UL Adds 3DMark Storage Benchmark For Gamers

PCMark has long offered system testers the ability to gauge application startup performance, and now its publisher is adding that same level of detail to users of its 3DMark test suite. The $2.99 Upgrade measures file retrieval performance for:

• Loading Battlefield™ V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch® from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch®.
• Installing The Outer Worlds® from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds®.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike®: Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

While Performance Computing Inquisitor is not quite ready to jump into the drive testing foray, we still look forward to seeing reports for various drives to reduce the time we spend loading some of our games.

As shown above, the add-on shows both access time and bandwidth. A few of the site’s current bandwidth results include:

Storage device	3DMark Storage Benchmark score
Intel® Optane™ SSD 900P 280 GB (PCI Express 3 M.2)	4,241
Samsung® 980 PRO 500GB (PCI Express 4 M.2)	2,858
WD_BLACK™ SN750 NVMe 500GB (PCI Express 3 M.2)	2,014
Samsung® SSD 860 EVO 1TB (SATA III)	1,193

That $3 upgrade unfortunately only applies to the $60 3DMark Advanced Edition package, so we don’t expect to see much immediate uptake outside of commercial system builders and evaluation press.