the Windows version of 3DMark that compares DirectX 12, DirectX 11 and Mantle. However, the API Overhead feature test is not a general-purpose GPU benchmark, and it should not be used to compare Apple devices with each other, with Android devices or with Windows PCs. The proper use of the test is to compare the relative performance of different APIs on a single device, rather than the absolute performance of different models. 

3DMark API Overhead feature test is compatible with iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini 2, and later models.