More often than not, people resort to benchmark tests to pin a number on how well a smartphone performs. While it’s not the primary indicator of everyday performance, it sure is an accurate and convenient way to measure how your device performs under load. One metric that has more or less become the standard for testing is Geekbench. Well, its creator Primate Labs has now admitted that this version is losing technological relevancy in testing rather quickly. That’s why they’ve announced Geekbench 6 to bring the ever-popular application back to modernity.

Why is this so? Well, smartphone processing power has climbed significantly within the last couple of years. Mobile devices can now run extremely demanding, console-level titles like Genshin  Impact and Asphalt in Full HD. Imagine being able to play your favorite Call of Duty maps in CLEAR DETAIL anywhere you go. These are things we never would have thought possible just a decade ago.

With this jump, Geekbench 6 aims to change its focus to adapt to modern-day hardware. The first is to prioritize single-core CPU testing less. It’s not as important, after all, since overall performance is reliant on how everything works as a system. Also, there aren’t many (if any) single-core smartphones being released anymore. The multi-core score is also revamped to meet these more stringent requirements.

Back then, two devices sheltering the same processors were likely to have identical scores on Geekbench 5. The only deviation we could expect was from repeated testing, in order to see which manufacturer was able to mitigate thermal issues. Now, more factors come into play and smartphones may see significant deviations from their Geekbench 5 to their Geekbench 6 scores.

Other changes include larger photos, file/PDF examples, and several new tests including AI video calls, background blur, photo filters, and AI filtering workloads. GPU testing is also set to become more consistent across platforms to keep things as balanced and universal as possible.

Geekbench 6 will be available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux. It will remain free of charge for non-commercial use.