Snapdragon S10/+/e owners please read: Inherent problem with lag and stuttering

[cvat]

The gist of the problem is basically this: System-wide intermittent stutter which only goes away until you activate a screen recorder app, whether it be Game Tools, Nice Shot, AZ Screen Recorder, etc. Yes, you read that correctly - recording the screen improves overall phone performance!

Below is a list of posts that highlight this problem that I and a few others (and possibly many more who aren't aware) are experiencing. The common denominator here is the use of a screen recorder, which notably improves the overall performance / feel of the phone. This is the only known solution as far as I'm aware, which is completely unideal.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/s10-plus/help/lag-stutter-overall-choppy-t3914381

https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxys10/comments/btwfbl/anyone_experiencing_stuttering_or_frame_drops_on/

https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxys10/comments/b79cw3/is_snapdragon_really_that_much_worse_than_exynos/

https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxys10/comments/b4nftn/snapdragon_s10_laggy_on_4k_youtube_playback/

The following two are from myself. I initially thought the issue was isolated to video playback but it actually appears to be system-wide.

https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxys10/comments/ch172q/snapdragon_owners_does_this_type_of_video_play/

https://forum.xda-developers.com/s10-plus/help/sm-g9750-video-playback-throttled-t3950757

The lag returns as soon as you deactivate screen recording, which suggests that this is either a bug with the CPU or GPU not being optimized or boosting its frequencies properly, or that they are intentionally being throttled for whatever reason, leading to these stutters.

Bear in mind that these are all Snapdragon owners, I don't recall ever having this issue as a last generation S9 Exynos owner. If you are an S10/+/e Exynos owner, I would still suggest using your phone normally, but with a screen recorder active and then without, to see if there is any performance gain (as crazy as it sounds, it might actually make a difference).

Please don't brush this off as a non-issue even if your phone appears to be fine or snappy enough to you - the point is that your experience could be so much smoother / better than it currently is.

And yes, it may seem like I'm spamming this everywhere but this phone cost close to a grand and has flagship-level specs - there is absolutely no reason to accept its performance being limited in any way. As great as the phone is in every other aspect, on principle I will be moving on if this issue remains as it is.

 

[Rukbat]

It suggests only 1 of 2 things:

That the screen recorder is very inefficient, and uses too much CPU or GPU time

or

The phone isn't powerful enough to run both a screen recorder and the app you're trying to record.

This is more prevalent in games with a lot of sparkle, fires or other things that require a lot of GPU (one small body of water in the background with sunlight glinting off the wavelets can be more than the GPU can handle), but can happen on other apps that use a lot of CPU or GPU in the background.

Or it could simply be a defective phone, with marginal specs to begin with. (Which makes it barely not a warranty item, but no good for your particular purpose.)

By the way, when you post a link, type a word like "this", highlight it, then use the Link icon to linkify it. Your links come out as https:// forum.xda-developers.com/s10...hoppy-t3914381, which can't be used, of course.

 

[cvat]

It suggests only 1 of 2 things:

That the screen recorder is very inefficient, and uses too much CPU or GPU time

or

The phone isn't powerful enough to run both a screen recorder and the app you're trying to record.

This is more prevalent in games with a lot of sparkle, fires or other things that require a lot of GPU (one small body of water in the background with sunlight glinting off the wavelets can be more than the GPU can handle), but can happen on other apps that use a lot of CPU or GPU in the background.

Or it could simply be a defective phone, with marginal specs to begin with. (Which makes it barely not a warranty item, but no good for your particular purpose.)

By the way, when you post a link, type a word like "this", highlight it, then use the Link icon to linkify it. Your links come out as https:// forum.xda-developers.com/s10...hoppy-t3914381, which can't be used, of course.

I appreciate the reply but you've completely misunderstood the problem. The screen recorder improves performance while it's active.

For me this is during 4K HDR video playback which is choppy and stuttering until I turn on the screen recorder, then it's completely perfect.

This suggests a software or optimization problem whereby the CPU / GPU are not freq boosting as required.

Apologies for the faulty links, I will correct them. I realized too late after the post went into moderation limbo.