Futuremark Launches 3DMark for Android

By Kevin Parrish
published

Futuremark has released 3DMark for Android.

Futuremark has finally launched 3DMark for Android, acknowledging that Google's mobile OS needs a little premium benchmarking too. This version was developed in cooperation with Imagination Technologies, Intel, Broadcom, Nvidia, Qualcomm and other companies. It provides everything users need to benchmark the performance of over 1,000 Android-based tablets and smartphones.

"What's more, 3DMark scores can be compared across platforms," the company said on Tuesday. "You can use 3DMark to test the performance of devices running Android, iOS, Windows and Windows RT, and understand how new devices compare with the alternatives."

The Android version of 3DMark includes two benchmarks, Ice Storm and Ice Storm Extreme, both based on OpenGL ES 2.0. Ice Storm includes two graphics tests designed to stress the GPU's performance and a physics test to stress the CPU's performance. Ice Storm Extreme is designed for the latest devices, raising the render resolution to 1080p and using higher quality textures and post-processing effects.

"Ice Storm Extreme will soon be included in the Windows version of 3DMark too, allowing you to compare Android and Windows tablets directly," Futuremark said.

3DMark will soon be available for Windows RT and Apple's iOS. However, Android device owners wanting to see how their hardware performs can now download the free benchmark from Google Play here. The minimum requirements include Android 3.1 or later, 1 GB of RAM, 300 MB of storage, and an OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible GPU.

Just for giggles, I benchmarked both my Nexus 10 and Nexus 7 tablets, as seen below:

Ice Storm Test on Nexus 10

Ice Storm Extreme Test on Nexus 10
Image 1 of 2
Ice Storm Extreme Test on Nexus 7

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15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • vmem
    smartphones has come a long way since the first iPhone.

    also just for giggles, I benched my droid DNA, and surprisingly, it scores similarly to my 3 year old Alienware m11x. though I'm not sure how different regular desktop 3DMark Icestorm is to this version
    Reply
  • scythe944
    So I get to see how old and long in the tooth my Nexus S 4G has become? Great!
    Reply
  • -Jackson
    Wasn't this released 2-3 days ago..?
    You'd think an article would have already been published earlier..
    Reply
  • anxiousinfusion
    Almost 40 years of cell phones and here we are benchmarking their 3D graphics.
    Reply
  • tadej petric
    This should get equal points as PCs do (or laptops, doesnt matter). Would be nice to see how top high end phone gets 0.25 of low end computer with APU. There are phones for 700$ but you can get better if you choose PC for that money and stop playing awfull angry birds. But thats just an opinion, dont disslike me on that.
    Reply
  • hyperstalker
    tadej petricThis should get equal points as PCs do (or laptops, doesnt matter). Would be nice to see how top high end phone gets 0.25 of low end computer with APU. There are phones for 700$ but you can get better if you choose PC for that money and stop playing awful angry birds. But thats just an opinion, don't dislike me on that.Considering these are two different platforms people are willing to drop 700$ on a phone over a computer. If I wasn't a computer enthusiast I would defiantly put more money into the phones I have. The way smartphones are now its like having a mini computer with tons of portability.
    Reply
  • tadej petric
    10609502 said:
    tadej petricThis should get equal points as PCs do (or laptops, doesnt matter). Would be nice to see how top high end phone gets 0.25 of low end computer with APU. There are phones for 700$ but you can get better if you choose PC for that money and stop playing awful angry birds. But thats just an opinion, don't dislike me on that.Considering these are two different platforms people are willing to drop 700$ on a phone over a computer. If I wasn't a computer enthusiast I would defiantly put more money into the phones I have. The way smartphones are now its like having a mini computer with tons of portability.

    I only use phone to call, SMS,watch free news and (rarly) play Rally 3d. For this my express music is good enough. But I dont know for others.
    On the otherside if we ignore size, phones are 10 years behind compared to PCs(not how many cores but pure preformance (cant be done directly since you cant do near as much on phones as you can do on computers)). But its just an opinion, it varies.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    -JacksonWasn't this released 2-3 days ago..?You'd think an article would have already been published earlier..The NDA lifted 2-3 days ago, but he app didn't launch until today.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    tadej petricThis should get equal points as PCs do (or laptops, doesnt matter). Would be nice to see how top high end phone gets 0.25 of low end computer with APU. There are phones for 700$ but you can get better if you choose PC for that money and stop playing awfull angry birds. But thats just an opinion, dont disslike me on that.Anandtech recently did an article comparing a range of Android devices to Surface Pro and some older discrete cards (geforce 7900GTX):

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/6877/great-equalizer-3-smartphone-tablet-gpu-performance-compared-desktop
    Reply
  • upgrade_1977
    dragonsqrrlAnandtech recently did an article comparing a range of Android devices to Surface Pro and some older discrete cards (geforce 7900GTX):http://www.anandtech.com/show/6877 ed-desktop
    Thanks for the link. :D Pretty cool to know that the Surface Pro scores almost equal to a 7900Gtx in some test's (I used to have the 7900Gto which is basically the same card rebadged).

    As far as 3Dmark, I just ran IceStorm last night 1080p on default settings, and got a 124,697 on my pc. So that will give everyone with tablets or phones something to compare it to. :D
    Reply