Basemark compares GPUs across platforms, OS, and APIs Apples to oranges because they can

Users, product evaluators, and the press have, at one time or another wanted to compare a PC GPU against a smartphone GPU. Not because they would make a purchase decision of one over the other, but because they were curious. And maybe, it might set their expectations for what to expect from either device. Basemark has heard those requests, and probably had them themselves, and so this week the company brought out a cross-platform GPU benchmark—GPU 1.2.

Basemark GPU 1.2 features the following:

• Operating system support: Android, iOS, Linux, MacOS, and Windows
• Graphics API support: DirectX 12, Metal 2, OpenGL 4.5, OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.0
• Three different modes: High quality for a powerful desktop computer, medium quality for laptops and powerful mobile devices such as premium smartphones, and simple quality for embedded devices and entry-level smartphones

Consumers can download free versions for all supported platforms at their website: https://www.basemark.com/benchmarks/basemark-gpu/.

And as people use the benchmark, they will have the option of sharing their data. The company will maintain an on-line database of results; it’s called Power Board and here’s the link:

https://powerboard.basemark.com/.

What do we think?

Being somewhat nerdy here at JPR, we like this new tool. However, we’d like it to go farther. We asked the company if they could also test game consoles. They said they would love to be able to do that, but it would require them to have development environments for the different consoles and port the benchmark to those. If some company is interested in taking on this task, they’d be happy to support.

By Jon Peddie