A new benchmark tool called Nukemark, developed by Ezbench Solutions, is pushing the capabilities of even the most powerful consumer graphics cards to their limits. Built using Unreal Engine 5.7, Nukemark leverages advanced features like Nanite, MegaLights, and Lumen hardware ray tracing with up to 8K virtual textures. The developers claim that even the upcoming RTX 5090 can only achieve an average of 15-20 frames per second at native resolution.
The software is explicitly marketed as a "stress test your GPU hopes you never run." Testing on a rig equipped with an RTX 4070 Super, an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and 32 GB of DDR5, the benchmark resulted in slideshow-like performance at 1440p. In both of Nukemark's tests, Pandora and Emberhold, frame rates at 1440p with DLSS enabled were as low as 5 fps, and even at 1080p without DLSS, the average frame rate on the Pandora test barely reached 23 fps. The author noted that DLSS appeared to reduce performance on their specific configuration, suggesting potential software or hardware bottlenecks that may be addressed as Nukemark is still in early access.
The Emberhold test, in particular, is characterized by its heavy use of lighting effects from magic, lava, and ambient sources, along with numerous reflective surfaces, all contributing to its demanding nature. The developers state that Nukemark's scenes are intentionally engineered to exceed the performance budgets of modern games, aiming to overload current high-end GPUs. While intended for system builders, overclockers, and curious gamers, its current performance levels suggest its primary use may be for benchmarking future generations of graphics cards or for those seeking to push the boundaries of their existing hardware for bragging rights.