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[Q] Overclocking and voltage control

Can someone point me to where I can learn how to use set cpu and set voltage properly. Just installed superotimized kernel and wondering how to take full advantage of it

p4ranoid4ndroid said:
Can someone point me to where I can learn how to use set cpu and set voltage properly. Just installed superotimized kernel and wondering how to take full advantage of it
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overclocking is pre-enabled, under volting can be done through an app the link is in the thread. there are 2 settings. try about -50v each if that works fine bump one down to -75mv at a time. test the phone over a day or two and see how it runs, see if it has sleep death after a few periods of inactivity, especially extended periods, see if it has sleep death while charging, which seems to make a difference that will test the low setting.
see if the phone shuts down without freezing, and see if it shuts down without freezing while charging, the heat in the battery makes a big difference, play some 3d games. if you have freezing issues you can disable overclocking under different situation with set cpu or se t the volts to a more conservative setting.

Dani897 said:
overclocking is pre-enabled, under volting can be done through an app the link is in the thread. there are 2 settings. try about -50v each if that works fine bump one down to -75mv at a time. test the phone over a day or two and see how it runs, see if it has sleep death after a few periods of inactivity, especially extended periods, see if it has sleep death while charging, which seems to make a difference that will test the low setting.
see if the phone shuts down without freezing, and see if it shuts down without freezing while charging, the heat in the battery makes a big difference, play some 3d games. if you have freezing issues you can disable overclocking under different situation with set cpu or se t the volts to a more conservative setting.
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I've been told that undervolting can improve the battery time. Of course, lots of varying opinions of how good/bad it may be to overclock.
If I want to just undervolt, is that possible with SetCPU?

Dani897 said:
overclocking is pre-enabled, under volting can be done through an app the link is in the thread. there are 2 settings. try about -50v each if that works fine bump one down to -75mv at a time. test the phone over a day or two and see how it runs, see if it has sleep death after a few periods of inactivity, especially extended periods, see if it has sleep death while charging, which seems to make a difference that will test the low setting.
see if the phone shuts down without freezing, and see if it shuts down without freezing while charging, the heat in the battery makes a big difference, play some 3d games. if you have freezing issues you can disable overclocking under different situation with set cpu or se t the volts to a more conservative setting.
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ewingr said:
I've been told that undervolting can improve the battery time. Of course, lots of varying opinions of how good/bad it may be to overclock.
If I want to just undervolt, is that possible with SetCPU?
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Interesting stuff...
I too would like to know if it is possible to simply under-volt. Does anyone know the optimal settings for SetCpu with the Captivate...or does it vary depending on each users profile/ phones?

So Ive been playing around with various settings for set cpu and voltage control and all has been well so far. The only problem im having is voltage control seems broke. I try to open the all but it just black screens. I tried to clear the memory and unistall and reinstall and still have the same problem. Any ideas?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=432086&d=1288709102
^you can under volt setirons kernel and disable overclocking with this app.
i find my battery life to be less than stock with this kernel, i need to see if it is a common issue, maybe because it is not a captivate kernel. but in the past with unhelpfuls kernel for 2.1 battery life was awesome.

spartan062984 said:
Interesting stuff...
I too would like to know if it is possible to simply under-volt. Does anyone know the optimal settings for SetCpu with the Captivate...or does it vary depending on each users profile/ phones?
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It's going to depend on the individual CPU in your phone. Your best result is to start at a given clock speed and begin lowering voltage in the smallest step possible, test for stability, repeat until you begin to notice instability (or you just run out of voltage options). You can just undervolt without increasing clock speed any, or you can not undervolt yet raise clock speed, or you can overclock and undervolt, depending on how your particular chip reacts. Some might need additional voltage to stabilize the snapdragon at 1.2Ghz while others (mine for example) is stable Able @ -100mV and 1.2Ghz. Overclocking silicon is the ultimate in YMMV.
Another thing to bear in mind is that increasing clock speed necessarily increases power consumption. There is no way around this. So a chip at 1.2Ghz will use more juice than 1Ghz even with the same voltage. It's difficult to say at this point whether, say, the Snapdragon @ 1.2Ghz and -100mV uses more or less power than the same chip @1Ghz and stock voltage. It's absolutely possible that the former uses more power, which would explain why you see at least one claim here of battery life decreasing even when voltage settings are left untouched.

hawkeyefan said:
It's going to depend on the individual CPU in your phone. Your best result is to start at a given clock speed and begin lowering voltage in the smallest step possible, test for stability, repeat until you begin to notice instability (or you just run out of voltage options). You can just undervolt without increasing clock speed any, or you can not undervolt yet raise clock speed, or you can overclock and undervolt, depending on how your particular chip reacts. Some might need additional voltage to stabilize the snapdragon at 1.2Ghz while others (mine for example) is stable Able @ -100mV and 1.2Ghz. Overclocking silicon is the ultimate in YMMV.
Another thing to bear in mind is that increasing clock speed necessarily increases power consumption. There is no way around this. So a chip at 1.2Ghz will use more juice than 1Ghz even with the same voltage. It's difficult to say at this point whether, say, the Snapdragon @ 1.2Ghz and -100mV uses more or less power than the same chip @1Ghz and stock voltage. It's absolutely possible that the former uses more power, which would explain why you see at least one claim here of battery life decreasing even when voltage settings are left untouched.
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Thanks for clarifying Hawkeye! I will report back on in a few days once i have tested out a few profiles. In my opinion, I feel that it is best to leave Over-clocking at default and maximize battery utilization with setcpu. However, the thought of over-clocking the Dragon beast is VERY tempting. Who wouldn't? I will definitely check out the differences when playing games and such.

spartan062984 said:
Thanks for clarifying Hawkeye! I will report back on in a few days once i have tested out a few profiles. In my opinion, I feel that it is best to leave Over-clocking at default and maximize battery utilization with setcpu. However, the thought of over-clocking the Dragon beast is VERY tempting. Who wouldn't? I will definitely check out the differences when playing games and such.
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I have to tell you, I'm not personally very fond of SetCPU on this device, even though I paid for the app (ugh). With raspdeep's voltage control app and SetIron's OC/UV kernel, the CPU defaults to 1.2Ghz at stock voltage, which for a basic setup is fine. Voltage Control app is phenomenal for adjusting in increments of 25mv at a time...one setting is for high clocks (1Ghz - 1.2Ghz) and the other is for < 1Ghz. It's probably best actually to start with the lower clock setting in Voltage Control, as your phone will spend the lion's share of it's time at those clocks and so that is where you should see the most gain in battery life. My only gripe is that I can't get the boot settings to stick on the Captivate so I have to go in and adjust them each time I reboot the phone. no biggie there.
SetCPU, on the other hand, has caused me loads of problems in the past, including causing the phone not to wake up from sleep and just atrocious battery life, I assume from constantly polling the CPU clock to measure clock speed. I have not experienced any of that with Overclock Widget, but I also don't use any of the independent clockspeed controls in the app...basically it's just a widget to display clock speed the way I use it. Otherwise, Setiron's kernel gives the 200mhz overclock and I just let the Hummingbird deal with changing clocks on its own. Jmo, but it works for me with no resulting battery drain beyond the additional I expect as a result of the extra 200mhz.
edit: whoops, long day. hummingbird in my post from above, not snapdragon. I need a drinky poo.

hawkeyefan said:
I have to tell you, I'm not personally very fond of SetCPU on this device, even though I paid for the app (ugh). With raspdeep's voltage control app and SetIron's OC/UV kernel, the CPU defaults to 1.2Ghz at stock voltage, which for a basic setup is fine. Voltage Control app is phenomenal for adjusting in increments of 25mv at a time...one setting is for high clocks (1Ghz - 1.2Ghz) and the other is for < 1Ghz. It's probably best actually to start with the lower clock setting in Voltage Control, as your phone will spend the lion's share of it's time at those clocks and so that is where you should see the most gain in battery life. My only gripe is that I can't get the boot settings to stick on the Captivate so I have to go in and adjust them each time I reboot the phone. no biggie there.
SetCPU, on the other hand, has caused me loads of problems in the past, including causing the phone not to wake up from sleep and just atrocious battery life, I assume from constantly polling the CPU clock to measure clock speed. I have not experienced any of that with Overclock Widget, but I also don't use any of the independent clockspeed controls in the app...basically it's just a widget to display clock speed the way I use it. Otherwise, Setiron's kernel gives the 200mhz overclock and I just let the Hummingbird deal with changing clocks on its own. Jmo, but it works for me with no resulting battery drain beyond the additional I expect as a result of the extra 200mhz.
edit: whoops, long day. hummingbird in my post from above, not snapdragon. I need a drinky poo.
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LOL. No Worries. I myself made the same mistake. I thought something was odd with my post. SnapDragon...Hummingbird....Bulbasaur.....I knew what you meant. lol

Still not having any luck with the voltage control app. Ive tried flashing different roms to see if it would work. I undervolted it to 100/75 the first time i did it and now i cant change. Only a little worried

i guess there was an issue with the set on boot scripts not working. supposedly that is fixed, i dont know for sure though, i haven't updated.

From what I'm gathering, in order to undervolt, you must have a kernel to su pport that, for example Setirons.
I'm not necessarily interested in overclocking, as it performs well as is. Of course there are arguments that overclocking may ultimately harm the phone, and arguments that by the time that happens, you'd be ready for a new phone. In any event, if I start getting slower, I may interest in overclocking.
Does anyone know if dramatic improvement in battery performance with underclocking?

I've noticed quite a bit of a difference, just pretty difficult to tune it precisely. (Coming from a person who enjoys overclocking computers a little too much). I just wish there was an app that would test each frequency and then let you know which one failed (without having to manually set it).

[Q] My device keeps powering off when the I put the screen to sleep.

For some reason since this morning after a full night of charging everytime my screen goes to sleep or I pus the power button to put the screen to sleep the device completely powers off. Last night I did flash infusion to oc/uv but had several issues and just kept the the device clocked at 12k and did slight uv. Im using setcpu and have a profile setup for screen off but I disabled in hopes to remedy the total poweroff. Any suggestions? How can infusion be removed?

supadupadoug said:
For some reason since this morning after a full night of charging everytime my screen goes to sleep or I pus the power button to put the screen to sleep the device completely powers off. Last night I did flash infusion to oc/uv but had several issues and just kept the the device clocked at 12k and did slight uv. Im using setcpu and have a profile setup for screen off but I disabled in hopes to remedy the total poweroff. Any suggestions? How can infusion be removed?
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Flash community kernel your getting sod or try removing your Oc UV settings
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using XDA Premium App

Ok thanks. What is sod by the way???

supadupadoug said:
Ok thanks. What is sod by the way???
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Sleep of death
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oh lol im learning slowly but fa showly.

supadupadoug said:
oh lol im learning slowly but fa showly.
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All good
Infusion kernel is great kernel but your settings are going to be trial an error play around with.UV that's usually the probably with sod
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using XDA Premium App

Question about uv. is less best ie -25? and what does disabling the various clock speeds do?

Try using setcpu to throttle your frequencies. If you're having sod that usually means your phone isn't getting the required voltage for your CPU and you're choking your phone.. See if you can set it at 1200mhz and 800mhz on performance mode and see where that leads you.

Thanks I will give that a try. to oc really isn't my goal just to improve battery life. Right now seems to be working ok @12k with frequency uv @75-50

jdbeitz said:
Try using setcpu to throttle your frequencies. If you're having sod that usually means your phone isn't getting the required voltage for your CPU and you're choking your phone.. See if you can set it at 1200mhz and 800mhz on performance mode and see where that leads you.
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SoD actually usually happens at lower frequencies - after all the phone tends to stay down there when the screen is off.
Typically SoD results from too much UV from 100-400. I never was able to go more than -50 mV undervolt, others hit -100.
netarchy's Gingerbread OC config is a bit different, instead of setting modifiers from stock you set absolute voltages. (No binaries have been released of his kernel until more testing is done - but the source is out there!)

You guys are great everyday i just read and read and im amazed by the information and knowledge passed on. I learn something new every few pages. As for my oc/uv prob i've stuck to minimal uv with no oc and screen off profile and everything is working aok i did switch to the b version of infusion so so far so good. Ive read 28 pages today on the new infusion v2b2 for gb and that will be my next conquest. To all thanks a bunch and continue to the good work and especially helping out the new guys like me. And believe it or not im an electrical engineer lol. Again thanks and much appreciation

supadupadoug said:
You guys are great everyday i just read and read and im amazed by the information and knowledge passed on. I learn something new every few pages. As for my oc/uv prob i've stuck to minimal uv with no oc and screen off profile and everything is working aok i did switch to the b version of infusion so so far so good. Ive read 28 pages today on the new infusion v2b2 for gb and that will be my next conquest. To all thanks a bunch and continue to the good work and especially helping out the new guys like me. And believe it or not im an electrical engineer lol. Again thanks and much appreciation
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No prob. Buddy glad to have ya
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using XDA Premium App

Entropy512 said:
SoD actually usually happens at lower frequencies - after all the phone tends to stay down there when the screen is off.
Typically SoD results from too much UV from 100-400. I never was able to go more than -50 mV undervolt, others hit -100.
netarchy's Gingerbread OC config is a bit different, instead of setting modifiers from stock you set absolute voltages. (No binaries have been released of his kernel until more testing is done - but the source is out there!)
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sounds a bit like unhelpfuls kernel from the eclair captivate days. he had absolute voltage values and other freatures. will the gpu clock be configurable? that would be awesome. under clocking the gpu and agressive uv and ucing the cpu could add hours to the battery life. with 2.3.3 you could set the phone to 800mhz and the gpu to 182 or 166mhz could probably give little negative performance in every day use with exceptional battery life.
to the op:
sod can be a problem especially if you overclock. it seems the cpu doesnt like rapid voltage changes. i can uv -200 acriss the board if i dont overclock. if i do im at -150. the 200mhz clock is almost never used but i find if i disable it im more prone to sod presumably because the voltage and frequency jump to 400mhz is too great. it can help if the 100mhz-200mhz clocks have less uv than 400. if you loose stability on 1200 at -100 then maybe set all clocks to -75 cept 100-200mhz which you may set to -50.
this isnt a rule though. you might be able to uv 400-1000 settings quite a bit more than the 1200 setting just if you have sleep of death you generally dont want agressive settings on the 100-200mhz.

Dani897 said:
sounds a bit like unhelpfuls kernel from the eclair captivate days. he had absolute voltage values and other freatures. will the gpu clock be configurable? that would be awesome. under clocking the gpu and agressive uv and ucing the cpu could add hours to the battery life. with 2.3.3 you could set the phone to 800mhz and the gpu to 182 or 166mhz could probably give little negative performance in every day use with exceptional battery life.
to the op:
sod can be a problem especially if you overclock. it seems the cpu doesnt like rapid voltage changes. i can uv -200 acriss the board if i dont overclock. if i do im at -150. the 200mhz clock is almost never used but i find if i disable it im more prone to sod presumably because the voltage and frequency jump to 400mhz is too great. it can help if the 100mhz-200mhz clocks have less uv than 400. if you loose stability on 1200 at -100 then maybe set all clocks to -75 cept 100-200mhz which you may set to -50.
this isnt a rule though. you might be able to uv 400-1000 settings quite a bit more than the 1200 setting just if you have sleep of death you generally dont want agressive settings on the 100-200mhz.
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Not a clue - I only know what netarchy has done, not what he plans on doing.
The architecture of voltage/CPU frequency control is significantly different in GB kernels than Froyo. In general it's cleaner, so a lot of the issues with rapid frequency changes might go away in GB. For example, there's some code in the base kernel that's supposed to facilitate rapid voltage changes (not exactly sure how... the only documentation people outside of Samsung have for the MAX8998 is kernel source code.)

Well guys I have some news. I continued use with set cpu no oc just uv on freq above 624 @ -75 and I kept my screen off profile set to 644 max powersave scaling, and my battery life has been outstanding i check emails frequently been texting all morning and playing wwf and im @ 70% after 4 hrs of use. I know I read % doesn't mean much compared to some volts ratio but I think this is worth mentioning. And for my purposes the goal has been achieved in extending battery life and still having exceptional performance.

Oh and I wanted to add that my phone recharges much faster especially with the screen off with these setting. Maybe nothing new to you but def a plus for a(us) neewb's reading.

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.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.

pros and cons OC/UV

about time for me to change roms again. i know there are many with this option, but have never chose to pursue that option due to lack of understanding benefits. always seemed to get satisfactory battery life out of phone, but could it be better? i have noticed different speeds on my phone with different roms but is this something that can speed up and keep the smooooth in my phone?
just thought i would get some feedback of the advantages and disadvantages of overclocking and undervolting.
will it harm my infuse?
what are good settings?
what exactly would the OC or UV each do?
if i run a search on this, i know i am going to get the phone book and just figured i would get a more specific answer directly as opposed to piecing little bits together and still not being confident in what my interpretation would be.
everyone in the infuse community always seems to have the answers and dont steer the dullards such as myself in the wrong direction.
you guys are the MAN, and well, you women.....your the woman i reckon

captemo said:
will it harm my infuse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, so significant damage can be done with overclocking. Alhought if you set your ghz too high your phone might become unresponsive, overheat and/or auto reboot your device. This is normal if your on GB and some ICS roms. Don't see it much on JB becuase the some kernels dont support it. Just be sure to play with your settings and MAKE SURE SET ON BOOT IS DISABLED or else your phone will be stuck in a bootloop when overclocked beyond stable settings.
captemo said:
what are good settings?
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Click to collapse
I usually stick with 1400 ghz because 1600 ghz[max] drains battery too quickly for not much of performance boost and 1600 is considered unstable on most GB and ICS roms. As for CPU governor Id stick with ONDEMAND.
captemo said:
what exactly would the OC or UV each do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OC is over clocking your processor to a higher ghz for better perofmance and under volting is drawing less energy

Is there like a guide saying what each CPU governor does? Because some of them are pretty confusing with their terminology, like smartassv2

Garen21 said:
Is there like a guide saying what each CPU governor does? Because some of them are pretty confusing with their terminology, like smartassv2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420742

I used to under volt a lot to get better battery life. But it seemed to make a couple apps hang now and then.
I am now on Scotts PA JellyBean ROM. Battery life is very good for me stock with this. So I have left under volt to stock settings.
Normally I'll run on smartassV2 governer. With NOOP i/o. And 100mhz - 1400mhz.. just for a little extra boost.
When I know I'll be playing a game or multitasking, I'll boost it to 1600mhz.
Overall stock settings run amazing, both battery life and performance, on Scott's PA JB and CM10.
After doing some reading, I believe I can get better results from using the above settings. It all depends on what your personal goal is.
The biggest concern you should have when overclocking is mentioned above. Boot loop, just make sure you test it for a while with set on boot un checked.
Undervolting you can go to low and also boot loop, so same applies here... leave set on boot un checked. All phones are different on what settings they run best at. Just gotta play around and see what works for you.
A good rule of thumb for under voting... go down 25mv at a time and test it out... keep going down 25mv until you get a problem or boot loop and then go back.. then you'll know your max.
You can safely under volt more on the lower frequencies than you can the higher ones. Personally I never undervolted more than 100mv across the board. And when I did, I usually kept it around -50mv.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app

not for infuse but a good reference for ocuv. explains what they do
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1827635
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

This is the best guide I've found covering kernel and system tuning - CPU parameters, governors, schedulers, init.d, loadable modules, etc. It's for the SGS2 (i9000) and some of the governors/schedulers are not available on the Infuse, but much of this is applicable to our phone:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1369817
As for OC/UV, as long as you stay away from the "Performance" governor (this runs the phone at max freq all the time), and undervolting below -75 to -100 you generally will be safe. As phones are different, it is important to test in gradual steps to ensure your phone will be reliable. Use a good CPU manager, like SetCPU, Antutu, or Voltage Control. Make sure you enable the "revert to stock" feature so that you can boot recovery and turn off any bad OC/UV. As noted above, do not check the enable on boot setting until you are certain you have a good config.
The decision to OC should take into account how you use the phone. If your phone is asleep more than 80% of the time on average, you can probably run an OC config and still have overall good battery life (i.e. lasting an entire day with nightly recharges). If you use your phone for music playback or something else that prevents it from sleeping, OC may not be for you. If you run CPU intensive games, it is better to disable UV settings while OCed.
Use CPU Spy to keep an eye on your time at each freq state (and sleep). Use the default battery stats and graph to monitor which apps are consuming the most battery. Use apps like Better Battery Stats, Android Assistant and Watchdog for more detailed monitoring of what is keeping the phone awake and which apps/processes are top cpu resource consumers. With this information you can identify problem apps and decide whether you should remove them from your phone.
From the "unintended functionality" side of the house, there are certain tweaks that will cause your phone to run at max freq ... mucking around with phone properties in build.prop can lead to runaway rild process problems (usually shows up as unusually high "Dialer" in the standard battery stats list and a phone that is warm or hot to the touch). Some of the tweak scripts in adrenaline and tbolt can cause similar problems. There is a known bug in the infuse network drivers that shows up as much higher than normal Android OS battery usage. This can usually be corrected (short term fix) by toggling Flight/Airplane mode off/on. Running the stock UCLB3 GB kernel also seems to minimize this issue (assuming you are running a GB ROM), but flash with caution as you will need to disable voodoo lagfix first. (You will also lose CWM recovery, OC/UV capability, and be on the slower stock file system setup).

I have done a fair amount of experimenting including lots of time on conservative governor with Fmax=1600 and never had any problem that I attributed to OC'ing.
In contrast I did find a limit on UVing. I just updated my thread with my experience on uv here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=32552571#post32552571
The bottom line is that for MY phone, the following works fine:
100 Mhz: 950mv max – 50mv = 900 millivolts
200 Mhz: 950mv max – 25= 925 millivolts
400 Mhz: 1050mv max – 50mv = 1000 millivolts
800 Mhz: 1200mv max – 75 mv = 1125 millivolts
1200 Mhz: 1275mv max – 50mv = 1225 millivolts
1600 Mhz: 1400mv max – 75mv = 1325 millivolts
Some other links with others' experience suggestions about UV'ing for Infuse:
Hozw low is your undervolt?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1693689&highlight=kernel
[Q] Recommended SetCPU settings?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1292836&highlight=setcpu
You’ll note the last thread has comments from Entropy’s settings.
Also Zen and qkster gave advice in the first thread (my thread).
All three guys very well respected and worth listening to.
Entropy mentioned you can uv the higher frequencies more than the lower (different than what was posted earlier in this thread). I don’t know for sure but I’d lean toward Entropy’s advice on that matter.
I think all in all somewhere between 50 and 100 is the max you can expect to undervolt.
What can be achieved varies with phone as stated by many.
You are welcome to experiment with slowly decreasing. That's what I did.
But in the benefit of hindsight, the process of slowly decreasing is tedious. And going beyond the limit was a little scarey for me. Could've been worse if the phone crapped out at a critical time during "experimenting". Like almost everything related to battery life, the results (how much benefit) seem y subjective (difficult to measure quantitatively). Most people say they don’t notice a dramatic difference with UV. If you want to get the low hanging fruit without a lot effort, you might just try 50 down. That's what I'd do if I had to do it all over again.
By the way, setcpu can be set up to provide a failsafe escape route even if you go overboard. There is a zip file that will toggle the setcpu settings off when launched from CWM. You just have to put the zip file on your sd card before you start tweaking. See "safe mode" in the setcpu documentation.

started to wonder at first whether i would get any responses after 218 views and nothing, but i knew the community would come through as they always do. all the regulars as usual regulars ( Zen, Quickster and others) are always eager to help. i think you have all provided me with the valuable info i requested.
thank you much party people