Basemark Breaking Limit benchmark tests ray traced gaming performance across diverse platforms — Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android

Official render from Basemark's latest Breaking Limit cross-platform RT benchmark.
Official render from Basemark's latest Breaking Limit cross-platform RT benchmark. (Image credit: Basemark via GPUScore.com)

Those hoping for a more diverse pool of cross-platform benchmarking tools will be pleased to hear that Basemark, through its GPUScore division, has announced a new ray tracing (RT) benchmark dubbed Breaking Limit. This flexible new benchmarking software is targeted at current-gen Android and iOS mobile devices, as well as Windows and Linux computers.

Techniques tested by the new benchmark include global illumination (how light sources interact with the environment and each other), ray-traced shadows and reflections, and even support for FSR 2 and DLSS 2 upscaling in the "Ultra" version. Since most users playing games with RT enabled are going to also be enabling some kind of image upscaling or resolution scaling to improve performance, the inclusion of DLSS 2 and FSR 2 is nice, though we hope to see updates that add Frame Generation and perhaps even Intel XeSS to the equation.

GPUScore Breaking Limit Benchmark Requirements

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Row 0 - Cell 0 MobilePCLinux
Operating System RequirementRecent versions of iOS and AndroidWindows 10 or newerUbuntu 20 or newer*
Storage Space RequirementUnknown; Likely 2GB or smaller2GB2GB
RAM RequirementUnknown6GB RAM8GB RAM
GPU RequirementAny GPU Capable of Ray TracingAny GPU Capable of Ray TracingAny GPU Capable of Ray Tracing

*Since Ubuntu is based on Debian, this bench should in theory work on other Debian-based Linux distributions as well, once released.

Now, while Basemark claims this to be the first "true" cross-platform ray tracing benchmark for whatever reason, it's worth noting that other cross-platform RT benchmarks do, in fact, exist. For example, 3DMark's Solar Bay benchmark is a cross-platform RT bench that uses Vulkan on Android and Windows and even supports Metal on iOS. GPUScore Breaking Limit still looks (and sounds) cool, but claiming it as the "first true cross-platform ray tracing benchmark" does feel like something of an overstatement, even if Breaking Limit is somehow more sophisticated.

Edit: Due to either author oversight or a sneaky page edit, the live page does not claim Breaking Limit to be the "first" true cross-platform RT benchmark. However, advertising as "The true cross-platform ray tracing benchmark", which is live at time of edit, still seems like very generous marketing for a cross-platform RT benchmark that has existing competitors.

In any case, we may or may not end up adding this Breaking Limit benchmark to our GPU benchmarking suite. 

As you may know, we at Tom's Hardware take our GPU benchmarks and their hierarchy quite seriously — and be mindful that synthetic benchmarks like this never tell the full story. Most synthetic benchmarks are an ideal scenario compared to the pure chaos of actual PC games, after all. Though for professional workloads where CPU and GPU power pretty much scale as expected, synthetics are nice for setting expectations.

Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

  • bit_user
    They deserve credit for officially supporting Linux.

    Rumor has it that 3DMark supports Linux (or, at least some iterations of 3DMark do), but they don't release this because it has only a commandline interface and no GUI. Congrats to BaseMark for getting there first!
    Reply
  • Article: "Those hoping for a more diverse pool of cross-platform benchmarking tools will be pleased to hear that Passmark, through its GPUScore division, has announced a new ray tracing (RT) benchmark dubbed Breaking Limit.

    Now, while Passmark claims this to be the first "true" cross-platform ray tracing benchmark for whatever reason"

    This isn't Passmark's benchmark. It is from BASEMARK.

    https://www.gpuscore.com/company/

    Artcile: "first true cross-platform ray tracing benchmark"

    Can you show me where does the company claim their benchmark to be the FIRST true cross-platform benchmark ? I couldn't find this info.

    Here they just state this. There is no mention of the word "first":

    "Breaking Limit is our most demanding ray tracing benchmark for mobile and PC. Breaking Limit is a true cross-platform solution, enabling effortless comparison of performance"
    https://www.gpuscore.com/benchmark/gpuscore/breaking-limit-coming-soon/
    Reply
  • bit_user said:
    Congrats to PassMark for getting there first!

    PassMark has nothing to do with this. This is Basemark's benchmark.

    https://www.gpuscore.com/company/
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Metal Messiah. said:
    PassMark has nothing to do with this. This is Basemark's benchmark.

    https://www.gpuscore.com/company/
    Yeah, I saw your comment and had already fixed my post. I assumed the article had it right. I suppose I should know better, eh?
    ; )
    Reply
  • bit_user said:
    Yeah, I saw your comment and had already fixed my post.

    Yup, no worries ! The article actually also has the wrong info posted, as PassMark has been mentioned by the author.
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    Metal Messiah. said:
    This isn't Passmark's benchmark. It is from BASEMARK.

    https://www.gpuscore.com/company/



    Can you show me where does the company claim their benchmark to be the FIRST true cross-platform benchmark ? I couldn't find this info.

    Here they just state this. There is no mention of the word "first":

    "Breaking Limit is our most demanding ray tracing benchmark for mobile and PC. Breaking Limit is a true cross-platform solution, enabling effortless comparison of performance"
    https://www.gpuscore.com/benchmark/gpuscore/breaking-limit-coming-soon/

    Got it correct in the title, wrong in the article, my bad. Submitting the edit soon.

    Also I swear it said "first true" when I was typing this, but YMMV. I was obviously confused enough by what I saw to double-check for the existence of other "true" cross-platform RT benchmarks. If that's no longer on the live page (which is curiously not loading for me as we speak), I'll make the appropriate edits.

    Comment Edit: Page now loads in another browser, and the page is still claiming this to be "The True Cross-Platform Ray Tracing Benchmark", which still sounds like misleading marketing to me.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    TheyCallMeContra said:
    Got it correct in the title, wrong in the article, my bad. Submitting the edit soon.
    Thanks for following up! We appreciate your diligence!

    "To err is human; to revise is divine." ...or something like that?
    : )
    Reply
  • TheyCallMeContra
    bit_user said:
    Thanks for following up! We appreciate your diligence!

    "To err is human; to revise is divine." ...or something like that?
    : )

    Certainly not divine, but I do try to keep myself as accountable to reader feedback as is reasonable, especially when I make errors like this. I'm grateful to have watchful eyes in the community and on the team alike to keep me accountable as I continue to develop Newsman-ship. (I mostly wrote Guides before starting here, and had way more direct access to editing pipeline and etc.)
    Reply
  • TechyIT223
    What an odd funny benchmark name, "breaking limit!" 😅

    Sure thing let's break some limitations here.
    Reply