[Q] One core disabled ? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

hi,
I've been playing with a few system information apps, and they all show the same thing,
Total cores : 4
Available cores : 3
both system panel (lite) and elixir2 show the same thing
have I missed a setting somewhere ? Can we enable the 4th core ? Am I being thick ?
Cheers,
Malty

seems i was being a little hasty, i loaded up a cpu intensive application and all 4 sprang into life, i guess i was just expecting to see them available and idle, not unavailable.
my bad
malty

the 4th one is probably for redundancy

maltloaf said:
seems i was being a little hasty, i loaded up a cpu intensive application and all 4 sprang into life, i guess i was just expecting to see them available and idle, not unavailable.
my bad
malty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, and your OP suggests to me that it was using just one instead of using 3 and leaving one out. this makes sense since you said that all 4 were active with a CPU intensive prog.

This is a feature, not a bug =)
Samsung's pegasusq governor (the tool that controls the CPU clockspeed and it's variations) has a hotplug feature, meaning it will disable any non-necessary cores to save power.
Afaik Tegra3 implements the same with it's hardware-based solution (helper core). Leave it to NVIDIA to make something easy be very complicated and expensive. Especially since Linux and the ARM-structure already allow for online hotplugging of CPU's

Related

running full speed interesting observation

OK I've got mine on normal mode, and this kind of confirms my original thought that the 500mhz 5th core is clocked to low. I find the pad actually speeds up when I have multiple items in my recently run tab! If my understanding of the way it works these programs are still running in the background right? Then it starts kicking in the other 4 and not just running on the 5th at 500mhz! I really think we'd see a speed boost if we can get that 5th core over 500. Yes its supposed to save battery life but I really don't think 500 is fast enough to run on its own. You're thoughts and observations?
markimar said:
OK I've got mine on normal mode, and this kind of confirms my original thought that the 500mhz 5th core is clocked to low. I find the pad actually speeds up when I have multiple items in my recently run tab! If my understanding of the way it works these programs are still running in the background right? Then it starts kicking in the other 4 and not just running on the 5th at 500mhz! I really think we'd see a speed boost if we can get that 5th core over 500. Yes its supposed to save battery life but I really don't think 500 is fast enough to run on its own. You're thoughts and observations?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ill check on this when i get home. this issue im assuming is with honeycomb itself. we would assume that ICS would properly use those cores
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II t989
i don't have it yet (mine gets delivered on wed), but what you observed makes perfect sense. Can they change it to run on say an 800 MHZ constant "down" to 500MHZ when doing the most simple tasks? obviously i to do not believe that 500MHZ will be sufficient at all times to do screen scrolling and such on it's own.
I'm really hoping that the few performance issues people are seeing is resolved in firmware updates and a tegra 3 optimized version of ICS. Maybe asus/nvidia needs to do more tweaking to HC before the ICS build is pushed if it will take a while for ICS to arrive to the prime (past january).
The cores are optimized just fine. They kick in when rendering a web page or a game, but go idle and use the 5th core when done. Games always render.
ryan562 said:
ill check on this when i get home. this issue im assuming is with honeycomb itself. we would assume that ICS would properly use those cores
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II t989
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing's changed over HC in the way ICS uses h/w acceleration. And I'd assume apps using h/w acceleration do so via calls to the OS, not to the chip directly. So it appears what you've got is what you're going to get.
---------- Post added at 06:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:55 PM ----------
markimar said:
OK I've got mine on normal mode, and this kind of confirms my original thought that the 500mhz 5th core is clocked to low. I find the pad actually speeds up when I have multiple items in my recently run tab! If my understanding of the way it works these programs are still running in the background right? Then it starts kicking in the other 4 and not just running on the 5th at 500mhz! I really think we'd see a speed boost if we can get that 5th core over 500. Yes its supposed to save battery life but I really don't think 500 is fast enough to run on its own. You're thoughts and observations?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have Pulse installed? A bunch of people using it were reporting stuttering where their lower powered devices aren't. If you run it at full speed, does it stutter? One of the hypothesis is that it's the core's stepping up and down that's causing the stuttering.
BarryH_GEG said:
Nothing's changed over HC in the way ICS uses h/w acceleration. And I'd assume apps using h/w acceleration do so via calls to the OS, not to the chip directly. So it appears what you've got is what you're going to get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the OS knows about the fifth core? I believe the chip's own scheduler manages the transition between the quad-core and the companion core, not the Android scheduler.
Mithent said:
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the OS knows about the fifth core? I believe the chip's own scheduler manages the transition between the quad-core and the companion core, not the Android scheduler.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the way I'd guess it would work. I don't think Android addresses different chips differently. I'd assume it's up to the SoC to manage the incoming instructions and react accordingly. If Android was modified for dual-core, I don't think it diffentiates between the different implementations of dual-core chips. Someone with more h/w experience correct me if I'm wrong. Also, does anyone know if the chip manufacturer can add additional API's that developers can write to directly either instead of or in parallel with the OS? I ask because how can a game be optimized for Tegra if to the OS all chips are treated the same?
I tried out the power savings mode for a while.it seemed to perform just fine. Immediate difference is that it lowers the contrast ratio on display. This happens as soon as you press the power savings tab. Screen will look like brightness dropped a bit but if you look closely, you'll see it lowered the contrast ratio. Screen still looks good but not as sharp as in other 2 modes. UI still seems to preform just fine. Plus I think the modes doesn't affect gaming or video playback performance. I read that somewhere, either anandtech or Engadget. When watching vids or playing games, it goes into normal mode. So those things won't be affected no matter what power mode you in, I think..lol
I was thinking of starting a performance mode thread. To see different peoples results and thoughts on different power modes. I read some people post that they just use it in power/battery savings mode. Some keep it in normal all the time. Others in balanced mode. Would be good to see how these different modes perform in real life usage. From user perspective. I've noticed, so far, that In balanced mode, battery drains about 10% an hour. This is with nonstop use including gaming, watching vids, web surfing, etc. now in battery savings mode, it drains even less per hour. I haven't ran normal mode long enough to see how it drains compared to others. One thing though, web surfing drains battery just as fast as gaming.
BarryH_GEG said:
I ask because how can a game be optimized for Tegra if to the OS all chips are treated the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate quoting myself but I found the answer on Nvidia's website. Any otimizations are handled through OpenGL. So games written to handle additional calls that Teg2 can support are making those calls through OpenGL with the OS (I'm guessing) used as a pass-through. It would also explain why Tegra optimized games fail on non-Teg devices because they wouldn't be able process the additional requests. So it would appear that Teg optimization isn't being done through the OS. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.
BarryH_GEG said:
That's the way I'd guess it would work. I don't think Android addresses different chips differently. I'd assume it's up to the SoC to manage the incoming instructions and react accordingly. If Android was modified for dual-core, I don't think it diffentiates between the different implementations of dual-core chips.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did some research on it; here's what Nvidia say:
The Android 3.x (Honeycomb) operating system has built-in support for multi-processing and is
capable of leveraging the performance of multiple CPU cores. However, the operating system
assumes that all available CPU cores are of equal performance capability and schedules tasks
to available cores based on this assumption. Therefore, in order to make the management of
the Companion core and main cores totally transparent to the operating system, Kal-El
implements both hardware-based and low level software-based management of the Companion
core and the main quad CPU cores.
Patented hardware and software CPU management logic continuously monitors CPU workload
to automatically and dynamically enable and disable the Companion core and the main CPU
cores. The decision to turn on and off the Companion and main cores is purely based on current
CPU workload levels and the resulting CPU operating frequency recommendations made by the
CPU frequency control subsystem embedded in the operating system kernel. The technology
does not require any application or OS modifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/t...e-for-Low-Power-and-High-Performance-v1.1.pdf
So it uses the existing architecture for CPU power states, but intercepts that at a low level and uses it to control the companion core/quad-core switch?
Edit: I wonder if that means that tinkering with the scheduler/frequency control would allow the point at which the companion core/quad-core switch happens to be altered? If the OP is correct, this might allow the companion core to be utilised less if an increase in "smoothness" was desired, at the cost of some battery life?
Mithent said:
I wonder if that means that tinkering with the scheduler/frequency control would allow the point at which the companion core/quad-core switch happens to be altered? If the OP is correct, this might allow the companion core to be utilised less if an increase in "smoothness" was desired, at the cost of some battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what we guessed was right. The OS treats all multi-cores the same and it's up to the chip maker to optimize requests and return them. To your point, what happens between the three processors (1+1x2+1x2) is black-box and controlled by Nvidia. To any SetCPU type program it's just going to show up as a single chip. People have tried in vain to figure how to make the Qualcomm dual-core's act independently so I'd guess Teg3 will end up the same way. And Nvidia won't even publish their drivers so I highly doubt they'll provide any outside hooks to control something as sensitive as the performance of each individual core in what they're marketing as a single chip.
[/COLOR]
Do you have Pulse installed? A bunch of people using it were reporting stuttering where their lower powered devices aren't. If you run it at full speed, does it stutter? One of the hypothesis is that it's the core's stepping up and down that's causing the stuttering.[/QUOTE]
I have been running mine in balanced mode, have had pulse installed since day one, no lag or stuttering in anything. games, other apps work fine.
Well my phones when clocked at 500 so I wouldn't be surprised
Sent from my VS910 4G using xda premium

[Q] What game booster app are people using

Hi all Ive seen a few people mention game boosting apps and have found a number of paid and free options but am wondering what people here are using (if any) ?
Many thanks
Matt
flipside101 said:
Hi all Ive seen a few people mention game boosting apps and have found a number of paid and free options but am wondering what people here are using (if any) ?
Many thanks
Matt
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there,
I (probablu) ran into the same problem as you did: whilst playing demanding games (like GTA 3/Vicy City) the device stutters and is having difficulty producing a smooth framerate. On an HTC Sense rom whilst playing GTA:VC I had like 13 FPS @ low settings (18% draw distance, 70% screen resolution, medium GFX settings and dynamic shadows OFF) and it was just awful. Then I decided to put CM10 on my device. In the settings menu there is an option called 'Performance' and you can change the profile there. The default profile is 'ondemand' but I changed it to 'performance' to let the quad-cores work at full capacity. Now, all of a sudden, I can run GTA:VC on the highest settings possible at a steady 30+ FPS.
If tl;dr: don't bother with 'game boosters', they will just terminate proccesses running in the background. Instead flash your device with a nice ROM: CM10. It has A) better battery life because there are no unnecessary processes running in the background and B) overall better performance due to the fact there is no SENSE interfering.
Just my two cents.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1783260
Actually this app is no joke and was made specifically for the one x, with this app you will achieve greater performance than with cm10 or forcing the performance governor which will just overheat your phone, the tegra 3 processor couples the gpu to the cpu, for example when the game uses only two cpus the gpu is limited to half speed which is why gameloft games lag, gaming boost decouples the gpu, optimizes the cpu governor and sets the minfrees to aggressive so that the game receives enough ram to maintain a stable framerate.
ryanjsoo said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1783260
Actually this app is no joke and was made specifically for the one x, with this app you will achieve greater performance than with cm10 or forcing the performance governor which will just overheat your phone, the tegra 3 processor couples the gpu to the cpu, for example when the game uses only two cpus the gpu is limited to half speed which is why gameloft games lag, gaming boost decouples the gpu, optimizes the cpu governor and sets the minfrees to aggressive so that the game receives enough ram to maintain a stable framerate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But is it suitable for our HOX+ ? since the HOX+ is based on another version of the Tegra 3 will it still work stabily ???
djsynth said:
But is it suitable for our HOX+ ? since the HOX+ is based on another version of the Tegra 3 will it still work stabily ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The HOX+ is not based on another version of tegra. It's just a newer revision of the same chip in the HOX.
Sent from my HTC One X+ using Tapatalk 2

[Q] Galaxy S3 Cores... One is missing or disabled

Since i got my GSIII i've been tweaking and experimenting with the best setup to give myself a nice experience without draining the hell out of the battery (especially now that my battery is an aged piece of s**t that won't last more than 6 hours, maybe because of my own actions )
I've gone through many different ROMS, official test builds, kernel configurations, etc... but a thing that has ALWAYS caught my eye is the fact that every single CPU tweaking mod i've ever used only lists 3 cores on the device
I should point out that i own an international SIII (GT-I9300), which comes with the Exynos 4412, it's not the best, but it does it's job pretty well, even with the default PegasusQ governor, personally, i just switch the I/O Scheduler to SIO for better performance, since i have a ton of media on the phone
If the 4412 is a quad core why is that 4th core never listed? i might be overlooking somthing completely obvious and stupid, and i probably should have figured it out by now, it's been a while since i've been using android phones, but this question has bugged me since i bought the phone over a year ago... can someone please explain this? i'll be forever grateful
Do you have power saving enabled or any app to save battery installed?
Modelistis said:
Do you have power saving enabled or any app to save battery installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither of them... power saving disables two cores and makes the phone feel sluggish, and everybody knows battery saver apps are BS
Cores are numbered from 0, not one. So the four cores would be 0,1,2,3. Making the total number of cores to be 4
Aleycat said:
Cores are numbered from 0, not one. So the four cores would be 0,1,2,3. Making the total number of cores to be 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Somebody told me about this some time ago... but even the CPU usage display option in the developers menu only lists 3 cores (separated by slashes) it seems as one core is system reserved... for usage by the phone itself... not for user needs
However... i switched CPU governors yesterday... and i noticed number 3 popped up... i might have been the reason that core was missing in SetCPU... but the built in meter still shows 3 cores... not 4
What governor are you using? Also i noticed mine also show only 3 cores.
had the same bug on my s3 with cm 11 just now but it went away after reloading the governor (there is a different governor than what i was using that only has 3 core enabled, so it might just be a bug with the phone using the wrong governor or bugged governor setting)
edit: just did some more testing and the pegasusq governor i am using dynamically disables cores if usage is low (at least on cm 11, it just sets them to "stopped" on stock 4.3 with the same governor)

Improve the standby time of op2 , for rooted phones.

after waiting impatiently for the arrival of your op2 , many are disappointed with the low battery standby....specially if you are using LTE.
issues :
1) even having such a large battery, getting poor battery life.
2) even if the phone is idle, battery drains :crying:
so after having it for almost 2 weeks, i have learned most of the cpu tuner and battery saving apps wont work with op2, its not because of software, basically snapdragon 810's big little architecture is new and apps in the market are not compatible with this octacore new chipset.
and because of very less manufacturers are using this SOC as we now know why... and they were right... it heats up a lot!!! so app developers have not concentrated an specific app for this SOC.
so after lots of mix and matches, finally have come up with a stable solution as follows :
a) your phone should be rooted.
b) install 3c cpu manager from playstore.
c) open minimum 6 apps in background maximum the better.
( remember if no apps are running in background then cpu manager will show only maximum 1.555 ghz. max frequency and 384 mhz low frequency single setup only and big little architecture dual setup wont be shown ie: 810 has 4 cores running @ 1.555 ghz max and other 4 cores @ 1.76 ghz max. and both setups at 384 mhz minimum. )
d) open cpu manager, there should be 2 different setups, if not then open more apps in background, simply change the governor to ON-DEMAND, from interactive and set it on and reboot, as i have noticed with interactive governor even during standby, processor does not stays idle at lower frequencies.
after changing the governor, i have noticed that during standby cpu frequencies are in idle or at the lowest. which highly improvises the battery standby life and haven't noticed any performance degradation.
you can even limit the higher cores frequencies from 1.76 ghz to 1.55 ghz... improving up-to some limit of over heating issues and better standby time.
these are just the findings i discovered with my phone, so don't blame me if anything goes wrong, do it at your own risk.
buntybauva said:
after waiting impatiently for the arrival of your op2 , many are disappointed with the low battery standby....specially if you are using LTE.
issues :
1) even having such a large battery, getting poor battery life.
2) even if the phone is idle, battery drains :crying:
so after having it for almost 2 weeks, i have learned most of the cpu tuner and battery saving apps wont work with op2, its not because of software, basically snapdragon 810's big little architecture is new and apps in the market are not compatible with this octacore new chipset.
and because of very less manufacturers are using this SOC as we now know why... and they were right... it heats up a lot!!! so app developers have not concentrated an specific app for this SOC.
so after lots of mix and matches, finally have come up with a stable solution as follows :
a) your phone should be rooted.
b) install 3c cpu manager from playstore.
c) open minimum 6 apps in background maximum the better.
( remember if no apps are running in background then cpu manager will show only maximum 1.555 ghz. max frequency and 384 mhz low frequency single setup only and big little architecture dual setup wont be shown ie: 810 has 4 cores running @ 1.555 ghz max and other 4 cores @ 1.76 ghz max. and both setups at 384 mhz minimum. )
d) open cpu manager, there should be 2 different setups, if not then open more apps in background, simply change the governor to ON-DEMAND, from interactive and set it on and reboot, as i have noticed with interactive governor even during standby, processor does not stays idle at lower frequencies.
after changing the governor, i have noticed that during standby cpu frequencies are in idle or at the lowest. which highly improvises the battery standby life and haven't noticed any performance degradation.
you can even limit the higher cores frequencies from 1.76 ghz to 1.55 ghz... improving up-to some limit of over heating issues and better standby time.
these are just the findings i discovered with my phone, so don't blame me if anything goes wrong, do it at your own risk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has nothing to do with apps, just poor drivers on the kernel side, scheduler isn't properly coded for this SoC, and the fact that there is no dynamic hotplugging options available without causing the phone to reboot under certain circumstances doesn't benefit us any. Check out some of the custom kernels, as they may increase your idle battery life, on my own kernel I saw .5% drain per hour max. For reference I saw about 20 hours idle and sitting at 89% on my kernel.
DespairFactor said:
This has nothing to do with apps, just poor drivers on the kernel side, scheduler isn't properly coded for this SoC, and the fact that there is no dynamic hotplugging options available without causing the phone to reboot under certain circumstances doesn't benefit us any. Check out some of the custom kernels, as they may increase your idle battery life, on my own kernel I saw .5% drain per hour max. For reference I saw about 20 hours idle and sitting at 89% on my kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i really appreciate your findings with the kernel, but my post is intended for people like me who does not wants to mess up with a stock kernel, so that future OTA updates can be patched without much hassle.
as you see, oxygen os is quite new and incomplete when compared with other's have to offer. so i expect lots of future updates immediately by the OP to improve and stabilize the OS.
I am giving snapdragon battery guru a try, it's for Qualcomm processors. But I'm not very experienced in this stuff. I think it has helped but if someone with more experience wants to give it a try. Maybe they can shed some new light on this subject.
This is the result with on-demand governor settings when phone is idle. with stock kernel and stock frequencies.
Ondemand has always been my fvorite for all past phones. in op2 however it always reverts back to original after interactive. the best battery saver for any phone is swithching to 4.4.2. Azimg batteru life. unfortunately notpossble with op2
buntybauva said:
i really appreciate your findings with the kernel, but my post is intended for people like me who does not wants to mess up with a stock kernel, so that future OTA updates can be patched without much hassle.
as you see, oxygen os is quite new and incomplete when compared with other's have to offer. so i expect lots of future updates immediately by the OP to improve and stabilize the OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Being rooted alone will prevent OTA updates. You have to flash the full stock ROM when there's an update anyway which would overwrite the kernel.

All G5 CPUs locked down to 1.5ghz

Hey, I saw that all CPUs are currently locked down to 1593mhz. Our chip should have 2x1.5ghz for general use and 2x2.1ghz for high performance tasks.
But in stock as in custom Roms, I see all CPUs locked down, max freq 1593mhz and no control over queue processing, either from hotplug or CPU front. Is there something I missed? Or LG just lied to us?
I know from thermal point of view that our device would not be able to sustain 2.1ghz for a long time, but if the frequency is not even available, it is a serious matter... +500mhz is not something to overlook!
If thats true, thatd be a heartbreaking, the first thing I look to before choosing a device, is clock speed
Unlock the game optimization
I checked on cpu-z and frequencies. With optimization on, it won't go over 1,5 ghz but with that option off it is easily jumping to maximum clock speed (faster battery drain). Stock rom, don't know about custom roms.
Linux User said:
I checked on cpu-z and frequencies. With optimization on, it won't go over 1,5 ghz but with that option off it is easily jumping to maximum clock speed (faster battery drain). Stock rom, don't know about custom roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean game optimization in settings/battery? I think we do not have that option in custom ROMs (I am currently trying Aicp 12.1) and never changed it in stock. I will try going back to stock to disable that option and see if the frequency table changes... If it does, it will be a pre-requisite before flashing custom ROMs in our device. Still, it is something the kernel should handle.
I would underclock the device on my own, as I did with my good old G2, but not having the option for the CPUs to scale as intended is not cool...
Well, frequency table shows no change with stock, but somehow, CPUs 3 and 4 scale up to 2150mhz now.
I guess LG did not cheat in the strict sense of the word, but just does not want us to have control over our devices...
Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk
Floodland said:
Hey, I saw that all CPUs are currently locked down to 1593mhz. Our chip should have 2x1.5ghz for general use and 2x2.1ghz for high performance tasks.
But in stock as in custom Roms, I see all CPUs locked down, max freq 1593mhz and no control over queue processing, either from hotplug or CPU front. Is there something I missed? Or LG just lied to us?
I know from thermal point of view that our device would not be able to sustain 2.1ghz for a long time, but if the frequency is not even available, it is a serious matter... +500mhz is not something to overlook!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So... I was freaked out after reading this thread, so i rushed to check using cpu Z and it turned out that mine is clocked at 2.15, so i don't know what is wrong u
The Snapdragon 820 inside the LG G5 has a quad-core processor which has 2 cores clocked at 2.15 GHz and two other cores clocked at 1.6 GHz (1593 MHz), it's the way the manufacturer (Qualcomm) decided the processor to be, the LG G5 is not underclocked. Some users may get different results in applications like CPU-Z or AnTuTu depending on which core the application is based on.
Android_420 said:
The Snapdragon 820 inside the LG G5 has a quad-core processor which has 2 cores clocked at 2.15 GHz and two other cores clocked at 1.6 GHz (1593 MHz), it's the way the manufacturer (Qualcomm) decided the processor to be, the LG G5 is not underclocked. Some users may get different results in applications like CPU-Z or AnTuTu depending on which core the application is based on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The frequency table shown by kernel adiutor (or any kernel tweaking software) shows ranges 307-1593 for all processors.
I know the hardware behind, my first though was that LG underclocked it. Now I see the phone just hides its behavior and does not show the real table (or the available software is not able to see it).
We will need additional kernel development in order to effectively control the core speeds in our devices.
Case closed, thank you for the responses.
Floodland said:
The frequency table shown by kernel adiutor (or any kernel tweaking software) shows ranges 307-1593 for all processors.
I know the hardware behind, my first though was that LG underclocked it. Now I see the phone just hides its behavior and does not show the real table (or the available software is not able to see it).
We will need additional kernel development in order to effectively control the core speeds in our devices.
Case closed, thank you for the responses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
old versions of kernel auditor are buggy with the g5, they see it as a single quad core instead of big/little dual 2 cores. You need the newest kernel auditor.

Categories

Resources