Windows 10 Gaming Benchmarks – The Results from 3DMark Tests

You are a gaming freak and have installed Windows 10 lately. Definitely you would like to know how games perform, on this new OS. The best method is to check out the benchmarks offered by different tools and reviewers on YouTube. You can definitely get a hint on how a game works out on Windows 10 and under different system configurations.

There are different software tools for benchmarking games especially– SiSoft Sandra Lite, FutureMark tools, Unigine benchmarks, Fraps, Prime95, Catzilla and many others. But one program that stands out from the others is the 3DMark software from FutureMark. Using this software you can compare the benchmarks of Windows, Android and iOS devices. It supports the latest DirectX 12 version, using the new API Overhead feature test.

Why do Gaming Benchmark Tests on Windows 10?

The simple reason being, in order to test the performance of the game under new set of conditions and compare it with the earlier OS, like Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1. It can also be used to test whether there are any new “software” changes in the OS, like for example DirectX 12 in Windows 10, that have any impact on the games. The main purpose of doing gaming benchmarks is to test the “video card” for its maximum performance under the given set of conditions.

For example, when you click “Tomb Raider”, the camera will just go around the landscape doing a set movement. It allows you to see how game setting effects performance with the new OS and how well it compares with older OS. You can also use the same tests to test different graphic cards and see how well your PC compares with others.

The results are generally represented in the form of points.

What are the factors affecting Benchmarking Tests?

There are different software and hardware parameters that affect your “game” performance. For example, when it comes to hardware, everybody knows that video card (GPU), CPU, RAM, motherboard, hard-drive all have an impact on the “efficiency” of the game. But what is important to know is that your game settings or video card settings can also have an impact on your game.

Generally graphics settings, tweak your computer how it draws images on your screen in any give game. They can make blurry textures sharper, jagged edges smooth and even let you see further into the distance. So when you do a gaming benchmark test, you can vary these settings, to see whether the games perform smoother or jagged, under the given set of hardware for the new OS. You can also maximize these settings, to see if you can fully use the potential of your computer.

Some of these graphics settings include graphics adapter, aspect ratio, resolution, FXAA, antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, texture quality, radial blur quality, shadow detail, decal quantity, refresh rate and VSync etc. Sometimes these are available in your game’s options, while some may be available with your video card settings.

2D graphics tests focus on drawing, moving and scaling lines, fonts, elements which have a due effect on the performance of video cards in benchmark tests. It is generally measured in frames per second (FPS), so the higher the better.

Another important parameter is the “frame rate”. If you can play your game smoothly at “optimal” performance of 60 FPS, it’s great. But generally if a game is playable at “25-30” FPS, it should be ok. But if you are not able to play your game at higher FPS rates, as found in the benchmark tests, it indicates either the OS is not supportive of its features or your hardware is of low profile. In that case, you can compare the results of two different OS like for eg. Windows 7 vs Windows 8.1 vs Windows 10, to see if it’s the hardware problem or the OS problem.

What are the drawbacks of conducting Benchmark Tests?

If you have a test hardware and do not care what happens to it, then you need not worry about the impact of benchmark tests on hardware. But if you own a personal computer or laptop, doing benchmarks tests can reduce the life of hardware like – graphics card, CPU, RAM, hard-drive etc. Though you may not feel this impact initially, but, at later stages when you play different games at maximized performance you can feel the “distraught” effects of benchmarks tests.

Though there is no proof on the Internet that 3D Mark tests will reduce the life span of your hardware, be skeptical if you are using a “single” computer and worry if it gets spoilt.

Windows 10 Gaming Benchmarks – From YouTube Reviewers

MultiTechnopark conducted his research on Windows 10 Pro. His test system looked something like this.

Intel i7-6700K, ASUS Z170-A ATX DDR4, G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 series 16GB – 2666 Mhz. He used the Fire Strike Ultra benchmark. It is the world’s first 4K gaming benchmark. He tested the performance of the following graphic cards using the above benchmark test.

1. AMD RADEON R9 Fury Nano
2. Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti
3. GeForce GTX Titan X
4. Nvidia GeForce GTX 980
5. Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
6. Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 TI
7. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming
8. Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan
9. Nvidia GeForce GTX 780
10. AMD Radeon R9 280X
11. AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz
12. Nvidia GeForce GTX 770
13. AMD Radeon R9 270X
14. AMD Radeon HD 7950
15. Nvidia GeForce GTX 760

The results were produced for BATTLEFIELD 4, GTA V, METRO LAST LIGHT, CRYSIS 3, TOMB RAIDER, WATCHDOGS, and THE WITCHER 3. He tested these games on different resolutions of 1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160.

In the first resolution, GeForce GTX 980 Ti and GeForce GTX Titax were neck&neck in the highest benchmark points for all the games. The lowest performing graphics card in points was RADEON 270X.  The same is to be said in the second type of resolution.

But the surprising conclusion from these tests was that, AMD Radeon R9 Fury X gave a good battle for the highest points. It was close third to the above two graphics cards.

Valentin TurocK  conducted the 3DMark API Overhead Feature test to know the performance of DirectX 12 on Windows 10. Though there are very few games that support DirectX 12 the results were supportive of Microsoft’s promises. The test configuration was something like this.

• Intel i7 4770K
• Asus AMD R9 280X [Catalyst 15.7.1]

It was conducted on Windows 10 Home 64  bit at a resolution of 1920×1080.  The Drawcalls/second produced the following results.

1. DirectX 11 (Single threaded) — 1,095, 982
2. DirectX 11(Multi-threaded) —  1,057, 685
3. Mantle — 11,661,693
4. DirectX 12 – 12, 738, 036

As you can see there is a leap of 11x times the performance from DirectX 11 to 12.

Some other users presented the results of 3D Mark Fire Strike benchmark test.

One user using NVidia GeForce GTX 960(1x) and Intel Xeon E5450 scored 6694 on Fire Strike 1.1. This was better than 51% of all results. He tested it on Windows 10 pro 64 bit. Another user the same benchmark software. But he was using NVidia GeForce GTX 970(1x) and Intel Core i5-4690K. The score was 9529. This was better than 80% of all results.

McGrauado conducted some experiments with 3DMark Basic Benchmark on Windows 10. The version was not mentioned. He used NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (1x) and Intel Core i7-5820K processor. The benchmark results were something like this.

1. Fire Strike 1.1 – 14878
2. Sky Diver 1.0 – 35680
3. Cloud Gate 1.1 – 33469
4. Ice Storm 1.2 – 164663.