Basemark Releases New "Basemark GPU" Mobile and PC Benchmark
by Andrei Frumusanu on June 20, 2018 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- BaseMark
- Mobile
- GPUs
- Benchmarks
Today Basemark released a new cross-platform benchmark, aptly named Basemark GPU. The new benchmark is a result of what is claimed to be two and a half years of development. The key characteristic of Basemark GPU is that it's aiming for all platforms and graphics APIs. By default it uses different workload complexities on desktop and mobile in order to match the expected performance of the platform. However the desktop client can also be set to the mobile profile to allow for more apples-to-apples testing with mobile devices.
Today's launch includes Windows, Linux and Android releases, supporting OpenGL and Vulkan graphics APIs. In the coming months it's said that we'll see DirectX 12 and Metal (iOS) added to the mix. The benchmark also supports selectable texture compression formats with a choice between ETC2, ASTC and EC7.
The benchmark is also designed to give the most amount of information on performance possible, and the regular score reporting includes average, minimum, and maximum FPS. The benchmark is also able to output frame-time data, which for mobile devices is a first for a free benchmarking applicaiton.
We've been in contact with Basemark over the last couple of weeks in terms of providing feedback and evaluations of the new test in regards to our mobile testing suite. Having a new mobile benchmark in particular is of great value as the ecosystem is severely lacking good and reliable benchmarking tools.
The new test can be downloaded on the Play Store for Android, and on the Basemark website for Windows and Linux platforms.
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JackTheBear - Wednesday, June 20, 2018 - link
"with different workload complexities depending on wether you're running it on desktop platforms, or mobile devices"Pretty much assures an apples to oranges comparison. The benchmark should be identical regardless of platform.
Ian Cutress - Wednesday, June 20, 2018 - link
You are looking at hardware with a complete order of magnitude power budget difference, however. What aligns really well is completely useless for the other, and something in the middle serves neither.jordanclock - Wednesday, June 20, 2018 - link
Right. I don't see much benefit in comparing a laptop and a desktop in this manner. You already know the laptop is going to perform worse. What is much more useful is how one laptop compares to another or how one desktop GPU compares with another.JackTheBear - Wednesday, June 20, 2018 - link
Many people have the opinion that mobile processors/gpus have gotten to the point that they can challenge desktop processors and desktop gpus. Maybe that's the case and maybe it's not - I'd bank on the latter for the same reasons you stated (power budget). The benchmark should clearly tell what's what so people can see the performance differences between desktop and mobile platforms.Alexvrb - Wednesday, June 20, 2018 - link
Reread the whole paragraph. The more demanding workload is for comparing desktop GPUs against one another. Meanwhile you can set the desktop version to run the exact same workload as mobile. Different APIs can still be a factor, but I'd bet this benchmark is still going to be better than any of the other cross-platform graphics benches out there.lucam - Thursday, June 21, 2018 - link
Do you think PowerVr will rock this bench?Alexvrb - Thursday, June 21, 2018 - link
If there are SoCs out there utilizing their higher-end configurations, yes. Personally I can't think of any using their current best now that Apple went in-house.lucam - Friday, June 22, 2018 - link
Very true and sad...I hope Apple would still consider PowerVR in the future tho..mode_13h - Sunday, June 24, 2018 - link
Not very likely. After going to all the cost and trouble of designing their own GPUs, why on earth would they ever switch back?If you look at how long AMD has been nursing GCN or how long Intel has been milking their HD Graphics (and why is it both those metaphors involve lactation?), GPU architectures tend to have a pretty long shelf-life. So, if Apple's is any good, they'll probably be using some derivative of it for at least 5 years.
mode_13h - Thursday, June 21, 2018 - link
Eh, high-end mobile GPUs and Intel iGPUs are actually not so far apart.