3DMark Vantage is designed to be a gaming benchmark, not just a GPU benchmark, and to that end, has four distinct subtests with a few feature tests thrown in for good measure. The four tests are Jane Nash, New Calico, AI and Physics, each doing something very different.

3DMark Vantage is composed of four full bore benchmarking tests (2 CPU tests and 2 GPU tests) and 6 feature tests. Four presets, a new feature, vastly augments the variety of PCs that can be tested with the
product. Presets range from value through performance to high end cinematic rendering resolutions and features. By creating a new set of high end presets, 3DMark(R) Vantage is future proofed for the new multi-core CPU and Graphics Processing Unit products as well as supporting the Physics Processing Unit to expand the range of technology, testing and prevent the benchmark from being bottlenecked for its users.

3DMark Vantage Jane Nash
Jane Nash tests high complexity dynamic objects, cloth, water rendering techniques and Anisotropic materials. You might also note the logo on the boat when thinking about pushing boundaries. It simulates a lot of what you will find in an indoor based game.

3DMark Vantage New Calico
Together, the two GPUs complement each other quite nicely. There is no hardware in existence that can do both sets of tests at the same time, and putting enough of each in to run at decent speeds defeats the purpose. By the same token, a scene with a few million hugely detailed unique objects that runs at .0000000000416FPS doesn't buy you much either, even if it will run at 30+FPS on hardware common in 2016.
The CPU tests start out with AI and follow it up with Physics. Both of these are inherently non-graphical, but a black screen for five minutes followed by a number does not make a good benchmark. To solve this, both of them use the graphic engine from the GPU tests with a lot cut out.
There is no post processing or complex shaders other than the bare minimum required for the engine. The geometry is vastly simplified, shadows are right out, and only what you see is rendered. Basically, they are putting up pictures but that has nothing to do with the simulation score.

3DMark Vantage AI test
The AI test is simple enough to describe, there are a bunch of planes racing through a canyon vying for the best path through a series of rings. Computing that path in 3D is not an easy task, and avoiding collisions while simulating the plane physics as well only adds to the load.
Vantage does a stochastic search of the space to pick a path for the planes to follow. More CPU power allows the planes to plot a better course by trying more options. It is also somewhat random in nature which makes it a much better benchmark.
The engine spawns one thread per CPU, drawn from a thread pool. If a CPU is free, it gets hit with a thread, and each one results in a path. The number of paths computed is divided by the time, and that is more or less the score.

3DMark Vantage physics test
Physics looks similar to the AI test with planes flying through hoops and posts while spraying volumetric smoke. Without the AI portion, they crash into each other and the gates, breaking into 12 rigid bodies in a correct physical way. The gates are modeled as pressurised cloth or tofu (elastic foamy substance), and hitting them will do the 'right' thing as well. Additionally, the smoke will dissipate correctly over time.

3DMark Vantage scoring weights
The scores will all be tagged with the letter of the test run, E, P, H or X followed by a 4 digit number. Once the XtremeSystems guys get their teeth into things, it won't be long before we see 5 digit numbers, that is for sure.
The preset tests are run at 1024*768, 1280*1024, 1680*1050 and 1920*1200 respectively. High and Extreme use AA instead of Trilinear with 8x for High, 16x for Extreme. Similarly, the harder the test, the harder individual features are pushed. The same tests are run, they are just thrown more complex data to crunch.

The 3DMark(R) Vantage Basic Edition ($6.95)
- Unlimited number of test runs using a single Preset
- Network connection required to view results
- Licensed for non-commercial and Personal Use only

The 3DMark(R) Vantage Advanced Edition ($19.95) (Download Price)
- Access to all Presets and custom settings
- Advanced online services
- Network connection required to view results
- Licensed for non-commercial and Personal Use only

3DMark Vantage Professional (this is the Edition for Press)
- $495.00/seat (download or CD-ROM)
- All Advanced version features
- Full benchmark settings
- Technical support
- View results without network connection
- Benchmark automation with command line scripting
- Licensed for Full Commercial Use

The license of this software is Free Trial Software, the price is $6.95, you can free download and get a free trial.