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[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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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"?

what's different between these "lazy" "ondeman" "smartass" ...etc

what's different between these "lazy" "ondeman" "smartass" ...etc
i google it and find something , but looks like it is incomplete
...
could someone please explain what's different about them ?
thanks in advance

from www.setcpu.com/#7
CPU Scaling Governors-CPU governors control exactly how the CPU scales between your “max” and “min” set frequencies. Most kernels have “ondemand” and “performance.” The availability
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.
interactive –Available in newer kernels, and becoming the default scaling option in some official Android kernels. The interactive governor is functionally similar to the ondemand governor with an even greater focus on responsiveness.
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.
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 CPU load.
powersave –Available in some kernels. It will keep the CPU running at the “min” set value at all times.
userspace –A method for controlling the CPU speed that isn't currently used by SetCPU. For best results, do not use the userspace governor.
smartass –Included in some custom kernels. The smartass governor effectively gives the phone an automatic Screen Off profile, keeping speeds at a minimum when the phone is idle.
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that's what i was saying incomplete...
no explaination of lazy and smartass V2?

qtwrk said:
that's what i was saying incomplete...
no explaination of lazy and smartass V2?
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Click to collapse
because they were just developed. you can find out all about lazy in the nexus s development forums here on xda, since it was developed here on xda for the nexus s(thanks to ezekeel) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1276092&highlight=lazy+governor
i'll let you search for smartassV2 on your own

Which one is better??
lazy or ondemand??

al_madd said:
Which one is better??
lazy or ondemand??
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Click to collapse
Lazy is newer and meant to be an "improved" ondemand. Comes down to personal preference really.

063_XOBX said:
Lazy is newer and meant to be an "improved" ondemand. Comes down to personal preference really.
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I read again lazy thread from ezekeel..He made correction over calculation comparing governor comsumptiom power..
mathkid recomended ondemand on his kernel
morfic tweak conservative governor on his kernel
fransico recomended lazy or smartassv2
iceandfire recomended lazy
there is too many debate on this...wondering if lazy governor really works???

al_madd said:
I read again lazy thread from ezekeel..He made correction over calculation comparing governor comsumptiom power..
mathkid recomended ondemand on his kernel
morfic tweak conservative governor on his kernel
fransico recomended lazy or smartassv2
iceandfire recomended lazy
there is too many debate on this...wondering if lazy governor really works???
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Click to collapse
ondemand or lazy. ondemand has a little more of a kick while lazy is a little better on battery.

simms22 said:
because they were just developed. you can find out all about lazy in the nexus s development forums here on xda, since it was developed here on xda for the nexus s(thanks to ezekeel) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1276092&highlight=lazy+governor
i'll let you search for smartassV2 on your own
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks man , this is what i found
SmartassV2 (informal description and comparison with the first smartass)
SmartassV2 is a governor (controls the frequency of the CPU at each give moment) which like the first smartass is generally based on the implementation of interactive with some major changes and the addition of a built in sleep profile (behaves a bit differently when screen is off vs. on).
The smartassV2 improves the very naive scheme which the first smartass had: The first smartass (with the values I set for the hero), would cap the max frequency at 352Mhz for sleep and when screen is on, would do the opposite and keep the frequency at 518Mhz or above. For sleep this was very effective but a bit crude and unclean, and there could be some cases where you would need processing power even when screen is off (something is updating and music is playing and etc.). For screen on, smartass1 was too quick to jump to the max available frequency and again would never go below the 518Mhz, so in a nutshell its was using "too high" frequencies.
SmartassV2, introduce (internally) an "ideal" frequency which is the frequency we are "aiming" for, in some sense. The way I see it is that the "ideal" frequency is a hint to the governor what is a good balance between performance and battery life. Now when screen is on, I set (on the hero) the ideal frequency to 518Mhz which will ensure nice responsiveness but limit unnecessary use of higher frequencies when they are not needed. When screen is off, I set the ideal frequency to 352Mhz (0 will disable the screen state tracking all together). From my testing this will "convince" the governor to spend most of the its time during sleep at the lowest available frequencies. Note, that both during sleep and when awake the entire frequency range (as defined by the "user" - i.e. selected with SetCPU) is used by smartassV2. For example, when the CPU is loaded heavily, the highest available frequency will be used regardless if screen is on or off.
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from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=730471, posted by erasmux

Although I can't really tell a difference in real life, I benchmark lower on lazy vs. ondemand.
It probably has something to do with a forced time within each state for the lazy, which prevents it from switching frequencies too many times.

cpu govener??

question... I see all the govener setting in ns tools, setcpu, ect.... just wondering something.... What setting is.used in factory otu roms? lets say a.unrooted nexus s, what is.it natively set at? 100/1000 ? and ondamand? or is.it 1000/1000?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

100/1000 ondemand is the default.... but I always change it to 200/1000 smartassv2 it works best for my phone
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

I usually use "ondemand", it seems to work best. Once I decided to try "powersave" and my phone slowed down to a crawl, pretty much unusable. I don't know what that was about, but I definitely don't recommend it...

Jabaculemos said:
I usually use "ondemand", it seems to work best. Once I decided to try "powersave" and my phone slowed down to a crawl, pretty much unusable. I don't know what that was about, but I definitely don't recommend it...
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Powersave limits the cpu to the absolute lowest frequency at all times. It is not usable for normal operations, except for Setcpu screen-off profiles.
Performance governor is the opposite ; it keeps the cpu running at max frequency (1ghz with stock kernel) and is useful only for speed benchmarks.
The other linux kernel governors are described in detail in numerous threads... All you have to do is search "kernel governor ".
My personal choice is smartassv2 since it's responsive, efficient with battery consumption, and features a screen-off sleep profile.

Ezekeel recommended me lazy with proof screenshots

Governors control how the CPU frequency adjusts. They work like this:
Ondemand: Starts at a low frequency and when there is any CPU activity it uses max frequency. It goes back to low over time.
Conservative: Like ondemand, but instead of using max frequency on CPU activity it uses the next step. It's less responsive than ondemand since it goes like: "100% CPU > Higher Freq. > 100% CPU > Higher Freq..." instead of "100% CPU > Max Freq."
Lazy: Like ondemand but there is a small delay between frequency changes. I use this one.
Performance: Max frequency all time.
Powersave: Min frequency all time.
Interactive: This is a bit complex, actually it's sampling the CPU usage and trying to predict what will come up (I think).
Smartass: It's like interactive, but rewritten. It should give better results.
Default is ondemand 100/1000 and it works pretty good.
Hope I helped.

[Q] Change CPU governor parameters for better battery life?

I know that our Tegra 2 processor uses HW governor so we couldn't just swap it out for something like conservative or interactive.
But can we tweak the parameters?
I know that ondemand governor have values that set how often it samples CPU usage, the trip point to ramp up, etc.
This leads to how often CPU frequency hops. Ramp up too slow, and there's lag, go too fast, and you waste HUGE amount of battery and possibly introduce lag as well. We had this discussion over in other phone's forums before but I dont know the link, sorry.
Anyway, each time CPU transition to a different frequency (and voltage), there's a momentary power spike. If the phone is just idling, there's little need to transition. But during use/screen on, a hyperactive CPU governor is gonna drive the CPU all over the place, killing screen on time.
I've personally experienced this with the mytouch 3g and galaxy s 4g.
so, back to the question. Can we control when and how often the CPU governor transition? Are the parameters we can tweak? Probably a kernel question that maybe Faux, Morfic, Harsh, and others could look into.

atb1183 said:
I know that our Tegra 2 processor uses HW governor so we couldn't just swap it out for something like conservative or interactive.
But can we tweak the parameters?
I know that ondemand governor have values that set how often it samples CPU usage, the trip point to ramp up, etc.
This leads to how often CPU frequency hops. Ramp up too slow, and there's lag, go too fast, and you waste HUGE amount of battery and possibly introduce lag as well. We had this discussion over in other phone's forums before but I dont know the link, sorry.
Anyway, each time CPU transition to a different frequency (and voltage), there's a momentary power spike. If the phone is just idling, there's little need to transition. But during use/screen on, a hyperactive CPU governor is gonna drive the CPU all over the place, killing screen on time.
I've personally experienced this with the mytouch 3g and galaxy s 4g.
so, back to the question. Can we control when and how often the CPU governor transition? Are the parameters we can tweak? Probably a kernel question that maybe Faux, Morfic, Harsh, and others could look into.
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you can, but only a few small changes to it (to the best of my knowledge) and it all has to be done in kernel source before being built.
if you really want to speak to someone that knows what they are talking about, connect to morfic's IRC channel (he is on there a hell of a lot more than here) and im sure he'd answer some of your questions.
i do know that its possible to change the frequency and timing of when the second core is parked, but im not sure about changing the sample times or equivalent.

I've never used IRC but gonna google it (no snarky lmgtfy.com link plz)
thanks

Nexus 5 permanently slower after overclock??

I'm pretty new to Android. I got my N5 2 months ago and rooted it as soon as I took it out of the box to get rid of the navigation bar. Didnt install any ROM or kernal.
What I did today was try to overclock it. I wanted to test the performance upgrade with Geekbench 3.
I got 2500. Tried to overclock with this app called: No-frills CPU control. And suddenly I get no higher than 2000...... Tried everything. I'm stuck at a multi core score of 2000 in geekbench while it should be 2500>.
WTF DO I DO? My device is noticeably slower, it's like a GS4 D: I'd rather not install any kernals/Roms
I set the minimum CPU frequency to 300Mhz and max to 2.266Ghz

Hi,
Thermal throttling..., overclocking produces more heat than the stock CPU freq so more thermal throttling. To prevent any damage, the CPU freq decreases according to the CPU temperature...
Let cool down your phone.

Hammer_Of_The_Gods said:
Hi,
Thermal throttling..., overclocking produces more heat than the stock CPU freq so more thermal throttling. To prevent any damage, the CPU freq decreases according to the CPU temperature...
Let cool down your phone.
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Click to collapse
Sure, I'll turn it off for a while.
Just to make sure: the standard CPU frequencies are 300Mhz MIN and 2.266Ghz MAX, right?

Fandrold said:
Sure, I'll turn it off for a while.
Just to make sure: the standard CPU frequencies are 300Mhz MIN and 2.266Ghz MAX, right?
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Click to collapse
Yes, that's right 300 Mhz-2,26 Ghz.
Not necessary to turn your phone OFF , when it boots it's a process that causes "heat" at the beginning then you will need to let it cool down again. EDIT: oups, you mean the thermal throttling OFF maybe?
Don't touch it for a while, airplane mode can help. If you are in a "hot" country/weather, air cooling, fridge...
We speak about this here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/goo...5-user-benchmark-thread-added-t2506965/page42.

Hammer_Of_The_Gods said:
Hi,
Thermal throttling..., overclocking produces more heat than the stock CPU freq so more thermal throttling. To prevent any damage, the CPU freq decreases according to the CPU temperature...
Let cool down your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've let it cool down and I got my old performance back . Never knew the solution would be so simple. Thanks.