Slingshot Extreme is a more demanding version of last year’s Slingshot (released October 2015). The company is recommending to use the Slingshot and Slingshot Extreme tests to benchmark a majority of modern devices, while its older Ice Storm test (released September 2013) for benchmarking older Apple models and low-cost Android devices. For comparison, Ice Storm includes two 720p graphics tests and uses OpenGL ES 2.0 on iOS and Android.



The standard Slingshot test (1920x1080p, OpenGL ES 3.0) and new Slingshot Extreme test (2560x1440p, OpenGL ES 3.1) feature multiple render targets, uniform buffers, instanced rendering and transform feedback. Developers at Futuremark made sure to include these mobile benchmarks plenty of volumetric lighting and post-processing effects similar to their desktop PC counterparts running on DirectX and OpenGL.

Futuremark has also updated its API Overhead test to include some new interface improvements, but it retains the same functionality from the original October 2015 release.

 

This utility will measure the amount of performance-limiting overhead that each application programming interface (see: OpenGS ES and Metal) creates for the CPU. APIs with less overhead can handle more draw calls and produce more complex scenery.

In our testing of the API Overhead benchmark on an iPhone 6, the OpenGL ES 3.1 benchmark starts at around 60fps and eventually drops below 30fps by the end of the test. In contrast, the Metal API benchmark starts around 29fps and remains consistent at around 29fps throughout the entire test, which ultimately produces more draw calls per frame because of a higher average framerate.

Both Futuremark’s new Slingshot Extreme benchmark and updated API Overhead test with interface improvements can be downloaded on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.