A card's raster benchmark score tells you nothing about its ray-tracing performance — and those can differ a lot between GPU brands and generations. That's the gap 3DMark Port Royal fills: it's a dedicated real-time ray-tracing benchmark, isolating RT performance so you can judge it separately from raster. If ray tracing matters to your games or work, Port Royal is the number to look at. This article explains what it tests and how to read an RT score.
It's the ray-tracing companion to our raster benchmark explainers — Time Spy and Steel Nomad — and builds on understanding ray tracing, DLSS, and FSR.
Why a Separate RT Benchmark Exists
Ray tracing uses dedicated GPU hardware (RT cores or their equivalents) that's distinct from the units doing raster rendering. A card can be strong at raster and weaker at ray tracing, or vice versa, and the gap varies by brand and generation. So a raster benchmark like Steel Nomad can't tell you RT performance — you need a test that specifically stresses the ray-tracing pipeline. That's Port Royal.
What Port Royal Measures
- Real-time ray tracing: Port Royal renders a scene that leans on the GPU's ray-tracing hardware, producing a score that reflects RT performance specifically.
- An RT-only comparison: compare Port Royal scores between RT-capable cards to judge their ray-tracing standing, separate from their raster ranking.
- Context for the RT cost: it helps you gauge how big a hit ray tracing imposes on a given card — useful when deciding whether RT is practical at your target resolution.
How to Read It
Use Port Royal only to compare ray-tracing performance, and only between cards that support hardware RT. A card might sit high in raster (Steel Nomad) but lower in Port Royal, which tells you it's a strong rasteriser but a weaker ray-tracer — exactly the kind of nuance a single raster score hides. Pair Port Royal with a raster benchmark to see both sides of a GPU, and weigh RT performance against whether you'll actually use ray tracing, often alongside upscaling like DLSS or FSR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 3DMark Port Royal test? Real-time ray-tracing performance specifically — it renders a scene that stresses the GPU's dedicated ray-tracing hardware, producing an RT score separate from raster benchmarks. It's the number to look at when judging a card's ray-tracing ability.
Why isn't ray tracing covered by Time Spy or Steel Nomad? Because those are raster benchmarks, and ray tracing uses separate dedicated GPU hardware. A card can be strong at raster but weaker at RT (or the reverse), so RT performance needs a dedicated test — Port Royal — to measure it.
How do I read a Port Royal score? Compare it only between RT-capable cards to judge ray-tracing standing, separate from their raster ranking. Pair it with a raster benchmark to see both sides, and weigh RT performance against whether you'll actually use ray tracing at your target resolution.
The One Thing to Remember
Port Royal is 3DMark's dedicated ray-tracing benchmark, isolating RT performance that raster tests like Time Spy and Steel Nomad can't show — because ray tracing uses separate GPU hardware. Use it to compare RT-capable cards on ray tracing specifically, pair it with a raster score to see the full picture, and weigh the result against whether you'll actually use RT at your resolution.
Want a GPU judged on both raster and ray tracing? Configure a gaming PC online → or talk to our team → and we'll match the card to whether ray tracing is part of your plans.