GeekBench 2.0.0

Reviewed by Robert Pritchett

What They Say

John Poole wrote, “Geekbench is available as a free demo, so you don't *have* to register each copy on each machine you test. Right now you don't gain any additional functionality from Geekbench itself by registering, but that will change in the future. You do have to add your serial number to your Geekbench Result Browser account if you want to use some "registered users only" functionality.”

Benchmarks

Geekbench features a number of different benchmarks that test CPU (both integer and floating-point) and memory performance. Here’s a brief summary of what each benchmark does:

• mandelbrot (sqrt) computes a Mandelbrot set using the square root function for some of the calculations. mandelbrot (sqrt) is multi-threaded.
• mandelbrot (nosqrt) computes a Mandelbrot set without using the square root function for any of the calculations. mandelbrot (nosqrt) is multi-threaded
• blowfish (cache) performs Blowfish encryption on a dataset small enough to fit in a processor’s cache. blowfish (cache) is multi-threaded.
• blowfish (memory) performs Blowfish encryption of a dataset too large to fit into a processor’s cache. blowfish (memory) is multi-threaded.
• emulate 6502 executes code compiled for the 6502 in a virtual 6502 processor. emulate 6502 is single threaded.
• memory (stdlib) fill fills a block of memory with values using standard library functions. memory (stdlib) fill is single threaded.
• memory (stdlib) sequential access accesses chunks of memory in a larger block of memory sequentially using standard library functions. memory (stdlib) sequential access is single threaded.
• memory (stdlib) random access accesses chunks of memory in a larger block of memory randomly using standard library functions. memory (stdlib) random access is single threaded.
• memory (stdlib) copy copies one block of memory to another using standard library functions. memory (stdlib) copy is single threaded.
• memory (stream) copy copies memory from one location to another using processor operations. memory (stream) copy is single threaded.
• memory (stream) scale, memory (stream) add, and memory (stream) triad all copy memory from one location to another while manipulating the contents of the memory. All three benchmarks are single threaded.

John Poole wrote;

“A 64-bit version for Windows is coming soon; I’ve got a bit more testing to do to make sure there aren’t any 64-bit specific bugs. A 64-bit version for Mac OS X is coming soon, too, but won’t be released until Leopard is released (since Tiger’s 64-bit support is somewhat lacking). Note that there is no free demo for either 64-bit version; you’ll have to have a Geekbench serial number to use the 64-bit versions.”

What I Say

This app is almost like a 1-shot thing unless you are a lab and you are making lots of comparisons and follow John Poole’s advice regarding my question to him, “Do you need to register on each machine?” The answer was, “ No”.

And it might be fun to see how my n machine stacks up against another, but I have to turn all apps off to get a “true” benchmark reading, but is it worth $20? Well, maybe if you don’t want to go to all the trouble of getting the tests separately (Mandelbrot, Blowfish, etc.)

This is a true geek tool for benchmarking CPU and memory performance. And you can compare your results to others on the Geekbench browser link above.

See how well it performs against Cinebench and Xbench when testing Mac Pros - http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/macpro/benchmarks.html

The previous version was command line stuff and this version gets GUI. You can try before you buy. What is on your computer today and how well does it perform?

Here’s mine -