Noise floor
Also searched as: noise floor · margin of error · measurement noise
What it means
The amount a benchmark naturally wiggles from run to run even when nothing changed. A result has to clear that wiggle before it counts as a real difference.
More detail
If your scores bounce around by 3% on their own, then a tweak that "gained 2%" gained nothing you can trust — it's inside the noise. This is the honest filter that makes most "huge boost" claims evaporate. Compy treats changes under its noise floor as "no measurable change," because pretending otherwise would be lying to you.
The Compy Blackbook holds 174 graded entries like this one, judged against your hardware — and every change it does make is reversible, with the receipt to prove it.
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