Thomas Alsop
Research expert covering the global hardware industry
Geekbench - statistics & facts
The computational demands of artificial intelligence (AI) and gaming applications mean it is now more important than ever to understand how processors can handle these tasks. Regarded by developers, testers, and standard users alike as one of the most comprehensive and trusted tools available on the market to achieve this, Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark that measures system performance through the press of a button. Developed by Primate Labs, Geekbench offers comparative data for central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), Android devices, iOS devices, and Mac devices, as well as machine learning activities.
What does Geekbench measure?
Geekbench scores the performance of processors and devices, giving users the ability to compare systems across a range of factors. Primate Labs released the sixth major version of its benchmarking suite in 2023 in the form of Geekbench 6, with the platform featuring updates for specific tests, bug fixes, and improvements to address issues with new hardware. A core element of the tool has and remains CPU testing, offering comparisons between products developed by firms such as Intel and AMD.Benchmarks allow for easy comparison between multiple CPUs
For each processor, Geekbench provides both a single-core and multi-core score: single-core measures the performance of running the tasks on a single CPU core, while multi-core uses all CPU cores. Geekbench offers a single-core and multi-core benchmark to differentiate the performance of the CPU for a single process usage – for example, browsing and some games which are lightly threaded, where other processes need not be running – versus using the CPU for multiple tasks where multiple cores are utilized. Multi-core scores offered by Geekbench better represent the capabilities of CPUs that offer better performance for multitasking with enhanced power efficiency.Users can also access Geekbench ML for machine learning scoring
In addition to the above services, Primate Labs also offers Geekbench ML, a benchmark to help users understand how efficiently devices can run the latest machine learning applications. Geekbench ML runs tests using a device's CPU, GPU, and neural processing unit (NPU). The advantage of NPUs is that they can accelerate the performance of machine learning tasks, providing a significant boost in performance compared to using a CPU alone.Benchmarking AI capability is now key
As a result of its broad service offering, Geekbench is well-placed to build upon its status as being the industry standard in benchmarking for customers and device manufacturers alike. With machine learning now becoming common place in general and mobile applications, the Geekbench platform can act as an important tool in helping to understand whether a device is ready to run the latest AI applications, an imperative as the world embarks on the AI revolution.
