Cinebench R23
A cross-platform CPU benchmark from Maxon that renders a 3D scene using the Cinema 4D engine. Reports a single-core and a multi-core score; widely used to compare sustained CPU performance.
Cinebench R23 is the de facto standard for CPU comparisons. It runs a 10-minute minimum throttle test by default, which exposes cooling limits — chips that boost briefly but throttle hard score poorly.
Reading the scores
- Single-core tracks per-thread responsiveness. A modern flagship desktop chip lands around 2,000–2,300; an efficient laptop chip around 1,600–1,900.
- Multi-core scales with cores and sustained TDP. A 16-core desktop part exceeds 30,000; a thin-and-light ultrabook hovers around 8,000–12,000.
Why it matters in comparisons
Cinebench is reproducible across vendors and OSes, unlike many vendor-specific scores. Two laptops with similar Cinebench multi numbers will encode video, compile code, and render in nearly the same time.
Caveats
It's a pure CPU test — GPU, NPU, and storage are irrelevant. A chip with a great NPU but middling CPU (Snapdragon X Elite early units) underperforms in Cinebench but excels at on-device AI.