GameBench | Mobile performance testing (13)

How GameBench provides a different (and sometimes opposite) view to traditional mobile benchmarks

Intro and summary

GameBench is very different to other mobile benchmarks, because it is designed to measure the performance of mobile devices running real workloads. These workloads are simply apps — the very same apps and games that ordinary smartphone owners download and run every day.

Most benchmarks used in the mobile industry today are synthetic, which means they test artificial workloads that are never encountered by real customers and can at best only approximate real-world usage.

Each type of benchmark has its place, but there are three evidence-based ways in which GameBench offers a more useful alternative, and very often a direct counterpoint, to traditional benchmarks:

GameBench Staff
26. May 2015
Benchmarking, Mobile Testing
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iPhone 6 vs. Galaxy S6: Which performs best at gaming?

Get the full report now.

Our latest report, "Battle of the Sixes," has just been published and it offers something pretty interesting: The first objective comparison of the Apple iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy S6 on the basis of real-world gaming performance.

We're able to do this thanks to the iOS version of GameBench, which, in concert with the Android version, means we can test the same games according to the same criteria (namely, graphical smoothness) across both platforms. We've picked a sample of ten high-end games for this purpose, including titles like GTA: San Andreas, Monument Valley and Marvel: Contest of Champions. For some added context, we've also included performance data for the Google Nexus 6 and the HTC One M9.

GameBench Staff
21. April 2015
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ARM collaborates with GameBench on real-world benchmarking of mobile devices

Today’s a big day for us here at GameBench. Our vision of an honest, transparent and industry-wide mobile benchmark has come a step closer, thanks to an important deal with ARM Semiconductors to provide access to our Enterprise suite of tools.

GameBench Staff
26. February 2015
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Tesco Hudl 2 performance test: a bargain tablet with Intel inside

If you ever shop at Tesco’s in the UK, then you’ll surely have noticed the in-store promotions for the supermarket’s latest own-brand tablet, the Hudl 2.

What you might not have noticed, however, is that the £129 ($195) Hudl 2 runs on an Intel mobile processor, from a family of chips that has historically suffered from bad battery life and optimisation issues on Android devices — something GameBench demonstrated back in early 2014.

Fortunately, the Intel Bay Trail chip inside the Hudl 2 represents a fresh generation of technology, versus the old Clover Trail devices we tested previously. What’s more, the Android operating system has also evolved to become friendlier to non-ARM silicon. So it’s about time we put the Hudl 2 to the test with GameBench, to see if it's ready to be taken seriously as a power-efficient, gaming-ready Android tablet.

GameBench Staff
10. February 2015
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Samsung Galaxy Note 4 beats every other phone at Asphalt 8

The Galaxy Note 4 has already proved its mettle in traditional benchmarks like AnTuTu and GFX. But how does Samsung's latest phablet respond to real-world gaming scenarios, like hurtling around a track in Asphalt 8: Airborne?

More to the point, does the Note 4’s supremely high-resolution display (2,560 x 1,440) have any negative impact on frame rates or battery life in this sort of graphically immersive game, compared to the older Note 3 (which has a more common 1080p display)?

GameBench Staff
15. December 2014
galaxy, asphalt 8, gaming, exynos, samsung, note 4, qualcomm
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