iPhone performance benchmarks after Spectre security update

Apple released iOS 11.2.2 update to address Spectre security issues. I was curious about the actual performance change. So I’ve benchmarked my iPhone before and after the security fix. Here are the results side-by-side to give you a clear view how the performance has changed due to the Spectre vulnerability.

How I did run the performance benchmarks

The performance benchmarks were performed on an iPhone 6 and are done pretty straight forward. The benchmarks were performed before/after updating iOS in the exact same scenario: no apps running (including background). So the running benchmark basically had the full CPU capacity and all other iPhone resources. The original benchmark score cards are linked at the bottom.

Overall performance benchmark scores

Before Spectre/Meltdown fixes After Spectre/Meltdown fixes Performance change iPhone type iPhone 6 iPhone 6 iOS version iOS 11.1.2 iOS 11.2.2 Single-Core Score 1561 924 -41% Multi-Core Score 2665 1616 -39%

Single-core performance benchmark scores

Single-core performance Before Spectre/Meltdown fixes After Spectre/Meltdown fixes Performance change Single-core score 1561 924 -41% Crypto score 817 402 -51% Integer score 1689 855 -49% Floating Point Score 1407 767 -45% Memory score 1691 1447 -14% AES 817 402 -51% LZMA 1550 741 -52% JPEG 1756 836 -52% Canny 1763 937 -47% Lua 1602 740 -54% Dijkstra 1831 992 -46% SQLite 1289 615 -52% HTML5 Parse 1518 816 -46% HTML5 DOM 1761 778 -56% Histogram Equalization 1544 846 -45% PDF Rendering 1422 776 -45% LLVM 2685 1359 -49% Camera 1893 1036 -45% SGEMM 868 472 -45% SFFT 1437 779 -45% N-Body Physics 1052 562 -47% Ray Tracing 1441 725 -50% Rigid Body Physics 1712 900 -47% HDR 1887 1008 -47% Gaussian Blur 1469 771 -48% Speech Recognition 1577 958 -39% Face Detection 1532 916 -40% Memory Copy 1784 1554 -13% Memory Latency 2477 1969 -21% Memory Bandwidth 1096 991 -10%

Multi-core performance benchmark scores

Multi-Core Performance Before Spectre/Meltdown fixes After Spectre/Meltdown fixes Performance change Multi-core score 2665 1616 -39% Crypto score 1622 876 -46% Integer score 3108 1705 -45% Floating Point Score 2690 1523 -43% Memory score 1892 1741 -8% AES 1622 876 -46% LZMA 2933 1455 -50% JPEG 3494 1878 -46% Canny 3401 1938 -43% Lua 3052 1543 -49% Dijkstra 3315 2073 -37% SQLite 2494 1293 -48% HTML5 Parse 3028 1621 -46% HTML5 DOM 2025 1304 -36% Histogram Equalization 3002 1631 -46% PDF Rendering 2625 1483 -44% LLVM 5121 2653 -48% Camera 3742 2043 -45% SGEMM 1670 919 -45% SFFT 2828 1547 -45% N-Body Physics 2093 1137 -46% Ray Tracing 2719 1450 -47% Rigid Body Physics 3406 1825 -46% HDR 3628 2021 -44% Gaussian Blur 2882 1591 -45% Speech Recognition 2626 1723 -34% Face Detection 2943 1862 -37% Memory Copy 2241 2124 -5% Memory Latency 2443 2075 -15% Memory Bandwidth 1238 1199 -3%

Conclusion

The iPhone took a serious hit in performance at every possible level. A lot of benchmark levels show a significant decrease in performance on the iPhone 6 up to 50% on some benchmark levels. Although this is not the best news, this security update is a ‘necessary evil’. It demonstrates a message the security community have reminded us time and time again: security can’t be compromised over performance.

As Apple already stated, the iPhone iOS 11.2.2 update is of great security importance. Don’t hesitate to update. The performance change is not worth risking being hacked and bad things from happening as a result.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Original before and after benchmark performance scorecards.