DirectX 12 Ultimate adds powerful new features and capabilities to DirectX 12 including DirectX Raytracing Tier 1.1, Mesh Shaders, Sampler Feedback, and Variable Rate Shading (VRS).

After DirectX 12 Ultimate was announced, UL started adding new tests to 3DMark to show how games can benefit from these new features.

The latest addition is 3DMark Mesh Shader feature test, a new test that shows how game developers can boost frame rates by using mesh shaders in the graphics pipeline.

Introduce The New 3DMark Mesh Shader test

What is a mesh shader?

Mesh shaders introduce a new approach to geometry processing that simplifies the graphics pipeline while also giving developers more flexibility and control.

In 3D graphics, a mesh is the set of vertices, edges and faces that define the shape of an object. In current graphics pipelines, all the geometry data in a mesh must be processed sequentially before any further steps can be taken. This can be a significant performance bottleneck.

Mesh shaders replace the old approach with a new model that brings the power, flexibility and control of a compute programming model to the geometry pipeline.

Mesh shaders can process small sections of a mesh, called meshlets, in parallel with a much greater degree of flexibility and control.

Amplification shaders, another new part of the mesh shader pipeline, are especially useful for culling, as they can efficiently determine which meshlets are visible before shading. An amplification shader can cull nonvisible meshlets far more efficiently than the traditional methods.

You can read more about mesh shaders on the Microsoft DirectX Developer Blog and in the DirectX Functional Spec.

Test mesh shader performance with 3DMark

The 3DMark Mesh Shader feature test shows how game engines can improve performance by using the mesh shader pipeline to efficiently cull geometry that is not visible to the camera.

The test scene is a hall containing many rows of highly detailed, carved pillars. As the camera moves through the scene, the pillars in the foreground block the view of those further back.

The test runs in two passes. The first pass uses a traditional approach to geometry culling to provide a performance baseline. The second pass uses mesh shaders to efficiently cull hidden meshlets.

The result of the test is the average frame rate for each pass and the difference between the two expressed as a percentage. You can read more about the test in the 3DMark user guide.

Interactive mode

The 3DMark Mesh Shader feature test includes an interactive mode that helps you visualize the benefits of using mesh shaders. You can pause and jump to different parts of the timeline and change settings in real-time. Use visualizer options to highlight meshlets or see the level of detail (LOD) used for each meshlet.

Experience DirectX 12 Ultimate with 3DMark

DirectX 12 Ultimate adds powerful new features and capabilities to DirectX 12. These features enable game developers to create ever more realistic graphics while also improving performance and frame rates.

3DMark has a dedicated test for each of the new features in DirectX 12 Ultimate:

• 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test.
• 3DMark Mesh Shader feature test.
• 3DMark VRS feature test.
• 3DMark Sampler Feedback feature test (coming later this year).

As well as measuring performance, each of these tests also has an interactive mode that lets you experiment with different settings to see the effect on image quality and performance.

You can read more about DirectX 12 Ultimate on the Microsoft DirectX Developer blog.

Available now

The Mesh Shader feature test is available today as a free update for 3DMark Advanced Edition. From now until February 15, 3DMark is 85% off, only $4.49 (USD), when you buy it from Steam.

In 3DMark Professional Edition, the Mesh Shader feature test is available as a free update for customers with a valid annual license.

Compatibility

The 3DMark Mesh Shader feature test requires Windows 10 version 2004 or later and a graphics card with drivers that support Microsoft DirectX 12 Ultimate. For AMD GPUs, UL recommend installing the latest Radeon Adrenalin Edition 21.2.2 drivers.

DirectX 12 Ultimate 正式宣布後之後，UL Benchmark 3DMark 除了先前的 DXR 光線追蹤和 VRS 可變速率著色，又更新了新的測試項目，展示遊戲如何運作這些新功能。最新的 3DMark Mesh Shader 網格著色器功能測試可以知道如何透過 Mesh Shader 網格著色器提高圖形的 FPS，另外 Sampler Feedback 採樣器反饋也將在 2021 年內推出。

什麼是 Mesh Shader 網格著色器？

Mesh Shader 網格著色器是新的幾何處理，簡化了圖形通道，同時還為開發人員提供了更大的靈活性和控制力。簡單來說就是把你看不到的東西遮蔽，或是降低場景複雜度，讓你的電腦不用運算這麼多物件。有興趣的玩家可以在 Microsoft DirectX Developer Blog 和 DirectX Functional Spec 中閱讀有關網格著色器更多的資料。

3DMark Mesh Shader 網格著色器功能測試，展示了遊戲引擎如何通過使用網格著色器通道，有效刪除視角看不見的的幾何圖形來提高性能。測試場景是一個大廳，裡面有滿滿細膩金屬雕刻裝飾的柱子，場景移動時，前景的柱子會因為不同角度而擋住後面的景物。

3DMark 體驗 DirectX 12 Ultimate 各種測試項目

測試項目：

• 3DMark DirectX 光線追踪功能測試。
• 3DMark Mesh Shader 功能測試。
• 3DMark VRS 功能測試。
• 3DMark Sampler Feedback 採樣器反饋功能測試（2021 年內會推出）。

除了測量性能外，這些測試都具有進階的自訂模式，使用者可以嘗試不同的設定，看到對圖像品質和性能的影響。

UL Benchamrk 3DMARK

Over the last year, we’ve seen a lot of interest in a new category of PCs designed for content creators. With high-end specifications and serious styling, these new creator PCs are being marketed to animators, designers, photographers, videographers, musicians and other digital content creators.

Today, we’re releasing two new benchmarks for measuring the performance of creator PCs. These two benchmarks use popular Adobe applications to test PC performance for photo editing and video editing work.

These new benchmarks launch under our new UL Procyon benchmark brand for professional users. Find out more at https://benchmarks.ul.com/procyon.

Creativity unleashed

Enthusiast creators now have easy access to many of the same software tools used by professionals. Add increasingly powerful, yet affordable PC hardware and creators have everything they need to develop their talent and unlock their potential.

For creators who make a living from their craft, focus and productivity are key. When the process gets in the way, creativity suffers. Even the smallest interruption can break the flow. Longer delays from loading images or exporting video files are even more frustrating.

Creator PCs powered by AMD, Intel and NVIDIA promise to smooth out the wrinkles in the production process. Manufacturers such as ASUS and Lenovo are also offering dedicated systems for content creators. Benchmark scores offer an easy way for creators to compare the performance of these different systems.

Helping creators buy from PC retailers

UL is working with consumer electronics retailers to help people choose the right PC for their needs and budget. Retailers use benchmark scores and testing data from UL to categorize and sort the PCs, notebooks and laptops they offer. UL is currently working with more than fifteen major consumer electronics retailers worldwide.

UL uses a range of benchmarks to test aspects of performance from everyday web browsing and personal productivity, to how well a system handles the latest games and virtual reality experiences. Retailers use this benchmarking data at the point of sale to help their customers make informed buying decisions.

Today, UL is releasing two new benchmarks that help retailers communicate the capabilities of PCs designed for content creators.

UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark

UL Procyon benchmarks use real applications to test performance whenever possible. The UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark uses Adobe Lightroom Classic and Adobe Photoshop in a typical photo editing workflow that includes batch processing and image retouching.

The benchmark starts by importing Digital Negative (DNG) image files into Adobe Lightroom Classic and applying various presets. Some images are cropped, straightened and modified. In the second part of the test, multiple edits and layer effects are applied to a photograph in Adobe Photoshop. The benchmark score is a measure of how quickly the PC performs these tasks.

Photo editing performance depends on the CPU, GPU and storage working together. Using relevant Adobe applications ensures that the benchmark score reflects the real-world performance of the system as a whole.

The UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark is compatible with Adobe Lightroom Classic 10.0 and Adobe Photoshop 22.0 and higher. You must have the relevant Adobe applications installed and licensed in order to run the benchmark.

The UL Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark is available now. Single-seat licenses for professional users start at $995 (USD) per year. Find out more on the UL Benchmarks website.
https://benchmarks.ul.com/procyon/photo-editing-benchmark

UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark uses Adobe Premiere Pro in a typical video editing workflow.

The benchmark starts by importing two video project files. The project timelines include various edits, adjustments and effects. The second project uses several GPU-accelerated effects. Each video project is exported in Full HD encoded with H.264 and again in 4K UHD encoded with HEVC (H.265). The benchmark score is based on the time taken to export all four videos.

Exporting video files from Premiere Pro is dead time to a creator. Even short videos can take several minutes to export. Longer sequences with layers, color grading and complex effects may take an hour or longer. A faster PC takes less time to export video files, giving more time back to the creator.

Video editing performance depends on the CPU, GPU and storage working together. Using relevant Adobe applications ensures that the benchmark score reflects the real-world performance of the system as a whole.

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark is compatible with Adobe Premiere Pro 14.5 and higher. You must have the relevant Adobe applications installed and licensed in order to run the benchmark.

The UL Procyon Video Editing Benchmark is available now. Single-seat licenses for professional users start at $995 (USD) per year. Find out more on the UL Benchmarks website.
https://benchmarks.ul.com/procyon/video-editing-benchmark

The launch of AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards on November 18 will end NVIDIA’s monopoly on real-time ray tracing. For the first time, gamers will have a choice of GPU vendors when buying a ray-tracing-capable graphics card. Today, we’re releasing a new 3DMark feature test that measures pure ray-tracing performance. You can use the 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test to compare the performance of the dedicated ray-tracing hardware in the latest graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA.

3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test

Real-time ray tracing is incredibly demanding. The latest graphics cards have dedicated hardware that’s optimized for ray-tracing operations. Despite the advances in GPU performance, the demands are still too high for a game to rely on ray tracing alone. That’s why games use ray tracing to complement traditional rendering techniques.

The 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test is designed to make ray tracing the limiting factor. Instead of relying on traditional rendering, the whole scene is ray-traced and drawn in one pass.

The result of the test depends entirely on ray-tracing performance, which means you can measure and compare the performance of dedicated ray-tracing hardware in the latest graphics cards.

Compared with traditional rendering, ray tracing can more accurately model how light interacts with the aperture of a camera.

In this feature test, camera rays are traced across the field of view with small random offsets to simulate a depth of field effect. The frame rate is determined by the time taken to trace and shade a set number of samples for each pixel, combine the results with previous samples and present the output on the screen. You can change the sample count to see how it affects performance and visual quality. The rendering resolution is 2560 × 1440.

The result of the test is the average frame rate in frames per second. You can read more about the test in the 3DMark technical guide.

Interactive mode

The test includes an interactive mode that lets you move freely around the scene and take screenshots. You can control the focus point and aperture of the camera to explore different depth of field effects using ray tracing.

Test your graphics card with 3DMark

3DMark includes several tests to help you measure and compare the performance of the latest graphics cards.

• Use the 3DMark DirectX Raytracing feature test to measure the performance of dedicated ray-tracing hardware
• Run the 3DMark Port Royal benchmark to test graphics performance with a game-like mix of traditional DirectX 12 rendering and real-time ray tracing
• Run 3DMark Time Spy Extreme to test and compare DirectX 12 performance
• Use 3DMark Stress Tests to check GPU stability and cooling performance over longer periods of heavy load

Available now

The DirectX Raytracing feature test is available now as a free update for 3DMark Advanced Edition from Steam and the UL Benchmarks website.

3DMark Advanced Edition owners who purchased 3DMark before January 8, 2019, will need to upgrade to unlock the latest ray-tracing tests. The 3DMark Port Royal Upgrade DLC adds Port Royal, the DirectX Raytracing feature test, and the NVIDIA DLSS feature test. Find out more about 3DMark updates and upgrades here.

The DirectX Raytracing feature test is available as a free update for 3DMark Professional Edition customers with a valid annual license. Customers with an older, perpetual license will need to purchase an annual license to unlock the test.

蘇媽與老黃的顯卡大戰越演越烈，在老黃搶先發布 RTX 3000 系列顯卡，效能與定價為市場投下一顆震撼彈後，蘇媽立刻拿出 Zen 3 與 Big Navi 線上發布會迎擊！現在甚至能在 Ashes of the Singularity 奇點灰燼 Benchmark 分數中，找出與 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 分數不相上下、疑似 AMD Big Navi 的跑分數據~

AMD Radeon Graphics 神秘的顯示卡會是誰

由 2020/9/13 至奇點灰燼官方網站查到，由以上 DX11 Benchmark 資料庫跑分數據 1 得知，尚未被命名的新顯卡目前最高跑分來到 6200、FPS 則有 63，贏過不少 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 的跑分；再根據跑分數據 2 中得到不少 Radeon RX 5700 XT 的數據，最高跑分只來到 5100、FPS 則是 52，如果參考 PJ 先前的預測，幾乎可以推測這張未知顯卡就是 Navi 21 的跑分數據！

HKEPC 則是蒐集爆料大神 @_rogame 所說的數據，推測出 Radeon RX 6000 新卡基本上已達 RTX 2080 Ti 的效能水平，不過與超頻後的 RTX 2080 Ti 相比仍有一段的距離，HKEPC 判斷 Navi 21 G應該能夠達到高階 RTX 3080 系列的水平，Navi 22  處於 RTX 3070 系列的水平。

不論各方推測為何，以上畢竟都只是來自 Ashes of the Singularity 奇點灰燼 DX11 Benchmark 資料庫的數據，沒有顯示其他的變數控制資訊，一切還是要等到 10/29 0:00 線上發布會中才能明朗，想知道更多更新的消息記得鎖定 UH FB 粉絲團，我們會繼續追蹤下去~

常常看到很多顯示卡與遊戲測試，會看到 AVG FPS 或是 MIN FPS，這些是很常見的平均和最低 FPS Benchmark 測試數據，其實更進階的測試還會出現  1% Low FPS 與 0.1% Low FPS，這代表哪種涵義呢？為何要測試這些數值呢？來看看 UH 老羊的說明吧~

先聊聊 Benchmark Frametime

こんばんは、UNIKO's hardware です！
首先來介紹什麼是 "Variable Rate Shading" (以下簡稱 VRS) VRS 是 DirectX 12 的一項新功能，它可以讓開發人員能夠自由選擇降低部分細節品質來換取更高的性能，且不至於讓整體畫面品質被破壞，為玩家們取得畫質與效能的最高平衡 但相對的 GPU 要求也不低。

3DMark VRS 功能測試主要幫助玩家們在使用 VSR 時能夠清楚的分辨性能和圖像質量的差異變化。測試還提供了一種對比模式，在不同設置的 VRS 下進行各項比較。
VRS 測試項目以幽暗森林的環境與微微輕飄著燈籠作為主題。第一輪測試為 VRS 未開啟的情況來演示。

▲第一輪演示未開啟 VRS。

 

▲第二輪演示開啟 VSR。

可以看出明顯變化，雖犧牲了背景畫質但也保留主要的畫面素材品質，系統會根據物件與玩家視角的距離，將離最近物件的以 1 x 1 模式繪製 ，中距離物件則以 2 x 2 模式繪製，最遠距離的物件則以畫質最差的 4 x 4 模式繪製。

▲3DMark VRS 測試圖展示了不同距離跟不同繪製等級的位置

VRS 測試項目即將在今年的 8 月 26 日透過更新方式推出，到時擁有 3DMark 進階版（Advanced Edition）與專業版（Professional Edition）的玩家們都可以免費獲得這項測試功能，體驗 VRS 所帶來的效能提升。

來源

UH = UNIKO's HARDWARE
https://www.unikoshardware.com/

https://www.facebook.com/unikoshardware/

こんばんは、UNIKO's hardware です！

PCI Express（PCIe）是一種電腦的標準介面，提供設備之間提供高速頻寬傳輸。新一代 PCI Express 4.0 比起 PCI Express 3.0 頻寬多了兩倍。更大的頻寬，遊戲可以傳輸更多數據，減少讀取時間，並支持更複雜的場景。支援 PCIe 4.0 的首批零件目前就是 AMD 第三世代 RYZEN 處理器和 RADEON VII 與 RX 5000 系列顯示卡。
3DMark 的專長提供特定技術的標準化測試，該 3DMark PCI Express 的功能測試目的提供給您的 GPU 在計算機的 PCI Express 插槽的頻寬數據統計。

在今天的繪圖管線的實際使用中，PC 的遊戲性能不太可能受到 PCIe 帶寬的限制。儘管如此 PCIe 4.0 帶來的頻寬增加一定會為未來的硬體開闢新的可能性。

3DMark PCI Express 功能測試提供了一種準確可靠的方法來比較 PCIe 的頻寬並測量不同硬體配置的性能。

目前 STEAM 有 3DMARK 折扣優惠，日期到 2019.07.10，連結點我。