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'Geekbench 2' Brings Benchmarking to the App Store

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Apr 12, 2001
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232107-geekbench_iphone_1.jpg


232107-geekbench_iphone_2.jpg


Primate Labs, the company behind the popular Geekbench benchmarking application for a number of operating systems, has now come to the App Store with the release of Geekbench 2 [App Store, $4.99]. Compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch, Geekbench 2 utilizes the same benchmarks as those used on other platforms.
What’s great about Geekbench 2 for iPhone is that it runs the same benchmarks as Geekbench 2 for other platforms, which means it’s possible to compare benchmark results not just between iPhones and iPods, but also between iPhones and iPods and Macs and PCs!
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The application also integrates with Geekbench Result Browser, allowing for easy uploading of results for comparison with other users. While many users are likely to balk at the application's $4.99 price tag, the Mac OS X and other traditional versions of Geekbench carry a price tag of $19.95 for full unlocking of the application's features.

Back in 2007 after the release of the original iPhone, Primate Labs did compile a basic version of Geekbench for the iPhone and shared the results, but the new Geekbench 2 represents the company's first App Store release of its benchmarking tool.

Article Link: 'Geekbench 2' Brings Benchmarking to the App Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/21/geekbench-2-brings-benchmarking-to-the-app-store/
What's the point in having a benchmark tool on a platform that will always have the same capability?? I guess its nice to compare between every variation of iPhone and iPod Touch hardware, but for an individual I don't see much use for $5.
 
Interesting that it has processor speed and memory. I thought those stats were only available from prohibited APIs. And yeah, considering there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to change their results other than running in a freezer or an oven. $4.99 seems over priced by about $4.99.
 
Yeah, the only variables I can see are making full use of multitasking, and running on Jailbroken devices; to see how much of an impact those have.
 
sonicwind said:
Interesting that it has processor speed and memory. I thought those stats were only available from prohibited APIs. And yeah, considering there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to change their results other than running in a freezer or an oven. $4.99 seems over priced by about $4.99.
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You don't need to access prohibited APIs.

Since the memory and processor speeds are the same, you only need to know the model. You could even just detect available APIs to determine what the model is.

IE gyroscope == 4, compass, but no gyroscope == 3gs, no compass, but gps == 3g, no gps == original iPhone.
 
I agree, what a stupidly priced app. Yes, it's great they brought this to the iPhone, but wouldn't have it been smart for them to actually release this for free and then tell people that there is a desktop version for OS X so you can test the rest of your systems?

Wow.
 
So, here's what should be benchmarked:

Speed (time it takes to complete certain tasks) of iPhone 3G before updating to iOS 4,

and speed of iPhone 3G after updating to iOS 4.
 
Wait… this was approved? Wow. I thought Apple doesn't publicly disclose this kind of information (CPU, RAM, etc) for a reason — users shouldn't have to know (or care) what specs their phone has. I'm very surprised this made it through.
 
iphones4evry1 said:
So, here's what should be benchmarked:

Speed (time it takes to complete certain tasks) of iPhone 3G before updating to iOS 4,

and speed of iPhone 3G after updating to iOS 4.
Click to expand...

Spoiler Alert: It makes the iPhone 3G sooooo slow by eating up even more of the phone's RAM. I used to run somewhere around 15-30MB of free RAM on 3.1.2, but with iOS4, I'm lucky to have 5MB free even after a reboot :(
 
Does this actually measure phone speed or just call up the figures from a list of iPhone models?

It would be incredibly useful if it did measure speed, as I'd like to know what effect things like having Location Services or mail.app running in the background have on the phone speed.

I have an original iphone 2G and I have to turn off as much as I can to keep the speed up.

By next year, when iPhone 5 and a more heavy iOS 5 come out, millions of people with the 'old' iPhone 4 will want to know the impact of multitasking and other background services as well as the new iOS 5 on their phone.
 
Last generation Powerbooks get still respectable 800-900 points.

iPhone has tremendous performance in one tiny package but a far cry from a Powerbook.
 
You can't bench the iPad, as it is not running iOS4

iPod2,1 - Score 198
iOS 4.0
Processor 532 Mhz
Memory 116 MB
 
As this rolls out to other devices this will be more interesting.

It would be fun to compare, e.g., evo to iphone 4, etc.

(Of course this is a synthetic benchmark that ignores, e.g, the effect the app SDK and OS has on real-world performance of app, but all benchmarks have their strengths and weaknesses -- you just need to understand them to understand the results.)

It's too bad about the limitation to iOS 4. I would love to see the effect of different OS's would have. Also, I thought iOS 4 won't install at all on older phones and touches.
 
This would be useful if you could measure other systems with it. Like an external geek benching device that you could plug in to other computers via usb and test their systems.
 
I reread the article, and it does seem they're running a benchmark suite.
firewerk said:
It does seem pointless on an un-customizable device... They could have just told us the results instead of spending time on the App Store.
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iPhone is very much customizable. You can turn various background services on and off. BT, wifi, location services, push notifications, music streaming etc etc. All of them take up some system resources and slow down other apps. Exactly how much is open to debate.

hogo said:
This would be useful if you could measure other systems with it. Like an external geek benching device that you could plug in to other computers via usb and test their systems.
Click to expand...

Already have. It runs a standard geekbench suite. You can download the free version to your PC or Mac and run that and compare the numbers directly (in theory).
dukebound85 said:
dont see the point. cant upgrade the phone so id rather just read results of others who run this app
Click to expand...
See above. You won't know what background services they've got running unless they say so. If you're interested in speeding up your own phone for your own mix of background apps, this will help. Safe prediction: by mid 2011 or 2012, people will be complaining how slow and weak the iPhone 4 is.
ugp said:
269 iPhone 3GS 16GB iOS 4.0
Click to expand...

Haoshiro said:
iPod2,1 - Score 198
iOS 4.0
Processor 532 Mhz
Memory 116 MB
Click to expand...

Interesting. Wild guess - I expect the iPhone 4 to score about 400. Maybe even 500. My 3 year old Macbook 2.2ghz scores around 2600.

400-500 is a decent score for something that's 1/4 of the size and weight of just my macbook battery. The way things are going, iPhones will be as powerful as laptops in 5 or 6 years time.

Benchmarking a phone. Huh. 3 years ago I would have laughed at the idea.
 
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