• The great Bench GPU retest begins - how we’re testing for our GPU Hierarchy in 2026, and why upscaling and framegen are still out It’s time to test. • Here’s how the sausage is made. • Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. • You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful As we prepare to embark on a new round of testing for our GPU Hierarchy, we want to give Tom’s Hardware Premium subscribers a deep dive into our thinking and methods as results from this testing begin to feed into our Bench database, as well as a test plan that will show you what data to expect and when. • This article will help you interpret our game testing results and understand why we test the way we do. • Our task for the first half of this year has sadly been made easier by the fact that neither Nvidia nor AMD nor Intel introduced new discrete gaming graphics cards at CES 2026.
Article Summaries:
- Tom’s Hardware is launching a new GPU hierarchy retest for 2026, using the current RTX 50, RX 9000, and Arc B‑series cards. With no new discrete GPUs announced at CES 2026, the focus is on gathering fresh performance data across a broad range of modern games-from esports titles to AAA blockbusters-while feeding results into the Bench database. The test plan deliberately excludes upscaling technologies (DLSS, FSR, XeSS) to keep comparisons direct and avoid variability in image quality and vendor support. The article explains that AI‑driven upscalers, while powerful, add complexity and are not uniformly available across all cards and games.
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