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Anyone using "performance" scaling for daily use while overclocked at 1.5 ghz?

Anyone using "performance" scaling for daily use while overclocked at 1.5 ghz?
If so what its your experience? Battery, stability, heat, force closes,...?
I just rooted and overclocked last nite and it is great, but Iam a little hesitant to go full "performance" for daily use. I love the speed but apprehend some risk. What is your experience?

Performance governor isn't really "scaling." In *nix OSes, performance governor just runs it at the maximum speed 100% of the time. There's usually absolutely no point in doing this.
If you're concerned with the performance of "on demand," just turn the "sampling rate" down in SetCPU's Advanced Tab. On my Nexus S, I find 30,000us with an 85% up threshold to be the best balance between battery life and performance.
Basically, just play around with the settings a bit. Performance is generally not the way to go, unless you're benchmarking.

Setting up treshold can be very important to make the device respond faster. I use 70% on my desktop Ubuntu because the default value (95%, definitely too high!) caused problems with HD movies.

[Q] SetCPU governors and best frquencies

Hey guys, i just rooted my phone, flashed LBC Mod 0.5.1 and installed SetCPU. I'm completely new to this and i tried googling about the governors, but couldn't understand a word. Now my question is - what do they do? Also, what are the best frequencies?

Basically put, a governor determines how quickly your CPU speed changes between your minimum and maximum frequency settings.
For example, try setting it to conservative. This will make the changes quite slowly, and you'll notice quite a bit of lag between home-screen and when scrolling quickly through lists. It will take a few seconds to realise you are putting more demand on the device and adjust the CPU frequency accordingly.
I think conservative is the slowest, and really only useful for low battery profiles. At the other end of the scale is 'Performance' which simply keeps your CPU maxed out at your top setting all the time. I can't recommend this one. Only really good for intensive games, but I think the Desire S can cope fine with any out there at the minute. This one will drink battery and cause your phone to run hot.
The best balance of reacting quickly and not interfering with performance or draining battery is the 'smartass' one, although some people prefer the 'ondemand' one.
I haven't a Scooby-do what 'userspace' does. I think it is for when you have another program to control CPU speed that reacts to parameters other than demand. Can anyone else confirm?
Try 'smartass' and 'ondemand' and see which you prefer for performance v battery life.
Edit: The best speed is up to you. I would not recommend going over 1.5GHz even if the kernel supports it. Your phone will not live very long. Personally I am waiting until an application comes along that requires I up the speed to run it properly. Everything I have thrown at it so far has been dealt with well leaving the CPU at 1GHz.
If you feel the need, when changing CPU speeds, do so in small steps. Don't just max out the slider. Find what is best for you with small adjustments. Your phone will become unstable if pushed too far.
The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.

@wnp_79
I hope that that lot goes into the new edition of your guide!

ben_pyett said:
@wnp_79
I hope that that lot goes into the new edition of your guide!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it just may do! I am thinking about doing an entire section simply for S-Off & rooted users, but I'm waiting to see what happens with this AlphaRev business first. Then the safe S-Off procedure can be included in the guide which is aimed at newcomers. Then we get them flashing ROMs!
Would do a separate one for more advanced users, problem is I'm still learning this stuff myself too.

Personally I’ve come to realize that 1.2~1.3 is the best top CPU speed for my usage. I do not play games but use internet a lot and generally interact intensively with the phone within the day. Only other profiles I have set is for screen off and <16% battery. Scaling is set on-demand.

245 ... 1200 MHz
smartass govenour
- good performance
- excellent battery life
- snappy from the verry start (lock screen) thanks smartass
profiles for
- bat<30%
- temp>40°C

axelpix said:
245 ... 1200 MHz
smartass govenour
- good performance
- excellent battery life
- snappy from the verry start (lock screen) thanks smartass
profiles for
- bat<30%
- temp>40°C
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried the latest version of LBC ROM (v0.5.2) which has the new O/C Daemon? if yes, then what did you think when compared to setCPU.
I previously used settings through setCPU very similar to those you've written above (although I had a slightly lower top end) but, I didn't find it as snappy from the lock screen when compared to the new Daemon that comes within the Unity kernel, which I did have initial reservations about.....but can only see it getting better over time.

SetCPU with smartass feels faster to me. Absolutely no lag on lockscreen. You must not have a screen off profile. Or at least not one with a different governor.
Yes, the new OC daemon is a nice approach, but needs some interface to configure. Currently there's no way to have profiles for battery or temperature.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App

I use ondemand and have the screen off profile set into the 400Mhz Max, to allow for house keeping and music playback, that's it!

axelpix said:
SetCPU with smartass feels faster to me. Absolutely no lag on lockscreen. You must not have a screen off profile. Or at least not one with a different governor.
Yes, the new OC daemon is a nice approach, but needs some interface to configure. Currently there's no way to have profiles for battery or temperature.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA App
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Your right when I used setCPU my screen off profile was conservative, although the author of the daemon has promised a set CPU like gui to come, so lets hope that s soon and comes with some profile options (just charging, battery and temp profiles would do)
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA Premium App

I have used SetCpu with only smartass governor for a few days, compared to both smartass governor and screen-off profile(all 245MHz with ondemand).
I found it is more battery saving on both smartass governor and screen-off profile(lowest freq.). The reason is that the lowest freq.(245MHz) have been selected much more times according to the cpu used freq. stastics in SetCpu info menu.
I guess the auto screen-off profile in smartass governor may not work well or stable. so if I explicitly setup a screen-off profile with the lowest freq., the lowest freq. will be selected restrictly when screen-off.
Sorry for my poor english and hope u all know what I said.

ben_pyett said:
Your right when I used setCPU my screen off profile was conservative, although the author of the daemon has promised a set CPU like gui to come, so lets hope that s soon and comes with some profile options (just charging, battery and temp profiles would do)
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA Premium App
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Click to collapse
Ditto. I too want a GUI for easy use of the daemon. Until that comes, I'm using SetCPU.

allen oddest said:
I have used SetCpu with only smartass governor for a few days, compared to both smartass governor and screen-off profile(all 245MHz with ondemand).
I found it is more battery saving on both smartass governor and screen-off profile(lowest freq.). The reason is that the lowest freq.(245MHz) have been selected much more times according to the cpu used freq. stastics in SetCpu info menu.
I guess the auto screen-off profile in smartass governor may not work well or stable. so if I explicitly setup a screen-off profile with the lowest freq., the lowest freq. will be selected restrictly when screen-off.
Sorry for my poor english and hope u all know what I said.
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Hm, on my device smartass always puts back to 245MHz in ScreenOff mode.

axelpix said:
Hm, on my device smartass always puts back to 245MHz in ScreenOff mode.
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Remember that the phone needs to run @ a certain frequency to keep itself running even when the screen is off. Although Set CPU resetting itself is a new one on me. Have you ticked "run at boot"?

Overclocking / Underclocking

either with setcpu or voltage control...would someone care to just explain how to use these apps.
I understand the governers, and I understand the min / max.
So If I bump that max up to 1400 or even 1600 and leave the minimum down...what exactly does that do?
If paired with on demand does it mean it will use as much processor as it needs to perform a task all the way up to the max of what I have it set to?
also, the thing that seems to confuse me mostly are the individual sliders you can adjust per frequency.
I know this is broad question, but I was just hoping someone wouldnt mind explaining this to me as best as possible...or at least dumb it down for me.
I have googled and searched, and really havent found clear answers to me personally to understand it.
thanks

I personally use voltage control extreme.
In regards to the individual sliders you speak of, I believe that those control how many volts the phone uses at each particular frequency. You don't want to turn the voltages down too low/high though because you can freeze your phone and have other problems.
I use the "conservative" governor and seem to get the best battery life with it.
By overclocking to 1400 or 1600 it allows for your phone to run applications, videos, etc. smoother, by using the remaining cpu capabilities of the phone's hardware. The drawbacks of overclocking are that it sucks the battery very quickly, it can cause the cpu to overheat, and can also decrease the life of the processor.
Hope that helps some!

So what is a safe top end? To run on a daily basis.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App

Every CPU is different, some will handle OC better than others. It all comes down to what is stable for you. Also, it isn't overclocking that decreases the life of the processor, but overvolting. Just set the voltages as low as possible while maintaining stability, test using a benchmarking app. Also, ondemand is the best choice of governor IMO.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App

Perpetrator said:
Every CPU is different, some will handle OC better than others. It all comes down to what is stable for you. Also, it isn't overclocking that decreases the life of the processor, but overvolting. Just set the voltages as low as possible while maintaining stability, test using a benchmarking app. Also, ondemand is the best choice of governor IMO.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App[/QUO
But doesn't overclocking cause the phone to heat up? I suppose it also depends on what temperature the phone is rated to safely run at too though doesn't it? Cause with increased temperatures I am pretty sure the processor's life could be impacted. But that is probably only if you overclock for a extended period of time.
I would suggest staying at 1.2 for daily use, but if you are doing something that requires a little more cpu you can just bump it up until you don't need it anymore.
Just my 2 cents worth.
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I know that some ppl OC to 1.6 with ondemand gov and use that as a stable setting... others report problems, FCs, ... think it depends on individual phone.
Some stay at 1.4 to be cautious...
The UV section is where I hear a lot of dissenting opinion. Some say -100 across the board gives best battery/stability... others say voltage should be high toward 1600 and UV more as you approach lower frequencies... personally I find that a graduated setup is best but I am not an expert.
Just sayin' what I've read here.

CPU Freq: How do you keep yours?

This is a question I've never seen asked, but it's an important one. What are you phones CPU Freqs? What Govs do they have, and what Profiles do you use?
Rom: PyroIce
Main: 192 Min, 918 Max. OnDemand.
Screen Off: 192 Min, 384 Max. PowerSave.
InCall: 192 Min, 540 Max. Interactive.
Time 11pm-7am: 192Min/Max Powersave.
Sent from my HTC myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk

that's cool, i might start using profiles again. from fiddling around i've noticed the difference between the ondemand and conservative governors- with ondemand, the processor seems to go from min. to all the way to max. and back down to min, and doesn't use the middle frequencies as much, while on conservative, the processor doesn't shoot up to max. as easily and seems to meander thru the middle frequencies a lot more. it makes sense too, because i've noticed that the phone seems snappier with ondemand.
i noticed you're using some of the others... i'll have to check them out as well.

ondemand
Available in most kernels, and the default governor in most kernels. When the CPU load reaches a certain point (see "up threshold" in Advanced Settings), ondemand will rapidly scale the CPU up to meet demand, then gradually scale the CPU down when it isn't needed. - SetCPU website
conservative
Available in some kernels. It is similar to the ondemand governor, but will scale the CPU up more gradually to better fit demand. Conservative provides a less responsive experience than ondemand, but can save battery. - SetCPU website
performance
Available in most kernels. It will keep the CPU running at the "max" set value at all times. This is a bit more efficient than simply setting "max" and "min" to the same value and using ondemand because the system will not waste resources scanning for the CPU load. This governor is recommended for stable benchmarking. - SetCPU website
powersave
Available in some kernels. It will keep the CPU running at the "min" set value at all times. - SetCPU website
userspace
A method for controlling the CPU speed that isn't currently used by SetCPU. For best results, do not use the userspace governor. - SetCPU website
Interactive
The 'interactive' governor has a different approach. Instead of sampling the cpu
at a specified rate, the governor will scale the cpu frequency up when coming
out of idle. When the cpu comes out of idle, a timer is configured to fire
within 1-2 ticks. If the cpu is 100% busy from exiting idle to when the timer
fires then we assume the cpu is underpowered and ramp to MAX speed.
If the cpu was not 100% busy, then the governor evaluates the cpu load over the
last 'min_sample_rate' (default 50000 uS) to determine the cpu speed to ramp down
to

so, I bought set cpu about 3 phones ago, but I never really saw a differnence, can it be used with the stock kernel?

yellowjacket1981 said:
so, I bought set cpu about 3 phones ago, but I never really saw a differnence, can it be used with the stock kernel?
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Yeah Plus there's a huge difference with the Battery. I you use my CPU Settings, you should gain 3 hours Min on your phone. Also dropping the CPU in call is great, helps for longer calls and less overheating. If your S-Off you should use a custom kernel. UV Kernels are great.

AgentCherryColla said:
Yeah Plus there's a huge difference with the Battery. I you use my CPU Settings, you should gain 3 hours Min on your phone. Also dropping the CPU in call is great, helps for longer calls and less overheating. If your S-Off you should use a custom kernel. UV Kernels are great.
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I actually just got an uv kernel, I am about to flash it, I will use your settings too, thanks.

yellowjacket1981 said:
I actually just got an uv kernel, I am about to flash it, I will use your settings too, thanks.
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If you run a Sense 3.6 Rom, boost the CPU to 1Ghz. 918Mhz Lags.
Sent from my HTC myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk

yellowjacket1981 said:
so, I bought set cpu about 3 phones ago, but I never really saw a differnence, can it be used with the stock kernel?
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Click to collapse
Yes.
You cannot use anything the kernel doesn't already serve as an option, though.
SetCPU doesn't create options - it allows you user-level access to the ones already existing.
Normally you have no control over your clock speed but with it you can...say... limit the maximum clock speed to only be two-thirds of the stock speed.
Since it doesn't ramp up all the way, it doesn't drain as much power.
If you are playing games and stuff that needs a lot of resources, then the slower clock speeds cost you battery since it takes more effort to get the same work done. But if you don't do much with your phone, and don't need a lot of high-end CPU ability, why let it run flat out?
You can also set it to be like that only sometimes, and maximize battery savings by telling your device to chill out when it doesn't have to be awesome.
Now, if you get into custom kernels where you or a dev has opened up more options, SetCPU will again give you user level control over them.
Especially once you get into overclocking beyond manufacturer(s) recommendations, not having some end-user level control over the processor like this is irresponsible.
If you think I run a 1.7 or 1.9 or 1.5+anything on the device flat-out balls-to-the-wall all the time, I would ask you if you drive your car with the gas pedal smashed to the floor all the time. (it's a fitting analogy)
No, again, that would be irresponsible abuse of the hardware for no good reason.
If not SetCPU, then there would be something else to use, but SetCPU is a great interface that not only works well but is maintaned within the XDA community by a member here.
I will always go for the XDA community member version of any app first - it's usually a problem solved from a perspective very near the way I am perceiving the issue, supports the community, and is always easier to find help on if necessary.
What's even cooler is SetCPU is given away free by the dev to XDA members.
I did go ahead and buy it anyway to support the dev. It is a fantastic tool at my disposal, and I have come to realize just how much time and energy goes into making this kind of stuff.
Beyond all that, though, there are a ton of crap apps and software out there slapped together by people who don't care or didn't put the right level of effort into their work. When I find something that actually works and works well after sifting through a sea of garbage, if there is a paid version of the app i'll usually buy it not only as a thank you but also to encourage that particular person to keep working. They - unlike many, many others (in my opinion) earned it.
I know i'm drifting off topic a bit, sorry for that - I just really appreciate quality work and SetCPU falls in with that crowd nicely.
Even without a custom kernel providing options beyond stock, there is still a lot of value this app can hold for anyone with root level access to their device.

Blue6IX said:
If you are playing games and stuff that needs a lot of resources, then the slower clock speeds cost you battery since it takes more effort to get the same work done.
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Is this true? in my mind, I feel like it will take longer/not be as smooth, but wouldn't necessarily be worse for battery than a higher clock speed.

On a one-for-one comparison it leans more towards an even playing field, until you add that it's a dual-core processor and it very heavily skews the results towards less battery at higher clock speeds for complex operations.
Faster CPU speeds process the actions more quickly, and when you have to crunch a lot of numbers real quick like you do for most games the higher clock speed (especially on the dual core we are using) will complete the act with less power used. It is able to keep up with and/or outpace the flow of data being thrown at it.
If you are just using a notepad or browsing some forums maybe...sending a few texts? Then the higher clock speeds show a negative return on battery usage - you don't need it and it's wasteful.
But when the data has to stay buffered because the CPU is taking it's time working with it, not only is there more electricity consumed by keeping the processor alive longer but also the juice spent on keeping the data buffered.
The data computed is the same data computed at any speed (unless you lose data along the way...) but the power spent on completing that operation is not equal - not by a long shot.
On single core older processors where you are talking about a couple hundred megahertz one way or another the equation is much different, significantly diminshed returns on electricity invested, but with higher quality and multi-core processors especially they can cut through the data with significant ease when sufficiently powered.
But this is on processor intensive activities, and gaming is the first thing that comes to mind. For most other use of the device it's worth underclocking it and you will see battery gains.

what to use for overclocking?

i use setcpu (and i believe i actually bought the donate version)...but lately, i've been seeing people recommended against using setcpu.
any reasoning for this? and what is the preferred alternative?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

I've used SetCPU since my phone. Work fine for me, no problems.
If it's working good for you don't worry too much

^what he said.
setCPU works fine for me too. I use it to change cpu speed when I am doing benchmarks and I haven't seen anything that indicates setCPU isn't working correctly.

I will say though, that I can OC my TF and I can't really notice a difference from just running at 1 GHZ...But I do see a difference in battery life.
So bottom line, I just leave it at stock speed and enjoy.

I use Systune app (also, lets you modify "nice" settings, io, etc), advanced test's over SetCpu demonstrated it's not optimized for sleep/awake schedules, so do not use it for sleep/awake frequencies

Setcpu works fine for me! I have used it on a Herotab C8 and some other phones.

nothrills is what I have switched to from setcpu as I didn't like when setcpu changed their interface.

I use No-frills CPU control and it works quite nice. It allows you to set min/max frequency, I/O scheduler as well as your governor. I use min 312, max 1600, I/O noop, and Ondemand for my governor and it runs quite fast! Ondemand, however, does increase your battery consumption but it is geared more for performance than battery life. Interactive also seems to be a good mix of performance and battery usage but I tend to go for pure, unadulterated power! ;-P...well...that would be the "performance" governor but...Ondemand is more practical :-D

Using no frills here. Simple and effective.