The 3DMark PCI Express feature test aims to make bandwidth the limiting factor for performance.
For each frame, the test uploads a large amount of vertex and texture data to the GPU. The goal is to transfer enough data to saturate the PCIe 4.0 interface. The geometry streaming load increases from 2,400,000 to 9,600,000 vertices per frame as the test runs. The texture streaming load remains constant.
The test uses a fixed time step between frames. This ensures that every system does the same amount of work when running the test.
Rendering
The 3DMark PCI Express feature test is rendered at 2560 × 1440 resolution.
The test is forward-rendered with simple Blinn-Phong shading. The background is rendered by blending three textures, two of which are uploaded for each frame. The test uses post-processing to add linear fog, tone mapping, and bloom effects.