Benchmark Scoring Please Explain

[Gbrewer66]

Hi, I have been watching linusTech since the AMD phenom Days. Recently I have been getting back into computers(big amateur here) and I wanted to know what benchmark scores were. I have been searching the internet for days but cannot find exact information on what the benchmark score means. For example one processor may have a score of 5000 and another has 7000. What do those numbers mean? Is the score how many instructions per second it completes, or is it calculations per second??? What is the meaning of that large score number? If you can, please break down everything the score means. 

[Bombastinator]

23 minutes ago, Gbrewer66 said:

Hi, I have been watching linusTech since the AMD phenom Days. Recently I have been getting back into computers(big amateur here) and I wanted to know what benchmark scores were. I have been searching the internet for days but cannot find exact information on what the benchmark score means. For example one processor may have a score of 5000 and another has 7000. What do those numbers mean? Is the score how many instructions per second it completes, or is it calculations per second??? What is the meaning of that large score number? If you can, please break down everything the score means. 

The problem with benchmark scores is they apply only to that benchmark.  Benchmarks are never terribly accurate.  They’re what we have though.  The scores of one bench can’t really be compared against another bench but they can be compared against a different machine running that same bench.  They are useful for saying “this machine is x% faster than that machine at this particular benchmark”. That’s about it though.

[Gbrewer66]

@Bombastinator so basically they are pointless? They don't mean anything besides whipping it out in the locker room and comparing size?