I am considering using a custom ROM on the transformer, but is it worth it, I am mainly after performance increases. I see on a few that there are higher benchmark results, but does this actually translate into a real world speed increase?
I remember some custom ROMs for the original i9000 Galaxy S doubled the benchmark performance, but that was more down to "cheating" the benchmark than anything else, although it certainly was noticeable at times.
One of the slight criticisms I have of the TF101 is a slight amount of lag / lack of responsiveness occasionally - not a deal breaker, but if it can be improved then why not? Obviously not at the cost of stability though.
I think the SGS2 has spoiled me a bit here!
apparently there is a big increase (mostly from overclocking). i had the standard firmware for 3 days only, so I can't really tell, but one of my co-workers has a locked B70 and was wow-ed by my TF, the smoothness and speed of it.
Yes, I'm waiting too, to root it and put a cutom ROM on. I read, heard and saw the performance difference. Mainly from the overclock, but also thanks to kernel tweaks and stuff. So If you can root, do it
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
I've never been that keen on the idea of overclocking, as I prefer to have a bit of headroom, but I guess if it is safe and makes a big difference, then I would give it a shot. What would be a good middle ground for stability / speed ?
1.4 IMO is very stable and doesn't increase heat or use more battery but the real world performance is noticable. I have never run a benchmark so I can't give you any numbers. Just my normal use.
Cheers for the reply.
Is there any one ROM that stands out as being the best performing?
Contrary to what people think they all perform about the same. There is no source so everyone is building of the same stock rom. If you want the same look then go with Revolution. If you want a little tweaked then go with Prime (What I'm on). If you want the tweaks and a nice tools package then go with Revolver (What I was just running). All 3 devs are really responsive to problems
If you start from a clean base and don't restore any system data from other builds then they will all be fast. The real speed difference is in the kernel and those can be flashed seperately from the rom. Clemsyn is really putting out kernels this week. Some good. Some not so good. Go with whats right for you.
EDIT: I have actually installed all 3 roms in the last week and run them at stock and at 1.4 Ghz. They all performed exactly the same for me. They were all equally stable. I don't use benchmarks because they can be fudged.
I've used all three too. I notice huge improvements with webpage rendering. It's almost as fast as my laptop, where as before I avoided using the browser if possible. The ability to hide the status bar is a really nice addition to the latest version of revolver.
Edit: autorotate is also alot faster.
Sent from my Sensation using XDA Premium App
tameracingdriver said:
What would be a good middle ground for stability / speed ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no such thing as an overclocking "middle ground" when dealing with mobile chipsets such as the Tegra. It's not like overclocking a desktop computer where the CPU will constantly run at the specified speed; mobile chipsets are pre-configured to utilize only as much power as necessary. For that reason I always ramp up my tablet to the max clock speed it can reliably handle, because then the governor will handle balancing between speed, stability, and battery life. My clock speed can range from 216Mhz to 1624Mhz, and on the interactive governor I can still achieve a good 8 hours of battery life from a single charge.
Of course that's not to say that you couldn't constantly run at 1624Mhz all the time, and I do sometimes lock it to that speed for games. But for much of the OS interaction, it's not necessary to run at full speed all the time, and you won't notice a difference even if it is locked at full speed. It just comes in handy every once in a while for things like loading apps, loading web pages, and playing games.
Related
So after reading nearly 5 hours and spending my time in the wee hours of morning, I finally did all the "stable" mods for the phone... If you haven't been reading, make sure you guys check out the stuff in the development forum.
After all modifications, I was able to get 2701 points in quadrant benchmark. What mods did I do?
-i9000 eclair flash (JM5)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734871
-Alternative mimocans lag fix
(one click installer http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=749495)
-One click root (googled it for i9000)
-Overclock kernel 1.0Ghz to 1.2Ghz
(http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=746343)
This stuff really does help out your phone folks. Bench it now with quadrant, then take a peak at the other stuff and make magic happen. If anyone needs any additional help setting up their captivate, I'm more than happy to help.
I agree those fixes help speed a lot. But the quadrant score is meaningless. the speed hack creates an io loopback. The loopback just tells quadrant what it wants to hear.
Does your BT work on the european ROM. For me all people hear is a gargeled mess on there end?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
Can you post the results of these tests:
Neocore
Linpack
CPU Benchmark
I keep hearing about this quadrant, does it actually improve real world performance? Or is just for the sake of scores?
jhego said:
I keep hearing about this quadrant, does it actually improve real world performance? Or is just for the sake of scores?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quadrant is just benchmarking software that takes the cpu, gpu and memory read/write speeds into account. It runs a series of tests and spits a score number out at the end, so you can compare your device to others (like comparing boner sizes, but less gay).
It doesn't actually do anything to speed up the device though.
modest_mandroid said:
Quadrant is just benchmarking software that takes the cpu, gpu and memory read/write speeds into account. It runs a series of tests and spits a score number out at the end, so you can compare your device to others (like comparing boner sizes, but less gay).
It doesn't actually do anything to speed up the device though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is correct and to be honest there is way to much weight in the I/O tests. That is the only reason that the stock Droid X bests the Gal X. It has more weight than cpu and gpu so you can't put to much into those scores. They really don't mean anything more than bragging rights. What I am interested in is real world usage.
Real world use with the hack provides amazing speed gains opening and switching apps. Io heavy apps are very much improved while open too. It's finally as fast as the iphone.
Whats your battery life like after the overclock?
The score ended up getting lower and lower every time i used quadrant. 2701 is the highest I was able to get so far, but that's with a fresh install of the rom and all the stuff before I started loading on apps. Everytime I ran the benchmark, I of course killed the apps beforehand.
The battery life is the same- to be honest. This is me comparing a rooted stock ROM to the somewhat fresh install of the eclair i9000. The phone is very snappy. I came from an iPhone 4 and one of the biggest eye sores to me was the less-fluidness of changing programs, response to buttons (homescreen-back button) and pinch to zoom. After all these changes, it's a whole different story. Browsing is very appealing, especially since pinch to zoom isn't jagged or slow. The smoothness of this functionality is on par to an iPhone. And there is no waiting when I press the home button or back button.
True, maybe these numbers aren't considerably accurate (as far as the lag fix and EXT2) but at least it shows raw computing capability in it's current state... meaning, the usage of a virtual EXT2. Never the less, the phone is still all around faster, even if it isn't exactly the proper way of going about it.
The only problem I've seen so far is that it likes to randomly shut off. Won't respond to anything unless if I soft reset it. I haven't really found what causes it, since the consistency of it happening goes about in a non set pattern.
I didn't see any real world increase .. so I reverted back in about 4 hours.... I'd rather have the memory than a number that don't transfer to real world speeds...
I have an overclocked Samsung Epic and it the improvement in speed in everyday use is significant. Because the processor voltage is set lower than stock there is no sacrifice in battery life. With the Asus Transformer do you get a definite and significant benefit from overclocking? I am not talking about test bench scores but real world noticeable responsiveness. When I skim through the forums it is difficult for me to tell? Some people swear by sticking with stock. I would appreciate others perspectives.
Thanks
The improvements from overclocking vary on the application.
Home screen switching is choppy regardless of overclocking simply because the launcher lacks optimization. Browser performance is improved a little bit, but mainly remains unchanged as well. Games run noticeably smoother, especially Fpse. Task switching gets a small boost, as some applications will be able to load faster.
If you're a big gamer, overclocking is definitely worth it. For everything else, it won't make much of a difference.
I haven't played too many games (mostly Stardunk and Stupid Zombies) on my TF, but I haven't noticed any issues with them. I have also played high profile 720p video with absolutely no stuttering or artefacts.
In other words, I haven't felt the need to overclock yet. But if you are doing heavy gaming and/or video processing of some kind, it might be worthwhile.
For me, there's hardly any need to OC. It all depends on what you wanna do. To many people who play a lot of games on their TF, they report increases in performance (especially with emulators) but on other things I never really noticed any difference. I'm currently underclocking my TF, and have been for about a week, with no noticable stutters or performance issues and have great battery life.
And it's not really an "effort" to flash a new kernel... the hardest thing is waiting for your device to boot up again...
I have a transformer, galaxy tab 10.1, and a xoom. I've used just about every kernel that can be overclocked for each one of them, and to be honest I haven't really seen any improvements from them. I don't really play many games on my tablets though, so maybe there really is some benefit in that area.
Galaxy's screen
How do you rate the screen of the Galaxy Tab 10.1? Is it as good as the Super AmoLED (+)'s from Samsung mobiles?
droidx1978z4 said:
I have a transformer, galaxy tab 10.1, and a xoom. I've used just about every kernel that can be overclocked for each one of them, and to be honest I haven't really seen any improvements from them. I don't really play many games on my tablets though, so maybe there really is some benefit in that area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems so counter-intuitive to me. If you overclock a PC CPU there is a very direct correlation with performance. There are always limiting factors such HD acess, etc., but there is a definite and noticeable difference across applications. What is even more surprising is that we are talking about very large % increases vs what people can do in the PC world. People are overclocking these CPUs by 50% plus...You would think you would see a very noticeable improvement but that doesn't seem to be the case.
My main interest is in browser performance. For example, XDA forum pages load extremely slow in all browsers I have tried (stock, Opera, Dolfin) with 5-6s to refresh vs instant on desktop browser. Also flash video tends to freeze and stutter some times. My internet connection is over 20Mb/s down and 5Mb/s up. I was hoping that I would find overclocking safe and provide a noticeable improvement.
earlyberd said:
The improvements from overclocking vary on the application.
Home screen switching is choppy regardless of overclocking simply because the launcher lacks optimization. Browser performance is improved a little bit, but mainly remains unchanged as well. Games run noticeably smoother, especially Fpse. Task switching gets a small boost, as some applications will be able to load faster.
If you're a big gamer, overclocking is definitely worth it. For everything else, it won't make much of a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So for web page loading you haven't noticed much of a difference? How about flash video?
Thanks.
Overclocking can be a bit like collecting .. 'string' , because it is mostly done for the sake of itself, kind of like the many Ham Radio fans who talk about their "rigs", etc etc.
Yeah, of course if you can get, like in the old old days, a celeron 300 that overclocks to 450, and is dead stable, it was noticeable, and if you had a droid 1, which overclocked (many did) with ease from 500 to 1000+ , then it was again, noticeable, just not a staggeringly 2 times increase, because there are too many other factors.
The number of bus errors, and retries and slowness of the original bus speeds, and other components makes for a not-quite-as-expected by the numbers 'increase'. I would still mess with it, but not for the obvious reasons. I like under-volting more, and over-clocking only the slightest bit where nothing ever crashes or FCs. The moment you overclock, you really shouldn't be asking questions about 'Why does blah blah netflix crash?' because it crashes because you overclocked, and nothing else matters until you stick a kernel back at stock in there.
The other thing I love about alternate kernels is that you've got control of what modules you either compile in or compile and load as .ko files. cifs, tun, ntfs, whatever, it is all very useful, so there are lots of good and not-as-good things about it.
One thing I hate is when a dev insists on creating a kernel that has a 'default' speed greater than stock so that you've instantly got an ordeal if you've got one of the many gizmos that will not overclock to his default (like 1.6 to pick a number out of a hat).. Just make them all start at default, then allow us , the users, to setup overclocking via testing with setcpu or some such thing. Much easier than basically bricking things right off.
I sometimes look at those guys that overclock 'seriously' (by 3-4 times) using a container of liquid nitrogen that lasts for ~5 minutes and it is all for bragging rights, setting records , etc and think they're insane, but that is also part of it. Some are happy if they can just post here that they got 9,000 mF on some test despite not being able to do anything else reliably.
hachamacha said:
Overclocking can be a bit like collecting .. 'string' , because it is mostly done for the sake of itself, kind of like the many Ham Radio fans who talk about their "rigs", etc etc.
Yeah, of course if you can get, like in the old old days, a celeron 300 that overclocks to 450, and is dead stable, it was noticeable, and if you had a droid 1, which overclocked (many did) with ease from 500 to 1000+ , then it was again, noticeable, just not a staggeringly 2 times increase, because there are too many other factors.
The number of bus errors, and retries and slowness of the original bus speeds, and other components makes for a not-quite-as-expected by the numbers 'increase'. I would still mess with it, but not for the obvious reasons. I like under-volting more, and over-clocking only the slightest bit where nothing ever crashes or FCs. The moment you overclock, you really shouldn't be asking questions about 'Why does blah blah netflix crash?' because it crashes because you overclocked, and nothing else matters until you stick a kernel back at stock in there.
The other thing I love about alternate kernels is that you've got control of what modules you either compile in or compile and load as .ko files. cifs, tun, ntfs, whatever, it is all very useful, so there are lots of good and not-as-good things about it.
One thing I hate is when a dev insists on creating a kernel that has a 'default' speed greater than stock so that you've instantly got an ordeal if you've got one of the many gizmos that will not overclock to his default (like 1.6 to pick a number out of a hat).. Just make them all start at default, then allow us , the users, to setup overclocking via testing with setcpu or some such thing. Much easier than basically bricking things right off.
I sometimes look at those guys that overclock 'seriously' (by 3-4 times) using a container of liquid nitrogen that lasts for ~5 minutes and it is all for bragging rights, setting records , etc and think they're insane, but that is also part of it. Some are happy if they can just post here that they got 9,000 mF on some test despite not being able to do anything else reliably.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great post!
+1
Very philosophical ! ;-)
I guess what I am getting at is if you overclock to 1.2Ghz-1.3Ghz on the Transformer can you have a stable system that shows an appreciable improvement in responsiveness? Moving from hypothetical to actual...have you done this? Any specific kernel?
The engineer in me is looking for a definitive answer. ;-)
Thanks.
sstea said:
Very philosophical ! ;-)
I guess what I am getting at is if you overclock to 1.2Ghz-1.3Ghz on the Transformer can you have a stable system that shows an appreciable improvement in responsiveness? Moving from hypothetical to actual...have you done this? Any specific kernel?
The engineer in me is looking for a definitive answer. ;-)
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've done this, just not on the TF yet. I'm working on a kernel right now that doesn't have OC built-in and activated at boot, so that we can use setcpu to screw around with it and find that 'sweet spot' that works for us, also under-over-volting. What I'd really like is to build in all the modules I like, setup over/under-clocking-volting and have it boot at 1 G. I mean, a dual-core 1G is nothing to sneeze at, and then try to ramp it up without screwing with over-volting immediately. I never like other peoples ROMs or Kernels because they have made their own crazy judgement calls. I like my own crazy judgement calls
Here's what I've noticed: When you have 'up-to-date' technology , as we do, in the TF, then overclocking that is totally stable makes a difference and it is noticeable. For me it's the FC's that kill the deal, but this chip and box appear to have plenty of headroom so I'm guessing that 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 are all good possibilities.
Example: My HTC Incredible phone has been overclocked to 1.1 from 1.0G for ~a year or so, and it doesn't FC, and it is faster, noticeably than at 1. It's only a 10% increase and yet it feels much quicker, so go figure. Those things are also subjective, so grain of salt... Example2: A stock droid1 is one I took to a double overclock, 550 to 1000, and yes it was faster at some things, but the underlying infrastructure didn't really support the faster CPU so I really never noticed a 100% increase that matched the clock speed. I left it that way for a year without any damages and it still boots up fine at 1 G.
In another post I started, I was asking what keys were required to boot 'safe mode' which exists in android OSs, and if I knew that, I'd try one of the OC'd kernels right now. IF not, I don't feel like unbricking again.
If you're interested, here's a good link for building your own: (generic android, not TF really:
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/rescue-squad-guides/31452-how-compile-your-own-kernel.html
Thanks for the response. With such a large community of Transformer users I am hoping to find a solid, conservative kernel that I can overclock with. Creating one myself is beyond my current technical capabilities.
I'm finally receiving my MyTouch 4G Slide today. I was just curious how the performance is? Is the stock ROM worth wild? Does anybody play N64oid, or PSoid on there phone? If so, how's the performance? Also a personal stand point whats your favorite ROM?
I want to try out the Port of CM7, but Sense 3.0 is pretty neat. If anyboyd is running a Sense 3.0 Rom, or CM7 would they recommend it?
cm7 > sense
The Sense that the MT4GS is vastly superior to previous versions of Sense, but I'm still waiting for a viable release candidate of CM to come out.
Your battery drains pretty fast with 3d games, and if you charge while you play, your phone gets hot as hell, I recommend rooting so that you can keep it underclocked as much as possible while you play. Gaming performance is good enough that you don't need full cpu power
Sent from my Senseless Doubleshot using XDA App
...as I sit here in my car waiting for my shift to start, i'm playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on Fpse. You can find it in the google market, and if you have any old ps1 games laying around it's worth every penny.
Works great, when i'm at home I plug the phone into my t.v. and play it that way. If anything I think it runs more smoothly when plugged into the t.v. - the audio syncs just a bit better with the same settings.
Checked my email and figured i'd cruise through here real quick before they let me in to get started.
Haven't had a chance to play with n64oid, I don't have any n64 games around anymore so I passed that one by.
About the stock ROM:
Horribly bloated, full of crap, loggers and other BS...you can find the info in a few threads around here.
If you decide to stick with the stock ROM, freeze, uninstall or kill the zipwhipgroups apk and also flash Undeadk9's security patch. Those two actions should close all known security flaws to date.
I've played with all the ROMs available, and they all offer something fun approaching the phone from different angles.
Play with them and i'm sure you'll find something (honestly...anything) better then the stock ROM.
My daily-driver keeps ending up being my own frankenstein, and once i'm basically out of a job when december hits i'm looking forward to mostly finishing it off.
Performance-wise the phone is fantastic. Even on the bloated bogged down stock ROM it still flies, and once you start flashing some of the more optimized ideas people have shared with us, you'll be even more impressed with it.
Make sure you hit up the battery thread floating around here to see why you should switch away from the stock HTC battery. I use an anker battery, and couldn't be happier - but you should see what siani_8 has to say about the Mugen batteries. Pricey, but apparently worth it. I found my anker battery for just a few bucks on amazon.
The stupid stock battery gets ( to quote another members apt description ) "Stupidly hot". Heat is death for a device like this, and whether you go with a mugen or anker, you should switch for sure if you're going to get into gaming or pushing the devices limits...otherwise you'll burn it up.
Just make sure to cruise through my backup thread, link in my sig, before you go flash happy. It'll probably make life easier for you in the long run, and it's a good review even if you're already familiar with it's contents.
Always happy to see new faces around, and you'll love the device. Best of luck!
Thank you all I read a lot about the battery issue. Considering getting one, but I might just run at 800mhz. I'm coming from a G1, and iPhone 3G. This thing fly's! But I'm having another issue, I can't root. Everything is set up right. But Rev. hangs on Zerging Root?? Or is it supposed to do that? I haven't rooted in a good 3 years. Any help is good help ;D
Also all the Emulators work, even the super buggy NDS one. I kept all my older games so I have the "Legal backup". But the games that needed the expansion pac run slow with sound on. But there on http://slideme.org/ if anybody want's them.
I'm a bit lost on performance with the MT4GS. In all my testing so far I have been getting my best benchmark score with stock rom and stock kernel without overclocking. I've tested with multpile benchmark apps and consistantly get lower scores using custom roms and kernels even while overclocked up to 1.7 Ghz. The whole thing has me baffled at this point. Using quadrant advanced I average 2100 range with all stock, compared to 1800 average using custom and overclocking. To add to my confusion, my original mytouch 4G with single core is averaging 2800 in quadrant while only overclocked to 1.1 Ghz.
I must be doing something wrong, by all rights the slide should be scoring much much higher.
Does anyone have any ideas why I'm getting my bizarre results?
Thanks much everyone.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk
Usually benchmark scores that are lower are better.
Not always, but in most cases this is true.
Quadrant didn't support dual-core processors, or well, or something if I remember right. I mostly ignored it when I was benchmarking things not long ago - wasn't working right on our phone.
Say what you like about Sense, I'm not a fan of proprietary junk either, but they have the camera right on this one. There's zero shutter lag, and the camera has the features and response of a mid priced point & shoot. It's one of the best cameras in any phone, and would sell for a nice price even if there were no phone attached. And that is largely because of the Sense framework on the back end.
Because of that, I highly recommend UndeadK9's Senseless ROM. This ROM is an AOSP themed ROM but he has kept the Sense framework on the back end, but only where it benefits us. He is very sensitive to issues with the ROM and responds to (i.e. usually fixes) them very quickly. And he posts on here as if he doesn't have a life.
If you use his ROM tip the man, he deserves it.
With quadrant i was getting better scores from my mytouch 4G, but if it is only using one core then the odd results make much more sense.
One thing that has had me confused is with custom roms and kernels on the slide, when I run benchmarks, my scores are about the same regardless of being overclocked or running stock.
Based on the scores, it looks like overclocking is having no effect. I can say that there are definitely performance increases with the slider regardless of what the benchmarks say.
I did try UndeadK9's new rubix rom, so far I'm very impressed.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk
Imo there is nothing wrong with the stock rom. It has very few bugs and my phone scores 4650 on antutu. I was one of the first people to get the phone, online pre, and I got the anker battery. The new security update from tmo also gave me better 4g signal. I have only three gripes with the phone.
1. It doesn't run at 1.5ghz which it is fully capable of
2. You can't name homescreen folders
3. There is no true favorites
If you want the phone just to run cm7 vanilla don't buy the phone and get a newer gx2
I'm struggling to get my head around this drastic difference in speed.
Stock ROM on linpack scores about 100Mflops on single thread, and 200Mflops on multi thread similar to this video at 2:50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh5quKyypw8
However since flashing CM10 my linpack scores have more than halved! I never get over 80Mflops now on multi thread, and rarely over 40Mflops on single thread. Also in quadrant it shows my cpu scoring really low, but my RAM scoring very high. I was wondering if my the ROMs are effecting my processor speeds?
I am about to go back to the stock ROM to see if linpack scores shoot back up!
If you don't notice a difference who cares about benchmark scores?
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using xda app-developers app
Well I do agree with what you are saying, and it still seems very fast. But I used it for less than a day on the stock ROM, so I don't really have anything to compare it to.
I am wondering more if these benchmarks are giving false readings, or if they are actually picking up on some poor processor optimisations, which whilst may not be noticeable day to day, could have a greater impact on CPU hungry tasks such as making and restoring large backups etc.
But benchmarks for the sake of benchmarks I agree are pointless.
RichardW1992 said:
Well I do agree with what you are saying, and it still seems very fast. But I used it for less than a day on the stock ROM, so I don't really have anything to compare it to.
I am wondering more if these benchmarks are giving false readings, or if they are actually picking up on some poor processor optimisations, which whilst may not be noticeable day to day, could have a greater impact on CPU hungry tasks such as making and restoring large backups etc.
But benchmarks for the sake of benchmarks I agree are pointless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I pretty much stopped using custom roms that aren't based on official sense based roms because of low benchmark numbers, questionable battery life and terrible camera support.
HTC has most if not all drivers for the hardware closed source, so developers are trying their best but I just use the stock ROM
RichardW1992 said:
Well I do agree with what you are saying, and it still seems very fast. But I used it for less than a day on the stock ROM, so I don't really have anything to compare it to.
I am wondering more if these benchmarks are giving false readings, or if they are actually picking up on some poor processor optimisations, which whilst may not be noticeable day to day, could have a greater impact on CPU hungry tasks such as making and restoring large backups etc.
But benchmarks for the sake of benchmarks I agree are pointless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your not getting false readings... That's just how it is.. Bench marks don't mean anything... Cm will always have a lower score than stock but is just as fast.. If your worried about scores flash a ROM based on sense ota...
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Hi XDA community!
I was doing research in to the current custom kernels available for our phone. Pretty much every kernel developer advertises their kernel as having improved performance and battery. One of the problems I found is that it is quite difficult to compare the performance and battery of kernels without trying it out for a week or so. I thought for the benefit of not only myself (who doesn't have time to test every kernel), but for the community that it would be helpful to have a thread that compares kernels.
Each post being a short comparison of at least 2 kernels should be sufficient. Performance, battery life, conditions (e.g. ROM, heavy user? non-gamer? etc. ) and special features (that set it apart)of a kernel would be good ways to compare them. Perhaps a quick rundown of your current kernel and why it suits your needs best could be good as well.
This is not a thread to tell me what you think the best kernel is. I believe that all custom kernels have their merit being somewhere on the balance between battery life and performance + a few features and suiting different people based on their needs.
Gonna reply to this thread I made a while ago after a bit of testing. I think it would be a good starting point for anyone who is indecisive with kernels.
Today I thought I'd compare 2 kernels that I've been using a fair bit recently. Both are based on S7 edge firmware, but have counterparts for S8 ROMs. The disclaimer is that I didn't have time to try every version of the kernels, nor will I promise that my experience will be the same as yours.
Tkkg1994's Superstock vs Farovitus' Notorious kernel
The competitors
Superstock kernel
Created by the famous developer of Superman, Superstock, Batman and Ironman ROMs.
Recommended by the developer himself over his other more modded kernel (Superkernel)
Stock Samsung values for CPU and GPU speed
Safety net green
Other performance/battery enhancements as laid out on his page https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development/kernel-superstock-v1-3-5-t3453462 and below in the special features section.
Notorious kernel
Most popular custom kernel (by thread activity and likes)
Under clocked cores
Safety net green
Comes underclocked: Big: 312-1872 small: 234-1586
stock value for CPU speed
Plenty of performance and battery tweaks outlined in his page https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7...orious-kernel-tw-dqd1-g93xx-g93xxd-3-t3600711 and below in the special features section.
They both sound pretty good, but it's the real life performance that matters right?
Versions used
I've used super stock 2.7.1 and 2.9 (the versions that came with superman ROM 2.6 and 2.7 respectively). 2.9 will be the one discussed today. I have found the performance quite similar between the 2 versions however.
I've used Notorious 1.9.1
Kernel Mods (that I used)
Both were kept very close to how the developers intended
I changed the to IO scheduler on Superstock to Zen
And I changed the internal IO scheduler on Notorious to Row, external to maple
Both I used Westwood TCP congestion control.
Both I kept with the stock governor (interactive)
no undervolt for notorious kernel
Conditions - my ROM and usage pattern
Superman ROM 2.7 with Magisk root
Debloated
Black theme, wallpaper and ui etc.
clock widget xperia running
Force doze with significant motion detector disabled
Greenify privileged mode (pretty much all social messaging apps greenified)
Magisk module to doze google play services
I turned off pretty much all the advanced features: smart alert, smart stay, don't turn on when dark etc.
Auto brightness on.
BT always on (connecting to car and smartwatch)
Location always on
4g, volte and viLTE on
WiFi off (I got plenty of data)
Charged to ~75% at night every day
Use was moderate. Involved BT audio on 15 minute drive to and from work. Variable tasks being done on phone: calls, texting, messaging (whatsapp, messenger lite), looking up internet, occasional remote desktop. 8-9hr day at work. Some messaging, calls, texting at home but less than at work.
No games on phone - I have a busy job and I have a PC, PS4 and WiiU.
Performance
Superstock has very good performance. Absolutely no lags. UI feels smooth and fluid. I don't game however.
Notorious feels smooth and snappy despite being quite underclocked. Developer sped up the boot animation fps. Maybe it's in my head (and therefore insignificant if any), but possibly a bit slower to start apps. No lags however. Again, I don't game on the phone.
Battery
Superstock
Very good battery. A fair bit better than stock. I could lose between 1-4% overnight (6-9hr sleep). Never bothered measuring SOT but the phone lost on average ~20-25% per day moderate use as outlined above.
Notorious
Excellent battery. On my off days, I found that notorious enters deep sleep faster than superstock leading to less idle drain. It also seems to drain battery slower when screen on. Would lose 1-3% over a 6-9hr sleep. Average day would use up about 12-17% battery moderate use as outlined above.
Special features
Superstock is a plain kernel that just works out of the box. Not many modding opportunities - can adjust clock speed within the stock range. No voltage change. Can use the 3 basic governors. conservative, interactive (stock), on demand. Can change IO scheduler and TCP congestion algorithm. Only notable feature is the safety net green. A few services disabled according to the developer, but that is about it.
Notorious is very customisable with mtweaks many governors to choose from (I only bother using interactive). Under/overvolt and under/overclock avaliable for CPUs. Under/overvolt and under/overclock available for GPU. Boeffla kernel wake lock blockers. IO scheduler change, TCP algorithm change. I changed very few settings, but it is also commonly undervolted. On the thread, people liked to use bluactive, impulse and relaxed governors rather than interactive. With Notorious, I found that undervolting didnt really increase battery life much and gave me the increased paranoia of silent corruption/ instability. I change the TCP and IO so that it theoretically optimises my user experience. Realistically, I found no difference compared to stock and it was more for my obssesive compulsive side.
Verdict
For a non-gamer like me who uses the phone for calling, messaging, internet, video, music notorious provides more than adequate performance with greater battery savings than superstock.
Superstock I'd imagine to have much greater performance under a big load. It was subjectively more responsive and faster when doing my low power tasks.
At the end if the day both were much better than stock for me in terms of battery. I'd say that Superstock would be more for performance and Notorious would be more for battery saving. Any questions or comments, ask away!
Eggleston11 said:
Gonna reply to this thread I made a while ago after a bit of testing. I think it would be a good starting point for anyone who is indecisive with kernels.
Today I thought I'd compare 2 kernels that I've been using a fair bit recently. Both are based on S7 edge firmware, but have counterparts for S8 ROMs. The disclaimer is that I didn't have time to try every version of the kernels, nor will I promise that my experience will be the same as yours.
Tkkg1994's Superstock vs Farovitus' Notorious kernel
The competitors
Superstock kernel
Created by the famous developer of Superman, Superstock, Batman and Ironman ROMs.
Recommended by the developer himself over his other more modded kernel (Superkernel)
Stock Samsung values for CPU and GPU speed
Safety net green
Other performance/battery enhancements as laid out on his page https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development/kernel-superstock-v1-3-5-t3453462 and below in the special features section.
Notorious kernel
Most popular custom kernel (by thread activity and likes)
Under clocked cores
Safety net green
Comes underclocked: Big: 312-1872 small: 234-1586
stock value for CPU speed
Plenty of performance and battery tweaks outlined in his page https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7...orious-kernel-tw-dqd1-g93xx-g93xxd-3-t3600711 and below in the special features section.
They both sound pretty good, but it's the real life performance that matters right?
Versions used
I've used super stock 2.7.1 and 2.9 (the versions that came with superman ROM 2.6 and 2.7 respectively). 2.9 will be the one discussed today. I have found the performance quite similar between the 2 versions however.
I've used Notorious 1.9.1
Kernel Mods (that I used)
Both were kept very close to how the developers intended
I changed the to IO scheduler on Superstock to Zen
And I changed the internal IO scheduler on Notorious to Row, external to maple
Both I used Westwood TCP congestion control.
Both I kept with the stock governor (interactive)
no undervolt for notorious kernel
Conditions - my ROM and usage pattern
Superman ROM 2.7 with Magisk root
Debloated
Black theme, wallpaper and ui etc.
clock widget xperia running
Force doze with significant motion detector disabled
Greenify privileged mode (pretty much all social messaging apps greenified)
Magisk module to doze google play services
I turned off pretty much all the advanced features: smart alert, smart stay, don't turn on when dark etc.
Auto brightness on.
BT always on (connecting to car and smartwatch)
Location always on
4g, volte and viLTE on
WiFi off (I got plenty of data)
Charged to ~75% at night every day
Use was moderate. Involved BT audio on 15 minute drive to and from work. Variable tasks being done on phone: calls, texting, messaging (whatsapp, messenger lite), looking up internet, occasional remote desktop. 8-9hr day at work. Some messaging, calls, texting at home but less than at work.
No games on phone - I have a busy job and I have a PC, PS4 and WiiU.
Performance
Superstock has very good performance. Absolutely no lags. UI feels smooth and fluid. I don't game however.
Notorious feels smooth and snappy despite being quite underclocked. Developer sped up the boot animation fps. Maybe it's in my head (and therefore insignificant if any), but possibly a bit slower to start apps. No lags however. Again, I don't game on the phone.
Battery
Superstock
Very good battery. A fair bit better than stock. I could lose between 1-4% overnight (6-9hr sleep). Never bothered measuring SOT but the phone lost on average ~20-25% per day moderate use as outlined above.
Notorious
Excellent battery. On my off days, I found that notorious enters deep sleep faster than superstock leading to less idle drain. It also seems to drain battery slower when screen on. Would lose 1-3% over a 6-9hr sleep. Average day would use up about 12-17% battery moderate use as outlined above.
Special features
Superstock is a plain kernel that just works out of the box. Not many modding opportunities - can adjust clock speed within the stock range. No voltage change. Can use the 3 basic governors. conservative, interactive (stock), on demand. Can change IO scheduler and TCP congestion algorithm. Only notable feature is the safety net green. A few services disabled according to the developer, but that is about it.
Notorious is very customisable with mtweaks many governors to choose from (I only bother using interactive). Under/overvolt and under/overclock avaliable for CPUs. Under/overvolt and under/overclock available for GPU. Boeffla kernel wake lock blockers. IO scheduler change, TCP algorithm change. I changed very few settings, but it is also commonly undervolted. On the thread, people liked to use bluactive, impulse and relaxed governors rather than interactive. With Notorious, I found that undervolting didnt really increase battery life much and gave me the increased paranoia of silent corruption/ instability. I change the TCP and IO so that it theoretically optimises my user experience. Realistically, I found no difference compared to stock and it was more for my obssesive compulsive side.
Verdict
For a non-gamer like me who uses the phone for calling, messaging, internet, video, music notorious provides more than adequate performance with greater battery savings than superstock.
Superstock I'd imagine to have much greater performance under a big load. It was subjectively more responsive and faster when doing my low power tasks.
At the end if the day both were much better than stock for me in terms of battery. I'd say that Superstock would be more for performance and Notorious would be more for battery saving. Any questions or comments, ask away!
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Click to collapse
Hello,
Thank you for the very detailed review. :good:
May I ask how did you flash the notorius kernel ?
Did you installed the Superman ROM and then reflash the kernel over it ?
Thank you. :fingers-crossed:
Tqhao94 said:
Hello,
Thank you for the very detailed review. :good:
May I ask how did you flash the notorius kernel ?
Did you installed the Superman ROM and then reflash the kernel over it ?
Thank you. :fingers-crossed:
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Click to collapse
Glad I'ts helping someone choose, cos I was very on and off abuot which one i wanted until i actually did the tests.
This is not the right forum to post this lol. This is meant to be about kernel reviews. The notorious kernel forum itself however isnt very clear.
It's just simply installing via twrp. dont forget to clear davlik/art cache after installation. Also, you need to flash root afterwards. I recommend you dont flash the root that the kernel comes with and to flash the root separately as there have been some bugs regarding that and also so that you can get the most up to date root.
Eggleston11 said:
Glad I'ts helping someone choose, cos I was very on and off abuot which one i wanted until i actually did the tests.
This is not the right forum to post this lol. This is meant to be about kernel reviews. The notorious kernel forum itself however isnt very clear.
It's just simply installing via twrp. dont forget to clear davlik/art cache after installation. Also, you need to flash root afterwards. I recommend you dont flash the root that the kernel comes with and to flash the root separately as there have been some bugs regarding that and also so that you can get the most up to date root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That discussion was very helping but the question the i have is that i am a heavy gamer and most of my battery drain is caused due to games... which one would u suggest for better gaming battery life from the above mentioned?
Xial Xahab said:
That discussion was very helping but the question the i have is that i am a heavy gamer and most of my battery drain is caused due to games... which one would u suggest for better gaming battery life from the above mentioned?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally speaking this depends on the performance you need. If you can get your games to run sufficiently fast underclocked like on notorious, it will improve your battery life more just like it does in general. If it's too slow that way you'll have to see if super helps over stock. You could also try notorious and up the clock to more stock values but test out undervolting on it (as mentioned that does pose some risk) and see if your particular chip can be stable at a nice undervolt. Undervolting at high clocks can potentially save you a lot of battery life, but it depends on whether your chip is a "good" one or not.
Flandry said:
Generally speaking this depends on the performance you need. If you can get your games to run sufficiently fast underclocked like on notorious, it will improve your battery life more just like it does in general. If it's too slow that way you'll have to see if super helps over stock. You could also try notorious and up the clock to more stock values but test out undervolting on it (as mentioned that does pose some risk) and see if your particular chip can be stable at a nice undervolt. Undervolting at high clocks can potentially save you a lot of battery life, but it depends on whether your chip is a "good" one or not.
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Click to collapse
Yep agreed => try games out on notorious. if they can work well on low clock speed, then keep it. Trying speeds between stock and notorious can work if the games are too laggy. Stock values may be necessary depending on what games you are using.
Undervolt may also help to improve performance while at lower clock speeds a less heat generated. Less voltage does also theoretically mean less power used. I have found the difference in battery life and heat with underclock to be quite insignificant. People calculate it to be 2-5% less power used. Given notorious already uses less than 1% per hour on average use for me. It means i'll be saving at best 5% of 1% so 0.02% per hour. Not much power saved and not worth in my opinion given the side effects.
Eggleston11 said:
Undervolt may also help to improve performance while at lower clock speeds a less heat generated. Less voltage does also theoretically mean less power used. I have found the difference in battery life and heat with underclock to be quite insignificant. People calculate it to be 2-5% less power used. Given notorious already uses less than 1% per hour on average use for me. It means i'll be saving at best 5% of 1% so 0.02% per hour. Not much power saved and not worth in my opinion given the side effects.
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Click to collapse
The key is to undervolt during gaming, not idle. Undervolt can give exponentially more power savings at high clock speed. I agree it's not going to help for low clock speed and isn't usually worth the risk to corruption. With my Nokia N900 (back when you actually had to milk out all the MHz you could just to get 3D games on a phone, or in my case MAMEing arcades i could greatly increase gaming time when i dropped the volts for the highest CPU frequencies.
I appreciate your careful review of the two kernels. I'm still trying to figure out the ROM jungle for my new S7 Edge. Are these kernel and ROMs you are talking about snapdragon compatible or it this thread purely in exynos territory?
Flandry said:
The key is to undervolt during gaming, not idle. Undervolt can give exponentially more power savings at high clock speed. I agree it's not going to help for low clock speed and isn't usually worth the risk to corruption. With my Nokia N900 (back when you actually had to milk out all the MHz you could just to get 3D games on a phone, or in my case MAMEing arcades i could greatly increase gaming time when i dropped the volts for the highest CPU frequencies.
I appreciate your careful review of the two kernels. I'm still trying to figure out the ROM jungle for my new S7 Edge. Are these kernel and ROMs you are talking about snapdragon compatible or it this thread purely in exynos territory?
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Click to collapse
Agreed that the ~5% savings would translate to a greater amount of power saved during gaming in theory. I dont personally game on my phone, so your experience on this is better than mine haha.
I have the G935F. As far as I understand these kernels are for Exynos only. Good luck if you are searching for a good development scene with the snapdragon version. There are a few ROMs and Kernels i think. I have no idea about quality.