Futuremark 3DMark Time Spy DX12 Benchmark Debuts On Steam To Punish Your Modern GPUs

Futuremark 3DMark Time Spy

There's been a lot of chatter about DirectX 12, the low-level graphics API built into Windows 10, and what effect it will have on PC gaming. Developers will more fully embrace DX12 as time goes on, but in the meantime, is your rig up to snuff? Futuremark will help you answer that question with Time Spy, a new DX12 benchmark test it added to 3DMark, which is now available on Steam.

Time Spy graph
Source: Futuremark

The new Time Spy test processes more objects, textures, and effects than any of 3DMark's other benchmarking tests, and by a large degree. That's because DX12 supports a host of new API features, things such as asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading. Time Spy sports a pure DX12 engine, and as a result it can put a hurt on PCs, more so than Fire Strike, which is a high-end DirectX 11 test.


If you're familiar with past versions of 3DMark, a benchmark that's been around for more than a decade, you'll notice several nods to the past in Time Spy. As the Time Spy character waltzes through a museum setting, some of the exhibits showcasing prior versions of 3DMark come to life, such as the Canyon Flight test in 3DMark06.

Time Spy is available as a free update for all Windows editions of 3DMark, including the free Basic Edition and the Steam demo. If you already own the Advanced Edition, you can unlock extra settings in Time Spy for $10. Otherwise, now is the time to purchase the Advanced Edition—it runs $25 but will jump to $30 on July 23 because of the Time Spy addition.