3DMark is one of the go-to benchmark suites for evaluating system performance, and in particular the GPU. It's a great tool, and while the free version is good enough for most people, the paid version opens up a wealth of options and additional tests. And you can unlock it right now for just $4.49 on Steam.
The listing on Steam does not overtly label the paid version as 3DMark Advanced Edition, but that is what this is. It normally sells for $29.99, save for when it goes on sale every so often. This is one of those times, and is easily worth the asking price, if for no other reason than being able to skip the demo when running a benchmark.
There are other perks, though, like gaining access to Time Spy Extreme, a 4K version of the DirectX 12 benchmark. The paid version also unlocks several other benchmarks that are inaccessible in the Basic Edition (free), including Port Royal, which is a real-time ray tracing benchmark, along with Wild Life and Wild Life Extreme, Fire Strike Extreme and Fire Strike Ultra, and a stress test.
You get access to several feature tests, too:
- DirectX Ray Tracing feature test
- Mesh Shader feature test
- PCI Express feature test
- VRS feature test
- Nvidia DLSS feature test
You can configure custom benchmark settings in the Advanced Edition, as well as install tests individually and save results offline, to name a few of the perks.
If you want to go for the gusto, you can grab 3DMark Advanced Edition as part of a bundle with PCMark 10 (another widely used and cited benchmark suite) and VRMark for $8.98 (down from $79.97). Both are excellent value and worthy additions to your catalog of benchmarking tools.
