Worryingly low (Geekbench) benchmark score on iPhone 12 Pro Max (iOS 14.5.1)

Had the same problem of low Geekbench 5 scores, especially multi-core, on my iPhone 12 (not Pro, not Max) with 14.5.1. Doing a force restart fixed the problem (at least for now): support.apple.com/guide/iphone/force-restart-iphone-iph8903c3ee6/ios

Steps to reproduce (for me):

1. Turn the phone off (fully, not sleep)
2. Turn the phone on
3. Enter passcode / touchID / faceId
4. with power connected, performance is normal. Without power connected, performance is terrible.
5. This state lasts a for an unknown period of time but does not persist and only recurs upon reboot.

I’m getting some app crashes and freezing. I thought something was up so I ran Geekbench. The multi-core is 1/3 the performance it was. Hopefully it’s just a bug with 14.5.1

I bought this 12 pro max new from the Apple Store 3 weeks ago

I’m also experiencing this on my 12 Pro max, I’m on 14.5.1 as well, I’m thinking it could be something to do with 14.5.1, it could be a bug. But yeah those low scores are worrying, the Geek bench Multi core scores on my 12 Pro are only ever so slightly higher than my mini 5! Crazy!

Sorry, just waking up here in the UK.

OK some other things that will be removed with backup and restoring all your apps are big useless caches and bogus "Other" data.

Often when upgrading from older to newer iphones the "Other" can be carried across or even builds up. Unless the app reported on it or you checked it, there can be anything up to 100GB of Other.

13.6.1 fixed the known bug that stopped Other being cleared but there may be other causes. I answer at least one excessive Other question every week.

If you havelarge Other data after restore then it is probably genuine non-categorized data.

(Settings, General, iPhone storage at the bottom of the page)

Hello,

I'm on iOS 14.5.1 with my iPhone 11 Pro Max that has 87% battery capacity. I've noticed that when I do a Geekbench 5 benchmark test while connected to the charger, it gives me around 1340 for single core score and 3270 for multi-core score.

Now, if I do the same exact benchmark test on the phone without having it connected to a charger, it gives me around 760 single core score and 1250 for multi-core score. It's the weirdest thing but I think it has something to do with the battery, maybe?

Furthermore, I ran the same test with my mom's iPhone 11 on iOS 14.5.1 with her battery capacity being 100% and her phone got around the same score I got when my phone is connected to the charger.

I hope this isn't a permanent thing, it really is quite annoying to be honest.

I’ve just ran a Geekbench 5 test and while the CPU test was ok, the Compute test was half of what it should be. So, I googled the issue and found this topic.

I’m currently running iPhone 11 Pro Max that had a fresh install two weeks ago.

I don’t think this is a hardware problem, perhaps a software bug?

Had the same issue. My IPhone 12 Pro Max was more than 2000 points behind the average. I just did a factory reset, but with a backup and now it works fine. Even some lags are gone. I guess IOS 14.5.1 has an annoying bug, maybe it’s gonna be fixed with the new IOS.

I think it's one of the many bugs with 14.5.1 add my multi-core score is half what it was on 14.5. 14.5.1 was practically a beta update as they rushed or out because of a security issue and it wasn't beta tested. I really hope that push a new update soon at this really broke 14.5. A lesson never to update to these rushed security patch updates

You misread me. I was referring to 14.5.1 but I was saying that 14.5.1 behaves like a beta because it wasn't actually beta tested,it was rushed out to patch a security vulnerability in 14.5 she because of that it had introduced a number of bugs. Probably one of tut worst public iOS releases I've ever seen from Apple.

14.5 was beta tested and 14.5.1 was a single patch. I don’t see how that halves CPU benchmark results on your iphone 12 but not on iphone 7.  

I just broke out my new iphone 12 (ahead of my 70th birthday) and CPU on 14.5 was 1596 single and 4139 multi. Both above average.

I then updated to 14.5.1 and CPU were 1603 and 4018 respectively. Still above average.

Did you remove all VPN and security apps? I can’t remember.

You'd imagine that should be the case but it has added a bug of CPU throttling and it's not just me and a few people here, there's even articles about it:

https://www.iphonehacks.com/2021/05/ios-14-5-1-throttling-performance-iphone-11-12.html

And big Apple YouTuber Nick Ackerman also has the issue caused by 14.5.1 where his iPhone XR is outperforming both his 11 Pro and 12 Pro Max in every benchmark test, getting exactly the same iPhone 12 scores as me which are half the Geekbench average for the iPhone 12. It seems to be only affecting the iPhone 11 and 12, older iPhones are not affected:

https://youtu.be/Qkm6LR-ag-c

As with most iOS bugs, not everyone will be affected or experience the same issues. Just because you don't, that doesn't mean others won't. I, for example, didn't experience the green tint iPhone 12 issue or the raised black that existed before iOS 14.5 but many people did. If you don't get an issue just count yourself lucky

I don’t believe anything on the web by default.

If it was a bug I would have it.

I haven’t. I just ran the same tests with the same phone.

Can we just be clear, Are you running any security or VPN apps? They are favourite apps for people living on the tech edge (technochondriacs to a man) but they screw up iphones.

That is what I did. As the phone is going back in the drawer for 3 weeks I didn’t want it above 60% charged.

My readings were 5 minutes after taking off charge.

You’re not going to answer my app question, are you?