If you've just picked up a new game and aren't sure what settings or resolution your PC can run it at without stuttering or lag, a benchmark is a good way to try out different profiles before diving in. . Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a title with an easy to run built-in benchmark.

This benchmark is also a very common test that reviewers run on laptops to test their GPUs. The Shadow of the Tomb Raider has ray tracing, so it's a particularly good way to see how well a gaming rig can handle ray tracing. If you want to see how your GPU stacks up against other systems on the internet, the Tomb Raider benchmark is one of the best ways to do that.

Here's how to run it.

Get the game

To begin, you need to make sure you have Shadow of the Tomb Raider on your system. The game is currently $22 on Steam (and tends to change often), but a free demo is also available.

• If you don't have Steam on your computer, you can download it from the Steam website .
• Log in or create an account if you don't already have one.
• Head to the Shop tab, search for Shadow of the Tomb Raider , click Add to Cart and check out.

• Once the game is in your library, click on it and select Download . Downloading the game will take more or less time, depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Once downloaded, the Download button will turn into a Play button. Click on it to start the game.

Run the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark

• Once the game is launched, select Option > Display and graphics .
• Adjust the settings as you wish. Under Display , you can change screen settings such as resolution and refresh rate. Under Graph you can change game features such as ray tracing.

Note: The default display and graphics settings depend on the power of your system.

• When you're ready, select Run Benchmark .

Your computer will automatically play through different scenarios of the game. You don't have to do anything. You will see the frame rates reflected in real time on the screen. Once the benchmark is complete, your average, minimum, and maximum frame rates will be displayed. The game does not save this screen, so be sure to take a photo or screenshot if you want to save the results.