The Gamer's Benchmark for iOS

Steel Nomad uses graphics technologies just like your favorite new game titles to give you a good idea of how your system will run the latest PC and mobile games without ray tracing.

Set at night, with the Steel Nomad desert basin flooded by a vast lake, Steel Nomad Light is more accessible for lightweight and portable systems, lowering the rendering resolution to 1440p and removing or reducing some of the most demanding graphical techniques used in Steel Nomad. Make no mistake though, Steel Nomad is still a very demanding benchmark for the latest phones, tablets, and lightweight laptops.

• Uses DirectX 12, Vulkan and Metal depending on platform.
• Designed for Windows, Windows-on-Arm, Android and iOS.
• Cross-platform non-raytraced benchmark.

3DMark Solar Bay is a ray tracing benchmark for test for devices running iOS, Android and Windows 10 and 11. It’s designed for measuring gaming with ray tracing performance on notebooks, phones and tablets. Built using the Vulkan 1.1 graphics API for Android and Windows, and the Metal API for iOS, its results can be compared across supported platforms. The ray traced workload increases linearly over three stages, letting you see how your device handles a variety of ray traced gaming workloads.

• Uses Vulkan 1.1 on Android, Windows 10 and 11
• Uses Metal on iOS devices
• Renders at 2560 × 1440 resolution.
• Ray tracing benchmark for lightweight and mobile devices.

Wild Life

3DMark Wild Life is a cross-platform benchmark for Apple, Android and Windows devices. Use 3DMark Wild Life to test and compare the GPU performance of smartphones, tablets and notebook computers.

3DMark Wild Life uses the Vulkan graphics API on Windows PCs and Android devices. On iOS devices, it uses Metal. You can compare benchmark scores across platforms.

Wild Life Extreme

3DMark Wild Life Extreme is a more demanding test for the latest devices. With new effects, enhanced geometry, more particles, and a 4K UHD rendering resolution, Wild Life Extreme is over three times more demanding than the Wild Life benchmark.

Use 3DMark Wild Life Extreme to test and compare the latest iPhones and iPads as well as Apple Mac computers with the M1 chip.

Two ways to test your device

Run Wild Life benchmarks to measure your device’s ability to deliver high performance for short periods. Use benchmark scores to compare GPU performance across devices and platforms.

Wild Life Stress Tests run twenty loops of the benchmark to show you how your device manages performance and temperature during longer periods of heavy use.

Sling Shot

Use Sling Shot to compare older iPhone and iPad models with low-cost Android devices.

Sling Shot is an OpenGL ES 3.0 benchmark that tests the full range of API features including multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. The test also includes volumetric lighting, depth of field and bloom post-processing effects. The Graphics tests are rendered at 1920 x 1080 then scaled to your device's native display resolution.

You can also run this test offscreen using Unlimited mode to compare CPUs and GPUs.

Sling Shot Extreme

Use Sling Shot Extreme to compare older Apple models with mainstream Android devices.

Sling Shot Extreme uses Metal, a low overhead graphics API created by Apple. The test uses the full range of API features including instanced rendering, multiple render targets, and uniform buffers. It also includes volumetric lighting, depth of field and bloom post-processing effects using Compute Shaders. The Graphics tests are rendered at 2560 x 1440 then scaled to your device's display.

You can also run this test offscreen using Unlimited mode to compare CPUs and GPUs.

Important notes

When comparing scores across platforms, note that the test results reflect both hardware and software. APIs with low overhead, such as Metal and Vulkan, can deliver more performance than OpenGL ES even on devices with similar hardware.

Sling Shot compatibility starts with iPhone 5s, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and runs to the latest devices.