Related
Hi there!!
Seems to me no one hasn't began this knd of theme. So. Off. info:
Qualcomm MSM7201a
Two cores
ARM11 + ARM9
528 Mhz (one stated speed for two cores...)
So what is G1's heart for real?
This is quotes from here
#1
Jean-Baptiste Queru 26 нояб 2008, 20:37
Indeed, the CPU in the G1 is clocked lower than its maximum rated
speed to conserve battery life. It's running somewhere between 300 and
400MHz if I remember correctly.
JBQ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
#2
jdc4429 27 нояб 2008, 17:04
Hi Jean,
So your saying that the CPU speed is not controlled by the Android
software?
I was looking through the code and found this in the arch/arm/mach-msm/
clock.c file...
617 #define CPUFREQ_TABLE_MAX 4
618 static struct cpufreq_frequency_table cpufreq_table[] = {
619 { 0, 81920 },
620 { 1, 122880 },
621 { 2, 245760 },
622 { 3, 384000 },
623 { CPUFREQ_TABLE_MAX, CPUFREQ_TABLE_END },
624 };
It looks like the max speed is set to 384mhz and it seems it can be
easily changed.
It also seems that the phone already downshifts the CPU based on this
table and the
screen_open/closed speed setting...
702 if (screen_on) {
703 policy->user_policy.min = cpufreq_table
[2].frequency; // 245mhz
704 policy->user_policy.max = cpufreq_table
[3].frequency; // 384mhz
705 } else {
706 policy->user_policy.min = cpufreq_table
[0].frequency; // 82mhz
707 policy->user_policy.max = cpufreq_table
[2].frequency; // 245mhz
708 }
Sure looks controllable to me through Android. Is it really that hard
to add a setting to allow min/max settings
to be adjusted by the user?
Thanks
Jeff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
#3
Romain Guy 26 нояб 2008, 20:39
> Can that
> be changed in software on the fly and was it set below maximum speed
> to help with the battery issue?
No and yes
> Also is anyone working on adding hardware acceleration so we can take
> full advantage of the processor?
We have a prototype of SGL running on top of OpenGL (it was actually
shown publicly in the SDK 0.9) but it's not the correct solution at
the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coclusion:
1) Google DevTeam does not know, or don' wanna tell, ca we\how to change CPU's speed or\when it would be possible to get the hardware accelariotion etc.
2) From stated 528Mhz we get 384Mhz maximum, as stated by Jean-Baptiste Queru and the code quote.
Both these I suppose seems not fare for us users)
So, can it be solved through the OS modifing??
Oh yeah that's another good point -- almost all of my experience on mobile
hardware has been that the memory bus speed was far more of a performance
bottleneck than the CPU was. It generally just wasn't useful to run the CPU
at its fastest speed and consume more power, because most of what it would
be doing was sitting there waiting on memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what is more important, the memory/cpu ratio working at its best or battery life. We'll have energy plans soon for android me thinks..
interesting... Anyone want to give it a try?
It's very worthwhile to read the entire thread:
http://tinyurl.com/9kme8v
Of particular note, the effect on battery life of clocking the CPU at full speed, and the apparently minimal performance boost.
Of real interest, and the very obvious bang for the buck, is the speed of Dalvik. Note that it's 7-8x slower than comparable JITs. About in line with what you'd expect, but it does imply that if we want to see some serious speed increases - and, I would think, battery life improvements - replacing Dalvik would be the obvious place to start. Or making it JIT, of course.
might be but lets say im at home plugged in or what not... then we could scale our CPU... like BatteryStatus or integrate it into an app somewhat like Locale or Power Manager...
End users look at the End result. my phone is rated at 528mhz and it is running slightly over half its rated operating speed. Battery life? Give me 528mhz and let HTC and Tmobile Recall there $h*tty batterys
The only advantage I can think of for this is for demanding games for instance but any other time its good to have it under clocked to save on battery juice. and the phone is fast enough running at half its rated speed!
Phil
philje123 said:
The only advantage I can think of for this is for demanding games for instance but any other time its good to have it under clocked to save on battery juice. and the phone is fast enough running at half its rated speed!
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
once you get demanding apps installed such as hello aim. phoneplus dgalerts etc there is constant hiccups and the phone becomes bogged down like i said give me 528mhz and let htc,tmo replace there $h**ty batteries didnt they hear over a year ago there was a huge advancement in nano tech for batteries
diabolical28 said:
once you get demanding apps installed such as hello aim. phoneplus dgalerts etc there is constant hiccups and the phone becomes bogged down like i said give me 528mhz and let htc,tmo replace there $h**ty batteries didnt they hear over a year ago there was a huge advancement in nano tech for batteries
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but *if* it is the CPU which is bogging down (which I am not convinced is the case), the solution is as I stated - speed up Dalvik - not to put the CPU into a mode which drains the battery down even more quickly than it does today. If the fix is to clock the CPU at a higher rate (which again, seems not to be the case), that's only a stepping stone to the ultimate solution, which is going to be removing some apps, since the battery life is marginal right now anyway.
The reason why Android is underclocked is posted in the full thread. After a certain point, the increase in speed you get by bumping up the CPU slows down, because it's limited by FSB speed. An example of this (not real numbers), is that a CPU running at 50% speed could actually be closer to 75% speed.
Sure, the CPU CAN run at 100% speed, but after the FSB slows it down, it'll only be 75%. So after a point, increasing CPU speed isn't worth it.
hmm
i wonder if we would get an app too monitor it or
under and overclock by adjusting a slider
anywhere from 50% to 150% or whatever is possible
that is anywhere from 264Mhz to 798Mhz which would be amazingly fast
gary, might as well just save your breath.
I believe JF has already tested some code to do this, but mentioned that it is highly unstable.
dirr said:
I believe JF has already tested some code to do this, but mentioned that it is highly unstable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Adjusting the speed breaks things, at least so far anyways. But like he said JF is playing with it.
djind said:
I don't know what is more important, the memory/cpu ratio working at its best or battery life. We'll have energy plans soon for android me thinks..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, it might not be entirely "worth" it in terms of performance/battery ratio... but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a try. People keep saying "don't bother" but nobody has actually tried an overclocked G1. Maybe it's worth it for demanding gaming or apps while the phone is (gasp) plugged in.
back when i had my wing and so did ttran. Which uses the OMAP processor it was able to overclock over 100mhz faster than it was meant to go. Had real good luck overclocked to 288mhz. Which made the phone run at the speed that it SHOULD have ran at... including faster loading web pages, faster loading everything basically. Which hardly is an issue with the g1, but imagine how much more snappy it would be with an extra 100mhz also? People say its not worth it and it drains the battery more.... umm... if anyone here owns a g1 (surely hope so at least!) you probably know that the battery sucks anyways and needs charging all the time. Would love to see a good OC app made for the g1 =-) (with scaling like battery status was for the wing, which underclocked when screen was off, overclocked when screen was awakened which was amazing for battery life, as the phone doesnt need much power to accept a call, but when the screen is lit.... scaling occurs and it bumps it right up to 288mhz)
I think its well worth a go.
We could start with very small increments.
Gary13579 said:
The reason why Android is underclocked is posted in the full thread. After a certain point, the increase in speed you get by bumping up the CPU slows down, because it's limited by FSB speed. An example of this (not real numbers), is that a CPU running at 50% speed could actually be closer to 75% speed.
Sure, the CPU CAN run at 100% speed, but after the FSB slows it down, it'll only be 75%. So after a point, increasing CPU speed isn't worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the question is... Are there any circumstances where this may help...
And either way how difficult is it to add a control under settings to allow you to modify the default method?
You could basically apply the same argument to anything... Until someone tries, we will not know for sure. What next? Don't bother trying to add a swap file cause it may not help? Don't bother trying to speed up Dalvik cause it will take too much memory?
That's the fun of open source...
jdc4429
FSB could really be the bottleneck here. From my experience overclocking mobile CPUs (PXA255, PXA263, PXA270, Samsung 300Mhz, TI OMAP 850) several percentage change on FSB speed or Memory speed could make significant performance changes.
The last WinMob device I had - Dell Axim x51v had a PXA270 [email protected] Pumping the bus from 208Mhz to 230Mhz and the CPU speed from 624 to about 700 did abput 50% improvement in several bencmarks (floating point, integer calculations, memory speed, graphics subsystem).
On the other hand pumping the CPU to 1014Mhz, (0.99GHz, the highest 24/7 stable for my device) while lowering the FSB to 185Mhz (23Mhz drop) led to about 10% lower result than at stock frequencies.
700Mhz CPU, 230Mhz FSB was totally 24/7 under stress tests with almost no extra heat, providing aboyt 50% extra performance, while battery life was about 30-40% shorter.
My experience with it showed that it could be worth for short speed bursts, while running many apps. When you are finished you return to normal frequencies.
Wow! Thanks for the info man!!
Thus we can see, that by increasing the CPU up to it's stock 528 Mhz would be perfect?
it will be perfect when the speed of the cpu uses 528Mhz and auto adjusts: high speed - mid speed - low speed - sleep, "ondemand"
android should use ondemand kernel module which does exactly that. (maybe this cpu cant do that?)
Mini Overclocking Guide
NOTE: The Steps Below were Tested on Froyo Roms. I have found different and perhaps better ways to test stability with CM7 Roms so I added a section for that too.
You can still use Stability Test but I don't use it too often anymore for CM7.
Programs Required for testing:
#1 Stability Test
#2 Neocore (please note that some kernels are not FPS unlocked meaning that the frame rate will not go over 56fps so make sure to compare apples to apples when testing different kernels).
For overclocking/undervolting you can use either Pimp My CPU or Voltage Control
Intro:
I posted this Guide in ROM thread but decided it might help someone trying to get a head start overclocking...just a reference not a bible.
First of all, please realize that no two CPUs are created equal. Just like with PC Overclocking, there is the luck of the draw involved here so just because one person can do 1.4Ghz it does not mean you will be able to do so nor it means that my UV settings will work for you.
Achieving 1.2Ghz should be feasible for almost all users since most of the code for it was already done by Samsung themselves. After that point though, it is a matter of luck. Many users can do 1.3Ghz but getting into 1.4Ghz the chances of stability drop dramatically.
Please note that with CM7 Roms it seems a LOT more people is able to hit 1.4Ghz and even 1.5Ghz fully stable. 1.6Ghz is also working although not as common. It is easier to use it if you select 1.6Ghz as the ONLY frequency but of course battery life will be affected.
So, start at 1.2Ghz and try to achieve stability with the lowest possible UV settings you can get to improve your battery life then when fully stable, go for a bit more speed if you like until you find your limit.
Process:
The following is the process I use to get 100% stability. Of course, you can use your own or tweak as you like as this is hardly the ONLY TRUTH of overclocking…I just hope it gives you a good idea on how to achieve stability.
I normally use these settings for 1200Mhz:
1200Mhz @ -100
1120Mhz @ -100
1000Mhz @ -100
900Mhz @ -100
800Mhz @ -100
400Mhz @ -100
200Mhz @ -100
100Mhz @ -100
After setting those up , click the Apply Now button but do not save to the Boot settings until you are sure they are stable for you.
To check stability I first run the Stability Test program and let it loop about 30 times or at least 20 of the CORE (not the RAM).
If it fails give it another shot if it fails again then it is time to adjust the voltages for 1200Mhz.
My experience has been that Stability Test crashes to the home screen when it needs more voltage so if it crashes for you change the UV to -75 and test again.
When you are able to pass that test , you can go to Neocore and try looping Neocore and let it running for about 5 to 10 minutes.
If Neocore freezes, at least for my phone, it means that voltage is too high so I need to drop the UV.
Right there is where the whole trick is. Trying to find what UV voltage is enough for Stability Test to pass but still low enough so that Neocore does not freeze.
This takes a lot of trial and error specially when going for 1.4Ghz!
Another thing is that the UV setting for the frequency below the one you are going for, like 1120 and 1000 for example, do have an effect on the stability you are trying to achieve on 1200Mhz because the phone does not seem to like big voltage jumps .
Some times changing the voltage for the frequency below the one you are adjusting is a good way of achieving stability.
This becomes more important when for example you find out that changing 1.2Ghz to -50 gives you stability for Stability Test but then you need -75 in order to pass Neocore test. What do you do then? What I have done with relative success is , use -75 but then increase the voltage to the frequencies below 1200.
For example if I had
1200Mhz @ -75
1120Mhz @ -100
1000Mhz @ -100
I would change it to:
1200Mhz @ -75
1120Mhz @ -75
1000Mhz @ -75
then test Stability Test to see if those changes help you pass it without having to increase the voltage for 1.2Ghz directly thus avoiding the Neocore freezing issue.
Another process some users are doing is just run Neocore for about 30 minutes and it seems to be a good alternative for some. Guess it all depends on your particular phone.
So, as you can image, this means a LOT of trial and error and restarts of your phone. For 1.2Ghz it should be painless but if you want to go higher, prepare to do a lot of the steps above.
Another thing to consider is that some phones seem to work better with kernels that only have one top speed after 1Ghz as opposed to kernels that offer multiple speed options so this is yet another variable to work with.
Also, remember that to restart your phone, there is no need to pull out the battery. Just press and hold the Volume Up and Power button and it will restart.
I am sure this guide can be done a lot better and will be glad to add or edit with any recommendations you can offer.
I hope this helps some of you trying to push your phones to the limits and have fun!
UPDATE for CM7 Users
With CM7 what we considered THE holly grail of speeds, 1.4Ghz with Froyo Roms suddenly became a VERY common thing.
I have no explanation as to why but a LOT of users are able to get 1.4Ghz and even 1.5Ghz perfectly stable on CM7 and the phones just fly at those speeds. Some are also able to get 1.6Ghz stable but that is harder.
Setting only one speed like 1.6Ghz dramatically increased the stability as well. Just a hint for you guys wanting to do some benchmarks.
You can use a program like Pimp My CPU or Voltage Control to set the voltages and the Maximum and Minimum speed.
Now while the Steps at the beginning of the guide (for Froyo roms) should be fine for CM7 as well ...I have noticed, at least with my phone , that a video player called Moboplayer is VERY good for stability testing CM7. In fact, I do not even use Stability Test any more since I moved to CM7.
When the voltage is a bit low on my screen it creates some artifacts, usually green spots that come up and go in random areas until it freezes.
My actual favorite player for CM7 is Dice Player because for me it plays 720p files better but I like moboplayer a lot as well specially because of the artifacts it shows when I am not stable so it is a quick way to tell the settings are not going to work.
Another thing I love to use if the Riptide Game (tegra 2 game) with Chainfire 3D plugin to make it work on our phones. That game will just close without warning when my speed is unstable. So I just let it running the demo on its own for about 10 minutes.
So basically, I use Moboplayer and Riptide to test my stability and with those tests my system is ready to go and takes less time than the steps I used to do.
Of course you can come up with your own preferred tools since our phones are quite unique and seem to have their own personalities.
It seems some users are having luck with my settings so here are my settings for 1.6Ghz This is for GLITCH kernel (V10C VC). Remember that each kernel has different voltages so instead of giving you a minus value like -100 I will give you the actual voltage I am using for each speed.
1.6Ghz - 1425mV
1.5Ghz - 1400
1.44 - 1325
1.4Ghz - 1325
1.3Ghz - 1275
1.2Ghz - 1275
1.0Ghz - 1200
800Mhz - 1100
400Mhz - 950
200Mhz - 850
100Mhz - 850
For Governor I normally just have Smartass and the Scheduler is NOOP.
Not that while for 1.6Ghz my current setting is either -50 or -75, if I were to select only 1.6Ghz as my max and minimum speed, I am then able to lower the voltage to -100 perfectly stable. Just an interesting thing for you to play with.
Important Note for CM7 users getting many FCs like google service or android service.
CM7 has a much smaller data space for application installs and every time I get to that limit my phone gets crazy with FCs. You can check that by going to your applications and launching the TERMINAL application then type df (in lower case) and pressing Enter.
Look at the top table listed for /datadata and make sure you have some available space.
As long as I keep that from filling up (in fact I prefer to keep it around 60% max to give me some room) my phone works like a charm.
You can use an app like APP2SD to move application data to the SD card to free up space.
Have fun and enjoy your pumped up phone!
UPDATE 12/30/2011
CyanogenMod 9 (ICS) users with Glitch kernel using LiveOC you can use my settings as a starting point.
This is what I use for 1603Mhz
Voltages:
ARM voltage
from 1500 to 1200 = 1.5V ; 1000 = 1.375V ; 800 = 1.250V ; 400=1.100V ; 200=950mV ; 100=900mV
Int from 1400 to 1200 = 1.2V ; 1000 = 1.15V ; 800 = 1.125V ; 400=1.100V ; 200=1.100V ; 100=1.000V
Then 123% LiveOC using 1300MHz step (giving you 1.6GHz)
Governor I am still testing but usually Smartass V2
You can of course use it as a starting point for lower speeds if you like.
Nice man. Saves alot of frustration with this.
Awesome! Thank you!
You are the OC master, Shaolin.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using Tapatalk
I wish I was a master indeed but I just have a lot of patience I guess to test ..and test...and crash..an test some more
I think I saw a post that said that any temperature below 56 degrees Celcius is fine for the captivate. I still start to worry though if it reaches 50 during a stability test, what's your opinion?
I noticed that mine when it its 50C or so for any reason (battery temp IIRC) it stops charging so that is where I normally draw the line. If I cannot keep it under that I dont feel comfortable.
That 50 is pretty high, at least for me. Even with stability test going for an hour or so at 1400, I only hit 46. Haven't seen anything higher
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
Depends on ambient temp of course...you cannot compared devices temps without knowing the ambient temp. In any case, I saw that when I was using the first Trident kernel. That one even made my screen feel very hot...kinda scary lol
Right now, the only app I have that makes my phone stop charging, even when temp is low, is the Justin TV viewing app....weird. I even ran the phone at 600Mhz only to make sure.
AReynante said:
That 50 is pretty high, at least for me. Even with stability test going for an hour or so at 1400, I only hit 46. Haven't seen anything higher
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was testing out 1500 1400 is fine for me with -100 for each value. 1500 is a different story since I haven't managed to find a stable combination yet (that doesn't reach 50 degrees Celcius).
Sweet. Are you getting to 50C with a specific app? I only get there with some streaming apps but I really only use 1.5 for fpse emulator for example.
I don't have an app that tells me the temperature so the only time I know is if I do a stability test. I'm not sure if I really have a need for 1500MHz since I don't use emulators much but it's more of a "yea my phone can do it" kind of accomplishment - unless I'm missing out on some other benefits of 1500Mhz over 1400Mhz besides possibly more smoothness.
zuN! said:
I don't have an app that tells me the temperature so the only time I know is if I do a stability test. I'm not sure if I really have a need for 1500GHz since I don't use emulators much but it's more of a "yea my phone can do it" kind of accomplishment - unless I'm missing out on some other benefits of 1500Ghz over 1400Ghz besides possibly more smoothness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol 1.5 terahertz I want that phone!
studacris said:
Lol 1.5 terahertz I want that phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow didnt notice that....thats Fing awesome!
Stability Test question
Hey Shaolin,
Just a quick question here, when you mention running stability test through 30/50 runs, are you referencing the RAM runs or the core runs? Just checking, since the RAM runs complete within a few minutes whereas the core runs take closer to half an hour, etc.
Thanks for posting the guide, much appreciated!!!
Since the new version I am only doing 30 of the core runs since it seems to take longer than before.
You are welcome amigo
shaolin95 said:
Since the new version I am only doing 30 of the core runs since it seems to take longer than before.
You are welcome amigo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey mate, maybe you can add this to your guide as I thought before that stability test and several runs of new core, nenamark, etc...that after passing those tests you're probably stable but what I found out that I can pass those tests without problems and just recently those test are not enough for you to be sure if you are really stable what I have found is to run or record in your phone video cam in its highest resolution about 720p for 200mb worth of data if your phone won't freeze then it's pretty stable you can delete those files afterwards.
Indeed each phone and user can find specific things that work for them, for example with my phone I can just use mobo player and play some videos and I get artifacts when voltage is low or I had a game that with low voltage will always freeze at the same spot yet some user do not have the same effect.
I guess I can add a small list of other possible quick tests like that video one you mentioned as alternatives
I found out another way to test stability which is to do a batch operation of backing up apps with TiBu. I'm not sure what it implies if it crashes though
Hi shaolin95, can I link this post in my VoltageControl thread? (with credits ofc)
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
I'm running CM10, and it's running fine overclocked to 1600 MHz, yet the phone is factory clocked, (with a factory ROM), to 1200 MHz. Why? My phone seems to run perfectly fine using SmartAss2 management, but Samsung apparently purposely underclocks phones for some unknown reason. Obviously stability isn't a concern, or it would crash at 1600 MHz. Yet it is stable, so why is the default clock speed so slow? Considering the phone is perfectly stable at 1600 MHz, would it be possible to O/C my phone to 2 GHz, or would I risk frying my phone if I somehow managed to OC it by that much?
k-semler said:
I'm running CM10, and it's running fine overclocked to 1600 MHz, yet the phone is factory clocked, (with a factory ROM), to 1200 MHz. Why? My phone seems to run perfectly fine using SmartAss2 management, but Samsung apparently purposely underclocks phones for some unknown reason. Obviously stability isn't a concern, or it would crash at 1600 MHz. Yet it is stable, so why is the default clock speed so slow? Considering the phone is perfectly stable at 1600 MHz, would it be possible to O/C my phone to 2 GHz, or would I risk frying my phone if I somehow managed to OC it by that much?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
uhh well.... yea and no. there are a few things you need to understand about microprocessors. no two are alike. they are built on a scale of a few nanometers and any difference causes a significant difference. to keep production numbers up there is a line they have to draw between performance potential and stability. more chips will be stable at lower clocks so they pick an speed they can get a high production number out of. sometimes a whole line of chips is produced with exactly the same core. chips that pass the highest get boxed as the highest performing and priced. chips that dont pass will either have specific features turned off, cores turned off or be underclocked and sold as lower models. in addition to that the top performing models are actually over priced, and often many more pass the tests than they need so perfectly good processors are intentionally disabled to fill the market for lower speed processors, so yes the cpu may be "underclocked" in a sense. but i don't know if that really applies to the infuse because i don't know if there are any chips in the same family that have a higher rated clock speed, if there are they aren't used in phones.
in example, on my pc i have a 3 core processor, it's actually a 4 core and i can even turn the 4th core on in bios, but a certain percentage of that particular model of chip will be unstable with the 4th core active.
another thing to understand is how the clock speed is set. there is a buss and a table of multipliers and dividers. so as one part of the chip oscillates at one frequency the multipliers and dividers say how may times per oscillation the other components go. the cpu speed changes by changing these multiplier values. the problem is that there are only so many multipliers the cpu is designed to use. this is a hardware limitation and can't be overcome so at some point the only way to get more clock speed is to change the buss speed which affects the entire system and will cause instability in most cases. occasionally you can get around this if you change the multiplier values for other componants as well but it's probably not a good idea to mess with it. the hummingbird chip only has multipliers to go to 1600mhz regardless of stability unless you mess with the buss, one developer got the galaxy s to 1700 with buss overclocking but some things didn't really work at that speed and it took a lot of changes to other system clocks. snapdragon chips can go to higher clocks and process numbers better but the hummingbird is better for graphics and multimedia which is more important on a modern phone imho.
so yeah 1600 is it, as far as practicality goes anyway. there are a few infuses that can only go to 1400-1500 as well and galaxy s phones which have the same clock limitations but are only rates for 1000mhz rarely go to 1600, but a few do, my captivate was absolutely peaked out at 1300, believe me i tried to get it higher, i tried a lot of things with voltages to try to get it stable, but even 1300 took some doing. it took a long time before developers even produced a kernel for the sgs that used clocks over 1200 because many of the early builds of the sgs series were much like mine and were not stable at high speeds.
Beautiful. :thumbup:
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Have any ROG owners undervolted this device yet? What tool did you use, and most important, how's the result? I'm thinking of undervolting it by a notch for better battery life during normal use. Looking for a solution that doesn't conflict with the built-in ASUS modes and setting controls that I want to keep on the device.
Honestly can't justify it in 2021. I come from a LONG history of lowering voltages, but the phones have come a long way with battery conscious modes and other features that don't make the instability worth it now. It makes more sense to set more aggressive limitations than flat out reduce the amount of power the phone can access.
twistedumbrella said:
Honestly can't justify it in 2021. I come from a LONG history of lowering voltages, but the phones have come a long way with battery conscious modes and other features that don't make the instability worth it now. It makes more sense to set more aggressive limitations than flat out reduce the amount of power the phone can access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean in terms of a single charge or in terms of the entire lifespan of the battery?
I tough less/optimal voltage means longer durability at least that's what they claim https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries
Sure, undervolting can increase the lifespan of the battery. Never storing the device fully charged will also increase lifespan. Only charging between 20 and 80 will increase lifespan. There are hundreds of impractical things that will increase the lifespan, but then you need to stand by an outlet all day and only take one call between the hours of noon and three.
The thing you need to know before jumping into setting values is how Asus determined the default voltages. Nvidia, for example, sets theirs well over the efficient values. Samsung sets theirs practically right above the bare minimum. Too low and the device will short (power down) randomly. Too high and it will go supernova. Both will cause more damage than improvement.
If you do decide to modify, the best recommendation I could make is to shave off the values on the top end and leave the ones towards the bottom. At lower clock speeds, you aren't generating any real heat and there is little to gain from trying to reduce the power when it is already minimized.
Gpu undervolt you can use the app here for example
GitHub - libxzr/KonaBess: A GPU overclock & undervolt tool for sd865 855 888 765 690 750 780G 778G 8G1 8G2
A GPU overclock & undervolt tool for sd865 855 888 765 690 750 780G 778G 8G1 8G2 - GitHub - libxzr/KonaBess: A GPU overclock & undervolt tool for sd865 855 888 765 690 750 780G 778G 8G1 8G2
github.com
Surprised there isn't a magisk module for that. Repacking the entire kernel to find out the values were too high / low seems like a hassle.
ChrisFeiveel said:
Gpu undervolt you can use the app here for example
GitHub - libxzr/KonaBess: A GPU overclock & undervolt tool for sd865 855 888 765 690 750 780G 778G 8G1 8G2
A GPU overclock & undervolt tool for sd865 855 888 765 690 750 780G 778G 8G1 8G2 - GitHub - libxzr/KonaBess: A GPU overclock & undervolt tool for sd865 855 888 765 690 750 780G 778G 8G1 8G2
github.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Will take a look. Presumably it works on all 888's but have you tried it on the ROG5?
twistedumbrella said:
Sure, undervolting can increase the lifespan of the battery. Never storing the device fully charged will also increase lifespan. Only charging between 20 and 80 will increase lifespan. There are hundreds of impractical things that will increase the lifespan, but then you need to stand by an outlet all day and only take one call between the hours of noon and three.
The thing you need to know before jumping into setting values is how Asus determined the default voltages. Nvidia, for example, sets theirs well over the efficient values. Samsung sets theirs practically right above the bare minimum. Too low and the device will short (power down) randomly. Too high and it will go supernova. Both will cause more damage than improvement.
If you do decide to modify, the best recommendation I could make is to shave off the values on the top end and leave the ones towards the bottom. At lower clock speeds, you aren't generating any real heat and there is little to gain from trying to reduce the power when it is already minimized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you. I'm not going to jump into moding values, especially not on this phone. I wanted to drop the volts just slightly and see if if it gives better battery and less heat during normal use. I'll be the one to say it loud - the battery life of this device is not that impressive to be honest considering it packs whopping 6K mAh - even on an optimized & debloated device in durable mode with 5G off and display refresh rate kept low. You would expect a hungry device with the ROG5 specs but I suspect ASUS may have been a bit too aggressive with the tuning to squeeze the highest possible peak stats out of it vs the competition. Maybe they'll tweak it in future firmware updates..
Andrologic said:
Thanks. Will take a look. Presumably it works on all 888's but have you tried it on the ROG5?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
My rog 5 has been ordered but not yet delivered
I'm going a different route with it. If a kernel ever actually boots, I am trying to port an old governor that is a little more strict on when to ramp up.
Andrologic said:
Have any ROG owners undervolted this device yet? What tool did you use, and most important, how's the result? I'm thinking of undervolting it by a notch for better battery life during normal use. Looking for a solution that doesn't conflict with the built-in ASUS modes and setting controls that I want to keep on the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used konabess, I overclocked my rog 5 to 855mhz and undervolted all clocks down by 2 levels and here are my antutu results. Very minor improvements on gpu and temp. But i definitely get longer sot now while gaming.