REDMAGIC 11 Pro and Pro+ Banned From 3DMark for Benchmark Cheating

UL Solutions has removed the REDMAGIC 11 Pro and REDMAGIC 11 Pro+ from its 3DMark performance rankings after determining that the devices did not comply with benchmark rules and guidelines.

The decision follows benchmark compliance testing conducted by 3DMark, one of the most widely used tools for measuring mobile device performance in realistic gaming environments. The delisting means these specific models now appear unranked and without scores at the bottom of the platform’s popular smartphone lists.

The Mechanism of Detection

The investigation began after a YouTuber named Saityo highlighted unusual benchmark results for the REDMAGIC 11 Pro. To verify these findings, UL Solutions tested the devices in their lab using two different versions of the software.

The testing team compared the public version of 3DMark, available via Google Play, against a private, renamed version of the app that is not accessible to manufacturers or the general public. Despite the tests being identical, the devices produced scores in the public app that were up to 24% higher than those produced in the internal version.

UL Solutions concluded that the smartphones were recognizing the 3DMark application by name rather than reacting to the actual workload of the test. This specific type of detection and optimization is explicitly forbidden by the platform’s rules for manufacturers.

In our testing, scores from the public 3DMark app were up to 24% higher than scores from the internal version, even though the tests are identical. The differences in scores tell us that the devices are simply recognizing the 3DMark app by name rather than adapting to the type of work in the test.

UL Solutions

Performance Modes and Hardware Limits

According to observations from UL Solutions, the devices appeared to trigger a higher-performance mode when they detected the benchmark, a behavior that resembles the Diablo mode used by REDMAGIC.

Technical analysis suggests that REDMAGIC utilizes advanced cooling solutions, such as beefy vapor chambers and liquid cooling, to push the limits of chipsets like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. This hardware allows the devices to maintain high framerates in AAA games and emulation software.

Reports indicate that REDMAGIC may be ignoring standard safety limits to allow the silicon to operate at its maximum performance levels regardless of temperature. While this allows the hardware to run at its absolute limit, 3DMark equates the practice of triggering this state specifically for benchmarks to cheating.

Impact on Industry Rankings

The delisting of the 11 Pro and 11 Pro+ serves as a warning to other manufacturers regarding the manipulation of benchmark results to obtain bragging rights or increase flagship sales. UL Solutions has stated that scores from these delisted devices should not be used to compare models.

The removal of these devices from the rankings ensures that the performance leaderboard reflects standard operating conditions rather than manufacturer-optimized states that may not be sustainable or representative of typical user experiences.