14 DAY TRIAL // Geekbench 3, a benchmarking application developed by Primate Labs Inc. and initially designed for Windows and Mac OS systems, has landed on Steam for Linux, to everyone's surprise.
There are very few benchmarking apps for the Linux platform out there, and even fewer that can even come close to the quality and features of the Geekbench 3 app.
Although there was no indication that Geekbench developers had any intention of providing a Linux version of their application, this was to be expected. The Linux platform is now a sort of an underdog in the gaming community, so it's no wonder that someone wants to stay ahead of the curve.
Linux gamers are just like everyone else. They want to know if their recent hardware purchase is any good, and the only way of testing this is with a benchmarking software, a niche that is currently lacking any serious competition.
The Windows platform has the famous 3DMark built by FutureMark, a product that is being employed by the hardware industry and by the users.
Geekbench 3 aims to fill that gap, although, for now, the application is capable of only benchmarking the CPUs and not the GPUs.
“Compare apples and oranges. Or Macs and PCs. Geekbench is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux enabling you to benchmark different computers running different operating systems. Whether you're running Geekbench on a a dual-core laptop or a multi-core workstation, Geekbench is able to measure the performance of all the processor cores in your system. Every processor benchmark is multi-threaded and multi-core aware to show you the true potential of your computer,” reads the entry on the Steam for Linux website.
Users don't have to waste any time in performing manual settings in the application, and they can start the process with just one click. This doesn't mean that the settings are not there, it's just that they are not required for a quick result.
Everyone expects from a good benchmarking software to be able to share and compare their result with some online counterparts. According to the developers, there are 390,000 Geekbench 3 results already posted, so there is a large user base out there.
The system requirements for this application are pretty slim and a lot of users will be able to run it without any problems: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, an Intel Pentium 4 or better processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 32 MB of available HDD space.
Geekbench 3 is now available on Steam for Linux with a 10% discount, which is set to end on March 19.