The detection methods used by Samsung’s Game Optimization Service (GOS) have forced Geekbench to delist many devices.
Performance comparisons and benchmarks are a big deal in some tech circles. In the smartphone space in particular, performance can vary wildly between devices due to the tight thermal constraints and passively-cooled nature of most devices. Offering competitive performance in the smartphone market is extremely important for some OEMs, which has unfortunately resulted in some questionable behavior by some companies. Case in point Samsung; some recent revelations have forced the makers of the popular benchmark Geekbench to remove many Samsung devices from its results database. Most of Samsung’s flagship phones, including the S22, S21, S20, and S10, have a nifty little feature called Game Optimizing Services, or GOS. GOS detects what applications are running and in focus on the device at a given time, and optimizes performance accordingly. To the makers of Geekbench, however, the mechanism by which GOS operates is unfairly affects benchmark scores.
