Comparing Performance of Multiple Apple Devices Before and After Spectre Security Update
January
10th,
2018 • filed under Technology
I spent some time this evening putting together some fun tables and graphs after seeing a post by Melvin Mughal on his blog that the iOS 11.2.2 update slows down devices by something like 40%. I didn’t believe it, so I fired up all the iDevices I own and benchmarked them before and after the Spectre-fixing update.
January 11 Update : I’ve added links to the Geekbench results at the end of the post for those needing verification of these numbers.
TL;DR: For my three devices, there was no difference in synthetic performance. This isn’t to say that real-world won’t be affected, but since those on the Internet were using synthetic benchmarks to prove their point, I opted to do the same to disprove.
Statistical Note: These measurements were taken using the latest-at-the-time for when the measurements were taken. The measurement of the iPhone X on iOS version 11.1 was taken on November 3, 2017 using Geekbench version 4.2.0. For all other measurements of all other pre-11.2.2 versions, they were taken with Geekbench version 4.2.1.
Summary
Based on the data I was able to collect, I was not able to reproduce the dramatic drop in performance that some are reporting. A couple reasons for this could be that Melvin’s test was performed using an iPhone 6 which may be subject to an elder battery and thus throttling brought about in iOS 11.2. This throttling is in place to prevent the hardware from pulling a higher voltage than the battery can offer. This is a natural cycle of evolution of batteries of this type.
Another possibility is simply that I did not have an iPhone 6 to test. it is possible that a well-performing iPhone 6 is subject to greater performance woes than my newer iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5”, though that doesn’t explain the inconsequential difference in performance from my iPad Mini 2, a device that uses a much older chipset than an iPhone 6.
Single Core
Device |
Difference % After Updating from X to 11.2.2 |
iPhone X (11.1) |
0.21% |
iPad Pro 10.5” (11.2.1) |
3.56% |
iPad Mini 2 (11.1.2) |
1.20% |
Multi Core
Device |
Difference % After Updating from X to 11.2.2 |
iPhone X (11.1) |
-0.27% |
iPad Pro 10.5” (11.2.1) |
-0.39% |
iPad Mini 2 (11.1.2) |
-0.64% |
Compute
Device |
Difference % After Updating from X to 11.2.2 |
iPhone X (11.1) |
-2.88% |
iPad Pro 10.5” (11.2.1) |
1.94% |
iPad Mini 2 (11.1.2) |
-0.51% |
Data Dump
iPhone X
Single Core
Benchmark |
11.1 |
11.2.2 |
Difference % |
Score |
4224 |
4233 |
0.21% |
Crypto |
3079 |
3075 |
-0.13% |
Integer |
4642 |
4665 |
0.50% |
Floating Point |
3957 |
3940 |
-0.43% |
Memory |
3972 |
3991 |
0.48% |
AES |
3079 |
3075 |
-0.13% |
LZMA |
3426 |
3483 |
1.66% |
JPEG |
4149 |
4144 |
-0.12% |
Canny |
4326 |
4360 |
0.79% |
Lua |
4717 |
4702 |
-0.32% |
Dijkstra |
4588 |
4766 |
3.88% |
SQLite |
4263 |
4269 |
0.14% |
HTML5 Parse |
4369 |
4378 |
0.21% |
HTML5 DOM |
5002 |
4996 |
-0.12% |
Histogram Equalization |
4056 |
4058 |
0.05% |
PDF Rendering |
4349 |
4341 |
-0.18% |
LLVM |
9010 |
9000 |
-0.11% |
Camera |
5089 |
5099 |
0.20% |
SGEMM |
2566 |
2572 |
0.23% |
SFFT |
3329 |
3330 |
0.03% |
N-Body Physics |
3505 |
3434 |
-2.03% |
Ray Tracing |
4312 |
4349 |
0.86% |
Rigid Body Physics |
4169 |
4126 |
-1.03% |
HDR |
5047 |
5043 |
-0.08% |
Gaussian Blur |
4664 |
4670 |
0.13% |
Speech Recognition |
4049 |
4093 |
1.09% |
Face Detection |
4637 |
4499 |
-2.98% |
Memory Copy |
4985 |
5010 |
0.50% |
Memory Latency |
3899 |
3909 |
0.26% |
Memory Bandwidth |
3225 |
3248 |
0.71% |
Multi Core
Benchmark |
11.1 |
11.2.2 |
Difference % |
Score |
10242 |
10270 |
-0.27% |
Crypto |
7708 |
7650 |
-0.75% |
Integer |
13223 |
13367 |
1.09% |
Floating Point |
10322 |
10193 |
-1.25% |
Memory |
4050 |
4070 |
0.49% |
AES |
7708 |
7650 |
-0.75% |
LZMA |
11340 |
10957 |
-3.38% |
JPEG |
13128 |
13478 |
2.67% |
Canny |
11899 |
13523 |
13.65% |
Lua |
12792 |
13201 |
3.20% |
Dijkstra |
13461 |
12878 |
-4.33% |
SQLite |
11514 |
11128 |
-3.35% |
HTML5 Parse |
13110 |
12705 |
-3.09% |
HTML5 DOM |
12256 |
12392 |
1.11% |
Histogram Equalization |
11595 |
11753 |
1.36% |
PDF Rendering |
11613 |
11582 |
-0.27% |
LLVM |
22546 |
25807 |
14.46% |
Camera |
14724 |
15444 |
4.89% |
SGEMM |
5876 |
5663 |
-3.62% |
SFFT |
9338 |
9503 |
1.77% |
N-Body Physics |
9770 |
9560 |
-2.15% |
Ray Tracing |
10725 |
10370 |
-3.31% |
Rigid Body Physics |
11873 |
12931 |
8.91% |
HDR |
15497 |
14517 |
-6.32% |
Gaussian Blur |
10896 |
11018 |
1.12% |
Speech Recognition |
9433 |
9452 |
0.20% |
Face Detection |
12238 |
11397 |
-6.87% |
Memory Copy |
5798 |
5815 |
0.29% |
Memory Latency |
3563 |
3560 |
-0.08% |
Memory Bandwidth |
3217 |
3259 |
1.31% |
Compute
Benchmark |
11.1 |
11.2.2 |
% Difference |
Score |
15306 |
14865 |
-2.88% |
Histogram Equalization |
12075 |
11719 |
-2.95% |
SFFT |
2755 |
2759 |
0.15% |
Gaussian Blur |
25486 |
22871 |
-10.26% |
Face Detection |
10371 |
9841 |
-5.11% |
Sobel |
11861 |
9726 |
-18.00% |
RAW |
50942 |
58955 |
15.73% |
Depth of Field |
26303 |
26654 |
1.33% |
Particle Physics |
21566 |
21437 |
-0.60% |
iPad Pro 10.5”
Single Core
Benchmark |
11.2.1 |
11.2.2 |
Difference % |
Score |
3824 |
3960 |
3.56% |
Crypto |
2402 |
2498 |
4.00% |
Integer |
4039 |
4174 |
3.34% |
Floating Point |
3421 |
3550 |
3.77% |
Memory |
4299 |
4461 |
3.77% |
AES |
2402 |
2498 |
4.00% |
LZMA |
3231 |
3629 |
12.32% |
JPEG |
3560 |
3674 |
3.20% |
Canny |
3693 |
3713 |
0.54% |
Lua |
4154 |
4305 |
3.64% |
Dijkstra |
4565 |
4793 |
4.99% |
SQLite |
3676 |
3751 |
2.04% |
HTML5 Parse |
3858 |
3907 |
1.27% |
HTML5 DOM |
4520 |
4658 |
3.05% |
Histogram Equalization |
3389 |
3404 |
0.44% |
PDF Rendering |
3441 |
3519 |
2.27% |
LLVM |
7622 |
7894 |
3.57% |
Camera |
4116 |
4247 |
3.18% |
SGEMM |
2324 |
2398 |
3.18% |
SFFT |
2816 |
2892 |
2.70% |
N-Body Physics |
3211 |
3323 |
3.49% |
Ray Tracing |
3447 |
3642 |
5.66% |
Rigid Body Physics |
3654 |
3811 |
4.30% |
HDR |
4088 |
4190 |
2.50% |
Gaussian Blur |
3780 |
3898 |
3.12% |
Speech Recognition |
3940 |
4359 |
10.63% |
Face Detection |
3987 |
3933 |
-1.35% |
Memory Copy |
5369 |
5479 |
2.05% |
Memory Latency |
3659 |
3693 |
0.93% |
Memory Bandwidth |
4047 |
4389 |
8.45% |
Multi Core
Benchmark |
11.2.1 |
11.2.2 |
Difference % |
Score |
9408 |
9445 |
0.39% |
Crypto |
7188 |
7190 |
0.03% |
Integer |
11469 |
11482 |
0.11% |
Floating Point |
9658 |
9658 |
0.00% |
Memory |
4951 |
5109 |
3.19% |
AES |
7188 |
7190 |
0.03% |
LZMA |
9521 |
9514 |
-0.07% |
JPEG |
10576 |
10577 |
0.01% |
Canny |
10522 |
10519 |
-0.03% |
Lua |
12011 |
12065 |
0.45% |
Dijkstra |
11461 |
11349 |
-0.98% |
SQLite |
9728 |
10075 |
3.57% |
HTML5 Parse |
11203 |
11264 |
0.54% |
HTML5 DOM |
12810 |
12467 |
-2.68% |
Histogram Equalization |
9790 |
9798 |
0.08% |
PDF Rendering |
9626 |
9619 |
-0.07% |
LLVM |
21986 |
22188 |
0.92% |
Camera |
12281 |
12245 |
-0.29% |
SGEMM |
6667 |
6654 |
-0.19% |
SFFT |
8360 |
8372 |
0.14% |
N-Body Physics |
9544 |
9550 |
0.06% |
Ray Tracing |
9956 |
10031 |
0.75% |
Rigid Body Physics |
10993 |
10997 |
0.04% |
HDR |
12055 |
11810 |
-2.03% |
Gaussian Blur |
11130 |
11064 |
-0.59% |
Speech Recognition |
8572 |
8595 |
0.27% |
Face Detection |
10925 |
11103 |
1.63% |
Memory Copy |
7169 |
7425 |
3.57% |
Memory Latency |
3694 |
3744 |
1.35% |
Memory Bandwidth |
4585 |
4798 |
4.65% |
Compute
Benchmark |
11.2.1 |
11.2.2 |
% Difference |
Score |
30832 |
30233 |
-1.94% |
Histogram Equalization |
21093 |
20851 |
-1.15% |
SFFT |
4848 |
4885 |
0.76% |
Gaussian Blur |
54249 |
58809 |
8.41% |
Face Detection |
12272 |
11940 |
-2.71% |
Sobel |
33126 |
29732 |
-10.25% |
RAW |
167227 |
170189 |
1.77% |
Depth of Field |
71228 |
68612 |
-3.67% |
Particle Physics |
34041 |
28111 |
-17.42% |
iPad Mini 2
Single Core
Benchmark |
11.1.2 |
11.2.2 |
Difference % |
Score |
1255 |
1270 |
1.20% |
Crypto |
668 |
753 |
12.72% |
Integer |
1302 |
1306 |
0.31% |
Floating Point |
1172 |
1201 |
2.47% |
Memory |
1418 |
1423 |
0.35% |
AES |
668 |
753 |
12.72% |
LZMA |
1035 |
1282 |
23.86% |
JPEG |
1493 |
1504 |
0.74% |
Canny |
1319 |
1416 |
7.35% |
Lua |
1228 |
1222 |
-0.49% |
Dijkstra |
1295 |
1367 |
5.56% |
SQLite |
1075 |
1051 |
-2.23% |
HTML5 Parse |
1235 |
1243 |
0.65% |
HTML5 DOM |
1124 |
900 |
-19.93% |
Histogram Equalization |
1326 |
1323 |
-0.23% |
PDF Rendering |
1140 |
1124 |
-1.40% |
LLVM |
2066 |
1947 |
-5.76% |
Camera |
1584 |
1586 |
0.13% |
SGEMM |
767 |
767 |
0.00% |
SFFT |
1250 |
1255 |
0.40% |
N-Body Physics |
889 |
893 |
0.45% |
Ray Tracing |
1091 |
1165 |
6.78% |
Rigid Body Physics |
1388 |
1391 |
0.22% |
HDR |
1685 |
1675 |
-0.59% |
Gaussian Blur |
1316 |
1319 |
0.23% |
Speech Recognition |
1185 |
1207 |
1.86% |
Face Detection |
1234 |
1402 |
13.61% |
Memory Copy |
1379 |
1383 |
0.29% |
Memory Latency |
2215 |
2218 |
0.14% |
Memory Bandwidth |
935 |
940 |
0.53% |
Multi Core
Benchmark |
11.1.2 |
11.2.2 |
Difference % |
Score |
2184 |
2170 |
-0.64% |
Crypto |
1472 |
1471 |
-0.07% |
Integer |
2430 |
2374 |
-2.30% |
Floating Point |
2268 |
2308 |
1.76% |
Memory |
1681 |
1679 |
-0.12% |
AES |
1472 |
1471 |
-0.07% |
LZMA |
2337 |
2351 |
0.60% |
JPEG |
2935 |
2955 |
0.68% |
Canny |
2732 |
2715 |
-0.62% |
Lua |
2456 |
2314 |
-5.78% |
Dijkstra |
2534 |
2534 |
0.00% |
SQLite |
2084 |
1959 |
-6.00% |
HTML5 Parse |
2440 |
2400 |
-1.64% |
HTML5 DOM |
1121 |
1110 |
-0.98% |
Histogram Equalization |
2532 |
2454 |
-3.08% |
PDF Rendering |
2114 |
2043 |
-3.36% |
LLVM |
3855 |
3591 |
-6.85% |
Camera |
3099 |
3098 |
-0.03% |
SGEMM |
1475 |
1471 |
-0.27% |
SFFT |
2460 |
2469 |
0.37% |
N-Body Physics |
1760 |
1754 |
-0.34% |
Ray Tracing |
2223 |
2285 |
2.79% |
Rigid Body Physics |
2751 |
2762 |
0.40% |
HDR |
3258 |
3265 |
0.21% |
Gaussian Blur |
2553 |
2555 |
0.08% |
Speech Recognition |
2013 |
2029 |
0.79% |
Face Detection |
2436 |
2732 |
12.15% |
Memory Copy |
1884 |
1890 |
0.32% |
Memory Latency |
2244 |
2242 |
-0.09% |
Memory Bandwidth |
1124 |
1119 |
-0.44% |
Compute
Benchmark |
11.1.2 |
11.2.2 |
% Difference |
Score |
587 |
584 |
-0.51% |
Histogram Equalization |
325 |
318 |
-2.15% |
SFFT |
35 |
35 |
0.00% |
Gaussian Blur |
365 |
366 |
0.27% |
Face Detection |
647 |
645 |
-0.31% |
Sobel |
414 |
408 |
-1.45% |
RAW |
1709 |
1704 |
-0.29% |
Depth of Field |
2171 |
2170 |
-0.05% |
Particle Physics |
3421 |
3423 |
0.06% |
Sources
- iPhone X
- iPad Pro 10.5”
- iPad Mini 2