Interpreting Geekbench 5 Scores

Summary

Geekbench 5 measures the performance of your device by performing tests that are representative of real-world tasks and applications. Higher scores are better, with double the score indicating double the performance.

Geekbench 5 CPU Workloads

Geekbench 5 uses a number of different tests, or workloads, to measure CPU performance. The workloads are divided into three subsections:

• Crypto Crypto workloads measure the cryptographic instruction performance of your computer by performing tasks that make heavy use of crypto instructions. While not all software uses crypto instructions, the software that does can benefit enormously from it.

• Integer Integer workloads measure the integer instruction performance of your computer by performing processor-intensive tasks that make heavy use of integer instructions. All software makes heavy use of integer instructions, meaning a high integer score indicates good overall performance.

• Floating Point Floating point workloads measure floating point performance by performing a variety of processor-intensive tasks that make heavy use of floating-point operations. While almost all software makes use of floating point instructions, floating point performance is especially important in video games, digital content creation, and high-performance computing applications.

A complete description of the individual Geekbench 5 CPU workloads can be found here.

Geekbench 5 Compute Workloads

Geekbench 5 uses several workloads to measure Compute performance using the OpenCL, CUDA, Vulkan, and Metal Compute APIs. Geekbench detects which Compute API, if any, are supported on a device and provides Compute benchmarks for each of them. Each Compute workload has an implementation for each Compute API.

While it is possible to compare scores across APIs (e.g., a OpenCL score with a Metal score) it is important to keep in mind that due to the nature of Compute APIs the performance difference can be due to more than differences in the underlying hardware. For example, different GPU drivers can have a huge impact on performance.

A complete description of the individual Geekbench 5 Compute workloads can be found here.

Geekbench 5 CPU and Compute Scores

A device's performance in each workload is compared against a baseline to determine a score. These scores are averaged together to determine an overall score, or Geekbench score, for the system.

Geekbench 5 CPU scores are calibrated using an Intel Core i3-8100 processor as a baseline.

Geekbench 5 provides three different kinds of scores:

• Workload Scores Each time a workload is executed Geekbench calculates a score based on the computer's performance compared to the baseline performance.

• Subsection Scores A subsection score is the geometric mean of all the workload scores for workloads that are part of the subsection. These scores are useful for determining the performance of the computer in a particular area. See the subsection descriptions above for a summary on what each subsection measures.

• Geekbench Score The Geekbench score is the weighted arithmetic mean of the three subsection scores. The Geekbench score provides a way to quickly compare performance across different computers and different platforms without getting bogged down in details.

When comparing scores, remember that higher scores are better, and double the score indicates double the performance.