About GlitchTech
43 tests across 13 disciplines. One score. Built to cut through the noise.
Read methodology43
TESTS IN RUBRIC V1.1
13
DISCIPLINES
7
BPR-ELIGIBLE DISCIPLINES
About GlitchTech
GlitchTech is the product review vertical of Glitch Studios. Detailed copy to be written in a future phase.
Methodology
How we score, grade, and compare tech reviews. We compute two scores per device: BPR (editorial quality grade, medal tiers) and GlitchMark (raw aggregate performance score, base 1000).
The BPR Formula
BPR — Battery Performance Ratio — is a single 0–100 score that summarizes how much of a laptop's plugged-in performance it keeps on battery. We compute it as the geometric mean of per-discipline battery/AC ratios across the seven BPR-eligible disciplines.
$ BPR = exp( (1/n) × Σ ln(battery_i / ac_i) ) × 100Why geomean, not arithmetic mean? A geometric mean treats a 50% drop in one discipline the same weight as a 200% gain in another — a single catastrophic regression can't be hidden by a strong average. It's the right tool when you're combining ratios.
Disciplines
GlitchTech scores 13 disciplines per device. Seven are BPR-eligible — workloads where battery mode materially changes performance. The remaining six are measured AC-only and feed GlitchMark, not BPR.
CPU
Core compute performance across Geekbench 6, Cinebench 2024, and standard multi-thread tests.
BPR ELIGIBLEGPU
Graphics compute across 3DMark, Blender GPU, and real-world render workloads.
BPR ELIGIBLELLM
Local large-language-model inference throughput (tokens/sec) on standardized models.
BPR ELIGIBLEVideo
Video encoding and decoding throughput — H.264, H.265, AV1.
BPR ELIGIBLEDev
Developer workload benchmarks — compile, link, test suite runtime.
BPR ELIGIBLEPython
Python-specific numeric and scripting workloads.
BPR ELIGIBLEGames
Real-world game performance — frame rates at standardized settings across a fixed title list.
Memory
Memory bandwidth via STREAM (AC only, not BPR-eligible).
Storage
Sequential + random I/O via AmorphousDiskMark (AC only, not BPR-eligible).
Thermal
Sustained-load retention + peak temperature (AC only, not BPR-eligible).
Wireless
Wi-Fi + Thunderbolt throughput (AC only, not BPR-eligible).
Display
Color accuracy + gamut coverage via DisplayCAL (AC only, not BPR-eligible).
Battery Life
Standardized battery drain scenarios (battery only, not BPR-eligible).
Medal Thresholds
BPR scores map to four medal tiers. A device earns a medal only when five or more of the seven BPR-eligible disciplines are measured.
90–100
Near-zero battery penalty.
80–89
Minor battery impact — holds most performance unplugged.
70–79
Noticeable dropoff on battery — workable but visible.
60–69
Significant battery drop — plan on plugging in for heavy work.
< 60
Below 60% or fewer than 5 of 7 BPR-eligible disciplines measured.
GlitchMark
GlitchMark is a single number that summarizes a device's performance across every benchmark we record. One score per device. Higher is better; the reference device sits at 100.
Where BPR grades the qualitative value of a review (Platinum / Gold / Silver / Bronze on a 7-of-13 rubric), GlitchMark is the raw aggregate sortable number across the full benchmark set. Both surface side-by-side; they answer different questions.
The GlitchMark numbers shown in rankings are the stored score multiplied by 10 and rounded to the nearest integer — a base-1000 reference scale for human readability.
Formula
For each benchmark a device runs, we compute a normalized ratio against a fixed reference value. Higher-is-better tests use raw / reference; lower-is-better tests use reference / raw. Reference device → ratio 1.0 → score 100.
GlitchMark is the geometric mean of all those ratios, multiplied by 100:
GlitchMark = (r₁ · r₂ · ... · rₙ)^(1/n) × 100
Worked example: a device with 8 measured tests where two tests are 2× and 8× the reference and the rest equal the reference (ratios = [2, 8, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]) yields a geometric mean of 16^(1/8) ≈ 1.41 — GlitchMark ≈ 141.
Test count policy
- Below 8 measured tests: no GlitchMark — the signal is too thin to publish.
- 8–11 measured tests: score published with a partial flag (e.g. GlitchMark 142 · partial (10/18 tests)).
- 12 or more measured tests: score published without a partial flag.
Reference baselines
| Discipline | Test | Direction | Reference | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cpu | Geekbench 6 Multi-Core | ↑ higher | 12000.0000 | score |
| cpu | Geekbench 6 Single-Core | ↑ higher | 3100.0000 | score |
| gpu | 3DMark Steel Nomad Light | ↑ higher | 4800.0000 | score |
| llm | llama.cpp tg128 | ↑ higher | 38.0000 | tok/s |
| storage | AmorphousDiskMark Seq Read | ↑ higher | 5200.0000 | MB/s |
| thermal | Cinebench 10-min loop retention | ↑ higher | 88.0000 | percent |
| wireless | iperf3 Wi-Fi down | ↑ higher | 1450.0000 | Mbps |
| battery_life | Video loop (local 1080p) | ↑ higher | 22.0000 | hours |
Version history
v1 — initial release. Geometric mean × 100, per-test reference baselines as listed above, ≥8-test floor, partial flag for 8–11.
Exclusion Policy
A discipline may be excluded from a specific review when the hardware lacks the relevant component (no discrete GPU, no neural engine), the test harness isn't supported on that platform, or the reviewer documents a specific opt-out reason. Every exclusion is recorded per-review and shown on the review page.
When fewer than five of the seven BPR-eligible disciplines have complete AC + battery data after exclusions, we render no medal at all. A "Not enough data" placeholder appears in its place. Showing a misleading low-data score would do more harm than showing none.