Tuesday, January 8th 2019

UL Corporation Announces 3D Mark Port Royal Raytracing Suite is Now Available - Benchmark Mode On!

by
Raevenlord
 Discuss (19 Comments)
Perhaps gliding through the tech-infused CES week, UL Corporation has just announced that the much-expected Port Royal, the world's first dedicated real-time ray tracing benchmark for gamers, is now available. Port Royal uses DirectX Raytracing to enhance reflections, shadows, and other effects that are difficult to achieve with traditional rendering techniques, and enables both performance benchmarking for cutthroat competition throughout the internet (and our own TPU forums, of course), but is also an example of what to expect from ray tracing in upcoming games - ray tracing effects running in real-time at reasonable frame rates at 2560 × 1440 resolution.
3DMark Port Royal was developed with input from AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and other leading technology companies, and especially Microsoft, purveyors of the DirectX Raytracing API. Of course, being a ray tracing benchmark, Port Royal only supports NVIDIa's RTX graphics cards at the moment, so it's a relatively niche offering. Still - it will only become more popular as support for RTX is continued in subsequent NVIDIA and future AMD generations.
Available now
Port Royal is available now in 3DMark Advanced Edition and 3DMark Professional Edition. To run Port Royal, users will need the Windows 10 October Update and a graphics card with drivers that support Microsoft DirectX Raytracing.

3DMark Advanced Edition, USD $29.99
From today onward, Port Royal is included in the price when you buy 3DMark from Steam or the UL Benchmarks website.

3DMark Port Royal upgrade, USD $2.99
If you already own 3DMark Advanced Edition, you can unlock Port Royal by purchasing the Port Royal upgrade for USD $2.99.
3DMark Professional Edition
Port Royal is available as a free update for 3DMark Professional Edition customers with a valid annual license. Customers with an older, perpetual Professional Edition license will need to purchase an annual license to unlock Port Royal.

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19 Comments on UL Corporation Announces 3D Mark Port Royal Raytracing Suite is Now Available - Benchmark Mode On!

#2
bug
So, not only limited, but gated behind a paywall on top of that.
Too bad, they could have tuned DXR independently of various game engines (and free of their constraints) and made this into a nice synthetic benchmark showing how well each can cope with DXR.
Posted on Reply
#3
Darksword
You'll also need to have the October Win 10 update (1809) installed in order to run this benchmark.
Posted on Reply
#4
Mysteoa
DarkswordYou'll also need to have the October Win 10 update (1809) installed in order to run this benchmark.
Yes, because 1803 will not get the updated DX12 with RT
Posted on Reply
#5
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
Still frustrated that it only works with rtx cards for this application yet people have been using raytracing for a much longer time frame than the existence of Turing.

AMD did demos with Vega and Ray tracing so where is the driver support?
Posted on Reply
#6
Athlonite
cdawallStill frustrated that it only works with rtx cards for this application yet people have been using raytracing for a much longer time frame than the existence of Turing.

AMD did demos with Vega and Ray tracing so where is the driver support?
Apparently this : 3DMark Port Royal was developed with input from AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and other leading technology companies. We worked especially closely with Microsoft to create a first-class implementation of the DirectX Raytracing API. Port Royal will run on any graphics card with drivers that support DirectX Raytracing ... Means it should work already
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#7
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
AthloniteApparently this : 3DMark Port Royal was developed with input from AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and other leading technology companies. We worked especially closely with Microsoft to create a first-class implementation of the DirectX Raytracing API. Port Royal will run on any graphics card with drivers that support DirectX Raytracing ... Means it should work already
You needed one more line. I thought the same at first and became disappointed after rereading it.
RaevenlordPort Royal only supports NVIDIa's RTX graphics cards at the moment, so it's a relatively niche offering.
Posted on Reply
#8
MrAMD
Got 8529 with a 2080 Ti. Stayed between 40 ~ 60 fps. Not too shabby.
Posted on Reply
#9
FM_Jarnis
bugSo, not only limited, but gated behind a paywall on top of that.
Too bad, they could have tuned DXR independently of various game engines (and free of their constraints) and made this into a nice synthetic benchmark showing how well each can cope with DXR.
That is exactly what Port Royal is. DXR benchmark.

Microsoft has a standard API - DirectX Raytracing. Vendors need to write drivers that support the API. None of this requires dedicated hardware - whole DXR support can be written to use just normal shader hardware. NVIDIA has already proven this by publishing DXR compatible drivers for Titan V that has no raytracing hardware. Ask GPU vendors where is the driver support? Of course this is a very new API - final version was only released with the October 2018 update of Windows 10, so it is very early days.
Posted on Reply
#10
Vayra86
RTX/DXR so far comes across as a rushed affair that is only for the happy few. Not exactly the best way to push market adoption. The fact this is paywalled speaks volumes. It really didn't have to be and other 3DMark benches weren't either.
Posted on Reply
#11
bug
Vayra86RTX/DXR so far comes across as a rushed affair that is only for the happy few. Not exactly the best way to push market adoption. The fact this is paywalled speaks volumes. It really didn't have to be and other 3DMark benches weren't either.
The thing is, rushed or not, Nvidia has the hardware and it's much better positioned to dictate the future of the technology. If AMD does not catch up with Navi, they'll be in a very tough spot as RTRT catches on.
Posted on Reply
#12
Vayra86
bugThe thing is, rushed or not, Nvidia has the hardware and it's much better positioned to dictate the future of the technology. If AMD does not catch up with Navi, they'll be in a very tough spot as RTRT catches on.
As - or "if"...

Until the consoles move along, this thing is dead in the water. And those are AMD territory. You're right though about positioning.
Posted on Reply
#13
bug
Vayra86As - or "if"...

Until the consoles move along, this thing is dead in the water. And those are AMD territory. You're right though about positioning.
RTRT being dead in the water is something we've constantly disagreed about. I'm ok with that, it's just normal.
Even so, what do you do as a console builder when you have to choose a GPU for your next-gen console and Nvidia gives you RTRT while AMD does not? If you happen to be Microsoft, you already have the API for it in place.
In the grand scheme of things, it matters little where RTRT is today ;)
Posted on Reply
#14
Bytales
So, bottom line, does it work on AMD Cards or not ? I got a 16gb Vega that i would have loved to test. I have the latest Enterprise Drivers with it.
Posted on Reply
#15
bug
BytalesSo, bottom line, does it work on AMD Cards or not ? I got a 16gb Vega that i would have loved to test. I have the latest Enterprise Drivers with it.
If the official statement is it only works with RTX cards, I'd go with that.
Posted on Reply
#16
FM_Jarnis
BytalesSo, bottom line, does it work on AMD Cards or not ? I got a 16gb Vega that i would have loved to test. I have the latest Enterprise Drivers with it.
Port Royal works with any card that has DXR support in drivers.

Currently there is no driver available for AMD cards that supports DXR.

Right now drivers exist for Titan V (which has no dedicated raytracing hardware acceleration, proving it is not required) and all RTX-series NVIDIA cards.
Posted on Reply
#17
moproblems99
bugRTRT being dead in the water is something we've constantly disagreed about. I'm ok with that, it's just normal.
Even so, what do you do as a console builder when you have to choose a GPU for your next-gen console and Nvidia gives you RTRT while AMD does not? If you happen to be Microsoft, you already have the API for it in place.
In the grand scheme of things, it matters little where RTRT is today ;)
Right, because the GPUs going into a console in 2020 would have the hp to support RTRT....if the consoles don't support RTX this gen then they aren't going to until the next one. Which will be 2025?
Posted on Reply
#19
Athlonite
cdawallYou needed one more line. I thought the same at first and became disappointed after rereading it.
Aww puck it
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