There are not a lot of cross OS and cross CPU benchmarks and the user might know https://www.userbenchmark.com/ which is like Geekbench but only for windows

geekbench.com is multi OS (not all) and multi (not all) CPU (developed by primatelabs.com  602-1 Eglinton Avenue East Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 3A1) makes it (Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS)  NOT cheating this time, they are just throttling CPU/GPU performance for every day tasks to mitigate overheating and battery drain 😀) easier for the first time to compare Desktop CPUs (mostly x86) with mobile CPUs (mostly ARM) and just all kinds of hardware that can run GNU Linux, OSX, Windows and Android.

Problem:

  • it’s not open source
  • Geekbench 6 is not available for all CPU architectures, Geekbench 5 is (except for Android? hard to find download link) but Geekbench 6 results can not be compared to Geekbench 5 results
  • what it is computing exactly can be read in the internals.pdf
  • GPU testing is only available for windows (#wtf)

But the v6 results mobile vs desktop CPU comparison results are interesting, but as said, v6 is not available for all CPUs 🙁

how to run it?

  1. download the binary https://www.geekbench.com/download/linux/
    • unpack
    • run it like ./Geekbench-6.0.3-Linux/geekbench_x86_64
    • wait for the results to come in
    • WARNING! it will automatically upload the hardware details and benchmark results to

what does the user get?

  1. the terminal (no gui) based benchmark runs for about 10min
  2. will display basic hardware information in terminal
  3. will display basic results in terminal
  4. but will also upload it’s results automatically to “the mothership” https://www.geekbench.com/
    • if for privacy reasons the user does not want the results to be publicly available, this benchmark might not be what the user wants.
  5. it will output a link to the online results where the user can click on “set baseline” to compare this system to other systems’s performance.

here is a sample output:

./Geekbench-6.0.3-Linux/geekbench_x86_64
Geekbench 6.0.3 : https://www.geekbench.com/

Geekbench 6 requires an active internet connection and automatically uploads 
benchmark results to the Geekbench Browser.

Upgrade to Geekbench 6 Pro to enable offline use and unlock other features:

  https://store.primatelabs.com/v6

Enter your Geekbench 6 Pro license using the following command line:

  ./Geekbench-6.0.3-Linux/geekbench_x86_64 --unlock  

  Running Gathering system information
System Information
  Operating System              Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
  Kernel                        Linux 5.10.0-23-amd64 x86_64
  Model                         System manufacturer System Product Name
  Motherboard                   ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. F2A85-M LE
  BIOS                          American Megatrends Inc. 6504

CPU Information
  Name                          AMD A10-5800K
  Topology                      1 Processor, 2 Cores, 4 Threads
  Identifier                    AuthenticAMD Family 21 Model 16 Stepping 1
  Base Frequency                3.80 GHz
  L1 Instruction Cache          64.0 KB x 2
  L1 Data Cache                 16.0 KB x 4
  L2 Cache                      2.00 MB x 2

Memory Information
  Size                          14.9 GB


Single-Core
  Running File Compression
  Running Navigation
  Running HTML5 Browser
  Running PDF Renderer
  Running Photo Library
  Running Clang
  Running Text Processing
  Running Asset Compression
  Running Object Detection
  Running Background Blur
  Running Horizon Detection
  Running Object Remover
  Running HDR
  Running Photo Filter
  Running Ray Tracer
  Running Structure from Motion

Multi-Core
  Running File Compression
  Running Navigation
  Running HTML5 Browser
  Running PDF Renderer
  Running Photo Library
  Running Clang
  Running Text Processing
  Running Asset Compression
  Running Object Detection
  Running Background Blur
  Running Horizon Detection
  Running Object Remover
  Running HDR
  Running Photo Filter
  Running Ray Tracer
  Running Structure from Motion

Uploading results to the Geekbench Browser. This could take a minute or two 
depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Upload succeeded. Visit the following link and view your results online:

  https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/1373376

Visit the following link and add this result to your profile:

  https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/1373376/claim?key=XXXXXX

What Geekbench for GNU Linux will NOT do is test the GPU, so this is strictly CPU + storage in very general ("File compression") or specialized scenarios such as "Photo Filter".

To test the GPU 3D Mark mobile and for Desktop would be better.

the results are interesting…

The Samsung S21 Ultra SoC (ARMv8 @ 2.21 GHz 1 Processor, 8 Cores) is:

once more show the dominance RISC will play over CISC in the coming future with ARM and RISC-V and others both on Desktop and Mobile and even datacenters with it’s (endless?) scalability?

But of course the Apple’s M2 is crushing the S21 Ultra ARMv8 by +200% single core and +500% multi core.

Processor Apple M2 Max @ 3.67 GHz
1 Processor, 12 Cores
ARM ARMv8 @ 2.21 GHz
1 Processor, 8 Cores

ARM’s v9 is promising +30% over ARMv8, well that is nice, but look at the M-CPUs crushing everything!

Samsung S21 Ultra (a smart phone, a bit bulky) Geekbench 6 result https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/1308864

Geekbench5.4.4 result:

Samsung 3DMark Cheating?

  • “1) On the Exynos 5410, Samsung was detecting the presence of certain benchmarks and raising thermal limits (and thus max GPU frequency) in order to gain an edge on those benchmarks
  • “2) On both Snapdragon 600 and Exynos 5410 SGS4 platforms, Samsung was detecting the presence of certain benchmarks and automatically driving CPU voltage/frequency to their highest state right away. Also on Snapdragon platforms, all cores are plugged in immediately upon benchmark detect.”(src: anandtech.com)

While is is of course “uncool” that in every day tasks the SoC is actually throttled to “save” states, but then in other words this is exactly what battery saving looks like on phones but also notebooks: less voltage & lower clock speeds = longer runtime, otherwise those smart phone batteries would not last 3h which would piss off even more users to the point of unusability.

So is “permanent battery saving” = cheating?

No it’s not, it’s just lack of cooling.

As for example a ODROID XU4 ARM SoC becomes UNTOUCHABLE HOT (definately more than 70°C) without active cooling.

But yes the user should be in charge and to decide if the SoC should run full speeds or half-speed.

For example it is pretty noticable that when re-encoding x264 to x265 (the S21 Ultra can re-encode 45min of StarTrek with this not so easy but it works ffmpeg App in aprox 5h but ONLY if it is plugged into charging ALL THE TIME, otherwise the CPU clock and voltage is throttled to “heat and battery optimized” levels and it would take 2x or 3x times as long.

Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS)  NOT cheating this time, they are just throttling CPU/GPU performance for every day tasks to mitigate overheating and battery drain issues 😀

On one side it is understandable that (probably all vendrods) do that, on the other side it might mean: that there is a cooling issue and cooling needs to be improved to allow the SoC to run at 100% all the time.

Example: when filming 8k videos (which the S21 Ultra can do) but it can only do this for 10min not for 1h (as it is simply a massive demand on computational powers, but it can do it for 10min 😀 with HEIF: “High Efficiency Video Coding  (HEVC = x265) is an image and video encoding format and the default image codec used with HEIF“.

Most Desktop CPUs in 2023 struggle to play 8k because of the massive computing power required and (still) lack of hardware x265 decoding (a codec that is doing even more compression on a video stream than x264 demanding more computing power)

how are those ARM Ampera servers performing?

https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/21070727 https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ampere-unveils-192-core-cpu

https://support.primatelabs.com/discussions/geekbench/81903-geekbench-6-for-linux-arm64-raspberry-pi-asahi-on-mac-etc

“On modern chip architectures, software support is just as important as the hardware itself to unlock all the performance” (https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/testing-96-core-ampere-altra-developer-platform)

Ampere Altra Max (96 core ARM)  vs S21 Ultra: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/compare/21070727?baseline=21247504

so single core wise the S21 ultra is actually +30% faster, but mutli core the Ampere Altra Max is like 10x S21 SoC.

and while this comparison is probably “somewhat” valid, it is not exact, as it is not the exact version of the benchmark: “These changes mean Geekbench 5.1 scores will be higher than Geekbench 5.0 scores. As a result, we recommend users not compare Geekbench 5.0 and Geekbench 5.1 results.” (src)

what about RISC-V?: Geekbench 5 binaries available

Linux/ARM Requires Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or later
Linux/RISC-V Requires Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or later

Also Geekbench 5.4 binary available https://www.geekbench.com/blog/2021/03/geekbench-54/

“Preview support for Linux/ARM and Linux/RISC-V Preview builds are available for Linux/ARM and Linux/RISC-V.

related:

http://serverbear.com/ this one shutdown and was a nice way to compare server capabilities (including available bandwidth).

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