Over(under)clocking: Performance vs. Governed

[Ticojpunk]

I've been reading as much as I can on overclocking, specifically for the Optimus V, since I've flashed Bumblebee.

I've seen two schools of thought, both seem pretty confident they are right.

1 school says the only way to go is performance mode, where you run at your constant overclocked speed 100% of the time. So if you're OC'd to 768, you set both your low and high to 768 and be done with it. They say that there's no use in underclocking because it doesn't save any battery, and the overclocked speed is more efficient, etc. If you're replying to this thread, you've probably read the same stuff.

The other school of thought is that underclocking DOES save battery, and it's best to set your range. And I believe Bumblebee by default is set up like this , 480 low, 768 high. This side obviously believes that a lower clock speed when you're phone is idle, or doing tasks that don't need intensive processing, is beneficial to your battery.

I don't know if there's any updated data that proves things one way or the other. I have only had Bumblebee on my phone for a handful of days, so haven't had time to run one way, then the other, and compare. Besides the fact that my daily conditions, usage and locations are seldom repeated, which would be necessary for an apples to apples assessment.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[zedorda]

Straight overclocking to like values has its benefits and so does high/low setups. It is more about what u want out of ur phone. I now run 480/825 with IHO using "smarta$$" governor. I did run straight 806/806 and it ran nice with nearly no lag ever. When setting the low threshold lower it does save noticeable battery life at the cost of lag as the clock adjusts to the needs of the user. Going anywhere below 400 can cause ur OV to actually use more power bc an operation will require more cpu time to the point of out weighting the lower clock value.

The standard underclocking method sets both values below avg as in something like 122/480. This method does not save battery life with the OV but does with alot of other phones.

 

[GeekOutDog]

I underclocked my phone because of hurricane irene. Normally at the end of the day my battery is at anywhere from 24 to 32% but last night my battery was at 78% still.

 

[LeslieAnn]

I've been reading as much as I can on overclocking, specifically for the Optimus V, since I've flashed Bumblebee.

I've seen two schools of thought, both seem pretty confident they are right.

1 school says the only way to go is performance mode, where you run at your constant overclocked speed 100% of the time. So if you're OC'd to 768, you set both your low and high to 768 and be done with it. They say that there's no use in underclocking because it doesn't save any battery, and the overclocked speed is more efficient, etc. If you're replying to this thread, you've probably read the same stuff.

The other school of thought is that underclocking DOES save battery, and it's best to set your range. And I believe Bumblebee by default is set up like this , 480 low, 768 high. This side obviously believes that a lower clock speed when you're phone is idle, or doing tasks that don't need intensive processing, is beneficial to your battery.

I don't know if there's any updated data that proves things one way or the other. I have only had Bumblebee on my phone for a handful of days, so haven't had time to run one way, then the other, and compare. Besides the fact that my daily conditions, usage and locations are seldom repeated, which would be necessary for an apples to apples assessment.

Any thoughts on this?

Read Marzz's battery life threads (the whole thread!, they are listed in the sticky), there is a complete and through discussion and explanation of this there.

 

[notserpmh]

I've been reading as much as I can on overclocking, specifically for the Optimus V, since I've flashed Bumblebee.

I've seen two schools of thought, both seem pretty confident they are right.

1 school says the only way to go is performance mode, where you run at your constant overclocked speed 100% of the time. So if you're OC'd to 768, you set both your low and high to 768 and be done with it. They say that there's no use in underclocking because it doesn't save any battery, and the overclocked speed is more efficient, etc. If you're replying to this thread, you've probably read the same stuff.

The other school of thought is that underclocking DOES save battery, and it's best to set your range. And I believe Bumblebee by default is set up like this , 480 low, 768 high. This side obviously believes that a lower clock speed when you're phone is idle, or doing tasks that don't need intensive processing, is beneficial to your battery.

I don't know if there's any updated data that proves things one way or the other. I have only had Bumblebee on my phone for a handful of days, so haven't had time to run one way, then the other, and compare. Besides the fact that my daily conditions, usage and locations are seldom repeated, which would be necessary for an apples to apples assessment.

Any thoughts on this?

With the Optimus V, the way I understand it, the idea behind setting it to performance the the lower and upper clock speeds the same, was that with the higher clock speed, the task requested would finish faster and then the processor would be able to go back to idle faster (using less battery).

The one flaw in the plan, however, was long running processes, like say listening to Pandora for an hour or so. Constantly listening to Pandora would keep the cpu active, not allowing it to go idle (and thus using the battery a lot) and since you are over clocked as high as your phone could go, it would use more battery to sustain that high clock rate.

I have found that by using the interactive governor, an upper clock of 806 (the highest mine is stable at) and a lower clock of 600, I get a good balance of performance and battery life. If I listen to Pandora on the drive home, the cpu stays at 600, causing Pandora not to drain my battery dry quite as fast. If I fire up a game or am switching through apps/screens quickly, the cpu scales up with no real noticeable lag and finishes quickly. I did notice the scale up lag a little more coming from 480, that is why I decided to keep it at 600 for the low number.

Overall, I think a lot of battery life depends on how you use it. I would say try it one way for a week or so (performance, matched speeds) and then the other way for a week or so (interactive, different speeds) maybe even with a third test with a different lower number and see what gives you the best battery life.

 

[joshlete]

With the Optimus V, the way I understand it, the idea behind setting it to performance the the lower and upper clock speeds the same, was that with the higher clock speed, the task requested would finish faster and then the processor would be able to go back to idle faster (using less battery).

The one flaw in the plan, however, was long running processes, like say listening to Pandora for an hour or so. Constantly listening to Pandora would keep the cpu active, not allowing it to go idle (and thus using the battery a lot) and since you are over clocked as high as your phone could go, it would use more battery to sustain that high clock rate.

I have found that by using the interactive governor, an upper clock of 806 (the highest mine is stable at) and a lower clock of 600, I get a good balance of performance and battery life. If I listen to Pandora on the drive home, the cpu stays at 600, causing Pandora not to drain my battery dry quite as fast. If I fire up a game or am switching through apps/screens quickly, the cpu scales up with no real noticeable lag and finishes quickly. I did notice the scale up lag a little more coming from 480, that is why I decided to keep it at 600 for the low number.

Overall, I think a lot of battery life depends on how you use it. I would say try it one way for a week or so (performance, matched speeds) and then the other way for a week or so (interactive, different speeds) maybe even with a third test with a different lower number and see what gives you the best battery life.

I have been usually doing 480 and 806 recently. Today, I got a new ROM on. I am going to try to do 600 and 825 and see how the battery life is now. I will also go back to the 480/806 to make sure the new ROM isn't affecting anything. Thanks for the tip.

 

[GeekOutDog]

I underclocked my phone because of hurricane irene. Normally at the end of the day my battery is at anywhere from 24 to 32% but last night my battery was at 78% still.

Today after a 10 hour work day underground plus 2 hours commute, my battery is at 80%
That's about 2 hours of web surfing plus facebook over 3G, 30 minutes of talking on the phone, and the rest of the time spent underground with at best 1 bar service... unbelievable battery life compared to historical performance...

 

[Ticojpunk]

I underclocked my phone because of hurricane irene. Normally at the end of the day my battery is at anywhere from 24 to 32% but last night my battery was at 78% still.

What are your settings?

 

[GeekOutDog]

IHO BobZ build... Min CPU 122, Max 480. Smartass governor. Prior to this I had the min at 320 and the max at 806.

Using Launcherpro plus with 3 widgets (messaging, facebook, and calendar. facebook set to sync every hour) and I have my google account (including google voice) set to sync.

Wifi and GPS off.

 

[joshgee]

Apparently I'm doing something wrong or I use my phone way more than anyone else does because I get maybe 8 solid hours out of a charge and thats with Harmonia... with BACKside and Reborn I get 5 to 6 at best... my solution to this was buying an Energizer Emergency Charge majiger.

 

[Whyzor]

IHO BobZ build... Min CPU 122, Max 480. Smartass governor. Prior to this I had the min at 320 and the max at 806.

Using Launcherpro plus with 3 widgets (messaging, facebook, and calendar. facebook set to sync every hour) and I have my google account (including google voice) set to sync.

Wifi and GPS off.

I have similar setup, except 245-480 ondemand. Ondemand, Interactive (& smartass probably too) governors ramp the CPU up to max right away when under load, so there's really not much 'ramp-up' time. They differ in how aggressive to ramp down when idle.

From Mmarz's testing (and Blarf's comments on kernel code), it seems the OV only has 2 voltages, the cutoff being at 480 Mhz. Voltage has a bigger effect on power use than clock speed (P=fV^2). I turn off (GPS,Wifi,BT,3G) when not using them, airplane mode when sleeping, and my battery usually lasts 3-4 days before needing a charge.

Even though Mmarz has done extensive testing, and I appreciate it. I do see some flaws in them. Number 1 being that it used a benchmark that tested pure CPU load. In real-world use, the CPU does not always have enough data to process. Sometimes it has to wait for memory and other components. The benchmark test likely just used the local cache memory to read & write data, so it was performing in an ideal environment. This leads to the belief in "race-to-idle', get the process done faster, so it can spend more time idling.

I believe LG & Qualcomm engineers know more about power saving and have done more testing than us users, which is why they have the defaults at 245-600 Mhz. There is power to be saved at 245 Mhz. Anything lower is debatable. But running at overclocked speeds definitely will hurt battery. Even with max at 480 Mhz, the phone is snappy enough for me (I'm not a gamer though).

 

[GeekOutDog]

I have similar setup, except 245-480 ondemand. Ondemand, Interactive (& smartass probably too) governors ramp the CPU up to max right away when under load, so there's really not much 'ramp-up' time. They differ in how aggressive to ramp down when idle.

From Mmarz's testing (and Blarf's comments on kernel code), it seems the OV only has 2 voltages, the cutoff being at 480 Mhz. Voltage has a bigger effect on power use than clock speed (P=fV^2). I turn off (GPS,Wifi,BT,3G) when not using them, airplane mode when sleeping, and my battery usually lasts 3-4 days before needing a charge.

Even though Mmarz has done extensive testing, and I appreciate it. I do see some flaws in them. Number 1 being that it used a benchmark that tested pure CPU load. In real-world use, the CPU does not always have enough data to process. Sometimes it has to wait for memory and other components. The benchmark test likely just used the local cache memory to read & write data, so it was performing in an ideal environment. This leads to the belief in "race-to-idle', get the process done faster, so it can spend more time idling.

I believe LG & Qualcomm engineers know more about power saving and have done more testing than us users, which is why they have the defaults at 245-600 Mhz. There is power to be saved at 245 Mhz. Anything lower is debatable. But running at overclocked speeds definitely will hurt battery. Even with max at 480 Mhz, the phone is snappy enough for me (I'm not a gamer though).

Facebook is less responsive underclocked, but otherwise I don't really have any issues keeping it clocked lower. I'll see what happens when I go for a run next and want to use the GPS with RunKeeper

 

[joshlete]

So, going underclocked 480 would help battery? I am now confused completely.

 

[GeekOutDog]

Three days of real world testing seems to support that for me. I'm not sure if its a worthwhile tradeoff for some people, but at least I know my phone is capable of going well over a day on a charge (20% drop after more than 10 hours) if I need it to, instead of barely 8-10 hours when I'm overclocked and trying to impress friends/coworkers with what a great value my budget phone is.

 

[LeslieAnn]

Apparently I'm doing something wrong or I use my phone way more than anyone else does because I get maybe 8 solid hours out of a charge and thats with Harmonia... with BACKside and Reborn I get 5 to 6 at best... my solution to this was buying an Energizer Emergency Charge majiger.

One (or more) of your apps is using your gps or network.
That or you are using your phone A LOT.

Even though Mmarz has done extensive testing, and I appreciate it. I do see some flaws in them. Number 1 being that it used a benchmark that tested pure CPU load. In real-world use, the CPU does not always have enough data to process. Sometimes it has to wait for memory and other components. The benchmark test likely just used the local cache memory to read & write data, so it was performing in an ideal environment. This leads to the belief in "race-to-idle', get the process done faster, so it can spend more time idling.

This was discussed in the thread itself.

I wish he would have revised the first post but he never did and now a ton of people keep using that as a source of info or quoting others who quote from it.

 

[perksa]

I have used every rom on this site and tried many, many things like turning off 3g or turning off wifi, gps ect. I tell you the absolute very best thing that has worked for me is turning wifi sleep policy to never sleep.

I think the reason this works for me is because I'm almost always connected to a wireless network whether at home or work during the week a least. 3g only drains my battery fast as in 5-6 hrs of battery time with wifi set to never sleep and 3g only connecting when no wifi is around I get roughly 2 days depending on use. just my 2c

 

[GeekOutDog]

12 hours unplugged today, ~3 hours were spent casually surfing the web or facebook, plus text messaging and about 30 minutes of phone calls.. 71% battery life. Unreal difference underclocked in real world performance

 

[Whyzor]

12 hours unplugged today, ~3 hours were spent casually surfing the web or facebook, plus text messaging and about 30 minutes of phone calls.. 71% battery life. Unreal difference underclocked in real world performance

Thanks for reporting. I've always had good battery life on IHO, but I've never used any of the older ROMs mmarz tested and don't overclock, so I don' thave a comparsion. If only someone could hook up a multimeter to measure the current and do some tests like Mmarz did with this ROM, then we can put this issue to rest.

 

[GeekOutDog]

Until this week, I was coming home from work with barely any battery left. The only thing that has changed is dropping my max from 806 to 480. I still have my 3 full screens of widgets, I still have a theme, I still have data syncing...