Hi.
I am totally new to the Android phone tweaking phenomenon. Been reading and testing many of the tips, tricks and such on the forum here. I must say, I was about to ditch the trusty Atrix 4g when I came upon this forum. I can't thank XDA enough for being the informative and authoritative website that it is.
On another forum I saw someone ask if they should upgrade to a SG3 or unlock/root their Atrix 4g. I though about it a bit. My "answer" was simple: I am a cheapskate. Forking out $200 for a new SG3 (my phone of choice right now to be honest) is a bit rough on my pocket. Unlocking/rooting is for free. Try unlocking/rooting "responsibly" first. If it doesn't work out to my satisfaction, then upgrade the phone. At least you make sure you are squeezing the max out of your Atrix 4G, right?
I unlocked... rooted... and I could not be happier. Only problem now is that I want more! I OC PC's for a hobby so squeezing more is second nature to me right now. Cell phones are way different to PC's though. Quickly saw you can't water cool then effectively and retain its mobile nature. Now my phone has a new life in it that I think could be improved even more. Therefore, I pose two simple questions here now:
1) Extended battery... worth the investment or not? I rooted to MROM and find I have excellent battery life in comparison to before but I wouldn't mind extra life via the battery itself. Investment would be around $20 tops for a 2800 mAh battery. That's about 33% more mAh if that's the correct way of looking at this...
2) If I were to get the extended battery, I was thinking of upgrading my kernel to the Faux123 1.3 ghz version. Would I "really" notice the difference in terms of performance? (am presently running the MROM ver. 43 SV kernel which is 1.0 ghz - "sv" means software voltage "tweaked" for better battery life if I am not mistaken)
Thoughts?
Signed,
Uncle Kah
1.) If you really want the extended battery it is only worth it if you can handle the extra bulk. Buy only what feels comfortable to you. (And that's the only thing that you should be considering on this subject)
2.) Depends a lot on what you're doing. The things that are already running fairly fast and feel snappy probably won't feel much different, but you will see an improvement on things that are/feel a little sluggish at times.
Right now we're on a turning point as far as development goes, since the new leak has been released there will be a slew of new builds coming our way very soon (I am hoping within the next few days), so sit tight and watch (maybe help test too?) closely, because even the current incomplete ICS/JB builds are, in my opinion, superior to any other Gingerbread build.
littleemp said:
1.) If you really want the extended battery it is only worth it if you can handle the extra bulk. Buy only what feels comfortable to you. (And that's the only thing that you should be considering on this subject)
2.) Depends a lot on what you're doing. The things that are already running fairly fast and feel snappy probably won't feel much different, but you will see an improvement on things that are/feel a little sluggish at times.
Right now we're on a turning point as far as development goes, since the new leak has been released there will be a slew of new builds coming our way very soon (I am hoping within the next few days), so sit tight and watch (maybe help test too?) closely, because even the current incomplete ICS/JB builds are, in my opinion, superior to any other Gingerbread build.
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I agree on the battery thing being more a matter of bulk. That's why I was looking at the 2800 mAh battery instead of the 3500+ mAh. I believe the bulk should be less. I have big hands anyways so it shouldn't be much of an issue BUT, if I need to put the phone on a pocket fort example, that might be an issue.
I see your point on the sluggishness of apps and such. I really can't complain that much of anything being slow or stuttery. Netflix works just fine. I don;'t game on my phone. I mainly surf, email and chat. Those functions are doing just fine. In essence, it's much like a computer. You can reach 4.5 ghz overclock and taking it up to lets say 4.7 may not be noticeable in any way other than bench marking and such and we are not doing that continuously as it is.
Interesting point on the leak and the possibility of new ROM's hitting the threads soon. Not used to how those innovations work in the cell phone world. If that's the case, then I feel that I should wait a bit and then play around with the new ROM's that are soon to be born.
Thanks for the insight...
Kahbrohn said:
I agree on the battery thing being more a matter of bulk. That's why I was looking at the 2800 mAh battery instead of the 3500+ mAh. I believe the bulk should be less. I have big hands anyways so it shouldn't be much of an issue BUT, if I need to put the phone on a pocket fort example, that might be an issue.
I see your point on the sluggishness of apps and such. I really can't complain that much of anything being slow or stuttery. Netflix works just fine. I don;'t game on my phone. I mainly surf, email and chat. Those functions are doing just fine. In essence, it's much like a computer. You can reach 4.5 ghz overclock and taking it up to lets say 4.7 may not be noticeable in any way other than bench marking and such and we are not doing that continuously as it is.
Interesting point on the leak and the possibility of new ROM's hitting the threads soon. Not used to how those innovations work in the cell phone world. If that's the case, then I feel that I should wait a bit and then play around with the new ROM's that are soon to be born.
Thanks for the insight...
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I actually think the overall feel of GB to be slow and the browser in particular sluggish at times when compared to other devices (not necessarily with better hardware, just with newer software). I guess it comes with territory after tinkering with fully working JB builds on other devices. To be fair, I didn't see it as much until I tried it out... It's kinda like giving a blind man a brand new pair of eyes.
On the overclock thing, 4.5 to even 5 Ghz the difference is very negligible as you say, but a 1Ghz to 1.3 or 1.5 GHz jump is very noticeable. Remember we're talking an extra 30-50% in CPU cycles.
Related
Hey all,
I come from an extensive background in OC'ing my own systems, pushing them to the extreme for noticeable performance increases. The one thing I know though, is that it does add wear and tear on the components, and shortens their lifespan. Is overclocking the Vibrant really worth it? I'm not sure if, with a ROM like Axura 2.2.5.7 which is blazing fast already, an extra 100 or 200 mHz is really worth the risk/performance.
What do you all say?
howetechnical said:
Hey all,
I come from an extensive background in OC'ing my own systems, pushing them to the extreme for noticeable performance increases. The one thing I know though, is that it does add wear and tear on the components, and shortens their lifespan. Is overclocking the Vibrant really worth it? I'm not sure if, with a ROM like Axura 2.2.5.7 which is blazing fast already, an extra 100 or 200 mHz is really worth the risk/performance.
What do you all say?
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the only reason i OC is basically just so i can tell myself that i am OCing. If that makes ANY sense. its basically just my phone OCD.
to answer your question, even though you kind of already answered it yourself: the only reason you would actually NEED to OC is if you game a lot on your phone, if you do a lot of multitasking, or if you have a lot of data transfering going on (which i do). other than that, our processor is pretty powerful, and can handle 95% of what is thrown at it.
With that said, since youve indicated that you are satisifed with your phones performance, i would say the only thing you should definately do is install a lagfix (if you havnt already). if you dont need to OC, do your battery/hardware a favor, and dont.....unless you have phone OCD like myself.
PS - not to ramble on, but there was actually a 2-day period where i actually wasnt OCed and i didnt know it (i guess my app reset itself or something). i remember saying to myself during that time that my phone phone seemed a little laggy and much slower than usual....then once i discovered that my OC wasnt applied, it made sense. but keep in mind, i have my phone doing a lotttttt of things constantly, so OCing may not have the effect on lighter users that it does on myself. pretty crazy what a .2 ghz difference makes
Like above stated, OC is only needed if you do some intensive task on your phone. In addition, most of the Overclocking Kernels are targeted at a broad audience, what I meant by that is the developer bumps up the voltage enough so that only a small amount of people experience crashes. However, user generally have no control over the voltage themselves and any increase in voltage is bad for electronic components. (exception being some of Eugene's kernels which allows UV by user).
I don't, its not needed. I like my battery life.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I dont usually oc unless I am near a power source. last night i tried the Dow kernals and wow my phone was dead within ours even while in standby. Imo thats just nuts. Even while Oc'd it shouldnt die that way.
What I am looking for is a kernal thats compatible with nero v3 that will maintain battery life aslong as I dont oc.
I have seen this post http://eb-productions.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=samsungsgs&action=display&thread=28&page=1 on Eugenes forum but non of the info makes sense. The one that does make sense has a older modem than the one I am using.
I guess I am use to the hd2 in which I would underclock to maintain decent battery life and use profiles. It doesnt seem like this cpu likes the profiles. amirite?
I would OC no question if we could get a UV kernel with good battery life like we did with Eclair. I won't do it with Froyo because of the terrible battery on i9000 kernels.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
What TopShelf10 said is correct. Basically the trade off is this.... faster kernel.......quicker battery drain. That is the trade off. I have used oc kernels ...I do not use the phone for games, so EVERY thing I do on the phone the oc is not necessary. That statement is true for 95% of us.
BUT, that said, there is some cool macho feeling you get when your phone is in overdrive, just like my car, 350 hp but I live on an island that only allows 25mph speed limit...still, it doesn't change that feeling of awesomeness I get when I start the engine
I had nothing but issues with each and every OC ROM I tried. App alarm, pandora, slacker, ect. It was always something. My phone would actually get random freezes so it made the phone feel slower. Voodoo or OCLF on the other hand work wonders.
is it worth it?
well, here were the trades i had with dow14:
going from 13-14mflops to 18-19mflops in linpack (yeah, it's a benchmark, but it's hard to otherwise convey how the oc directly translated to the phone being extremely fast otherwise).
battery life went from easily going 22+ hours between charges to going 6-8 hours between charges.
however, with the core 1.2 oc i had great battery life and performance. so i assume (and have gathered from reading people more knowledgeable than me) the battery downside is due to it being a i9000 kernel. so hopefully/eventually we will get source for the vibrant 2.2 kernel and get an oc kernel with similar performance but much better battery life.
and until i flashed nero v3 and using voodoo, i kept super io and dow14 kernels on my phone so i could flash the oc if i wanted the performance or flash super io for battery life/day to day.
hey all, long time reader, first time poster. i have some questions in regards to overclocking your phone. whats the point? Im not trying to find the forum trolls, nor am I knocking the practice, im genuinely curious about the end result.
im a hardcore PC junkie, so im very familiar with the process, hell my desktop is currently overclocked by a 1ghz (AMD 965 BE @ 4.2ghz).
i have the HTC Evo 3d, best phone ive ever owned, and at first the idea of overclocking it was very interesting, but as i thought about it, the more it didnt make any sence. the phone already get warm when you start pushing it, especially when gaming, i can only imagine how hot it must get when you start upping the voltage to squeeze a extra couple hundred mhz out of it. also how much of a performance increase would you notice? the phone already, runs like butter in my opinion, i cant imagine a extra 100-200mhz would be noticable at all. it just seems like alot of work and risk for a almost a not noticable end result.
if im incorrect in any of my assumption, please correct me, lol even just saying that ive overclocked myr phone is awesome, im just looking for some valid reasons in favor of OCing
no one? lol i guess its not as widely done as i thought it was lol
I don't ever OC my phones for the simple reason that they are battery powered. But I understand why most people do it. Usually it is a good thing to have all the tools at your disposal for whenever you might need it. Most kernels that support OC are usually driven by apps such as SetCPU, which have options to have the CPU constantly OC'd or on-demand basis. If the user was to run a high demand app such as the video camera with a 1080p res, there be more processing power available for the app to accomplish whatever it needs in a less intensive manner.
that makes sense i suppose. having a quick launch app that allow on demand overclocking would be pretty cool. ill have to look into this a little bit further.. thx
The reason is simple - my phone is too slow.
I am using HTC Hero which is 2+ years old. The speed is so slow (528MHz), the machine lags even running the Dolphin browser. I recently root it and install a custom rom, overclock it to 6xx MHz. I feel my Hero has revived and I think it still can be used for a couple of months more.
Hello I own the Samsung Vibrant for two years now and even though I was a bit reluctant to overclock the phone at first as new phones were coming out in the market and its (Vibrant's) performance deficit was becoming all the more significant (in comparison to newer phones) I "succumbed to the temptation". At first by a little margin (no more than 20% overclock) but eventually -as I was seeing my phone to be capable for it- for even greater ones. There was a time that I was using my phone at 50% over-the-stock clocks.... those were the days
Eventually -it seemed- as if it somehow starting becoming less and less capable holding the clocks so I started lowering my clock thresholds eventually killing the overclock altogether. Mind you the grand total of the time(s) that I had my phone overclocked (up until then) was not that great...
But then ICS came out with all its fancy tools and the "temptation" overcame me again and as if from a miracle I was able to maintain 50% overclocks like the good ole days (1512Mhz to be exact). To be sure -that time around- that that is a stable clock I devised a slew of different test from extensive software decoding, to 3D and CPU rendering. My phone was rock solid. To address the battery issue I bought an extended battery and all was well in "Vibrant-Ville"...
To my dismay though even though my phone seemed rock solid I seemingly starting losing my overclocking capacity (once again) as I migrated into Jelly Bean, so I said to myself "oh no, no, I'm not going through this again, I'd choose a moderate overclock and I'll leave at that". So I disabled Live-OC, custom voltages, hell even deleted NSTools and used the standard 1.2GHz setting, my battery was better, my phone was rock solid once again and thanks to jelly bean my phone was still fast enough...
Two days ago -though- the ghosts of the past reared their ugly head once again, out of the blue my phone lost its stability. Anytime I was trying to do anything remotely complex and it would reboot (BTW I'm using Helly-Bean right now, using the "Smooth" setting, Smartass governor @ 1.2ghz, pretty standard stuff).
I love this phone but I feel it's nearing its death-bed, what's your opinion guys?
I'll prolly remove the oc altogether but I fear it won't be enough, I fear that instability would start encroaching the 1ghz setting as well one of the days and then it would be game over. I want to avoid this fate at all costs, so anything you could recommend I would try, even changing my rom.
Also to those who used overclocks in the long term what was your own experience?
Thanks for your attention
No response(s)?
Sorry for the bump but I take it none of you guys ever have/had any of the problems I'm describing. Hmm, that means that I was unlucky with my piece of hardware it seems... pity :/
More than likely an aging chip is the case. Personally my phone runs smooth at 1GHz, so I don't see the need to unnecessarily overwork the CPU. After reading your original post, one line stuck out to me in particular. You mentioned that you ran the CPU at 150% for a time, and to me that sets off a red flag. Setting the CPU at 1.5GHz is risky and can cause some major wear on the CPU. Not to say I've never overclocked that high, but I usually only set it that high when playing a high graphics game. Even then, 1.5GHz is not recommended if you wish to use your device long-term. Even 1.4GHz is considerably pushing it. Although our devices can handle it, eventually, they're going to tire out. Now some phones may be able to last longer than others, it depends on the amount of iron in the sand used to make the silicon processors or other minuscule things could play a role. Essentially, it's random. No two chips will be exactly identical nor run exactly the same. So in your case, that may be the case. Perhaps your device really is nearing the its end. Considering that your phone was made to last only a few years at stock speeds, you should still be pleased with how long it's lasted. However, it is understandable if you're upset with this. The only thing I can suggest is to not overclock anymore and to try and keep its temperature low. Perhaps try undervolting? But if you want your phone to last, don't overclock (if your phone's processor is already starting to fail at 1.2GHz, when it used to run rock solid at 1.4 or 1.5GHz, then you definitely need to stop overclocking entirely). More than likely you won't hear other Vibrant users discuss similar problems because they've already moved on to new devices, before the long-term effects of high overclocking began to take its toll. But if you do a little research, you'll find other users on other devices having similar problems to what you are having.
Wish you the best in your efforts, and hopefully you'll get a year or two more out of the device... Hopefully someone will come forward with a better recommendation/solution to your problem. Since I pretty much stated what you probably already knew.
I'm not for overclocking, nor have i overclocked my vibrant.
With that being said, i have never had any performance issues, and I'm having difficulty recalling any issues with stability either..
I hope you treat your new phone with more respect..
I'm sure it will live you much longer for it.
Sent from my amazingly stable SGH-T959 using SlimICS
Samsung Galaxy note 2 for JB ROMs. Like I have MeanBean there is only 3 but I been using saber??
JamesCaywood said:
Samsung Galaxy note 2 for JB ROMs. Like I have MeanBean there is only 3 but I been using saber??
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I have run PBJ, Saber, Perseus and Beans Stock so far (all on Beans ROM). I only messed with overclocking and undervolting on perseus and frankly didn't notice any real difference. For me Beans Stock has been the best for battery life (just cracked 2 days on a charge with 3 hours of screen time), but even that is only slightly better then I got with the other kernels. As for performance the phone is so good I can't honestly say one is better than any of the others. I am sure some people can post some test scores that show one being better than the other, but I am not sure in the real world there are major differences.
Alright thanks
I like my kernel Really, stock is already pretty good. For what 95% of users need, it will do just fine. My kernel just strips out a lot of stuff from stock and leaves you with pretty much just what is needed for the kernel to run, not much more. Overclocking isn't going to do much for you outside of getting pretty benchmark numbers. Undervolting also isn't going to do much for battery life as you won't be able to drop the voltages enough to do anything appreciable. Having 50 different I/O schedulers and CPU Governors is great on paper, but really, most of them aren't going to improve performance or help battery life.
imnuts said:
I like my kernel Really, stock is already pretty good. For what 95% of users need, it will do just fine. My kernel just strips out a lot of stuff from stock and leaves you with pretty much just what is needed for the kernel to run, not much more. Overclocking isn't going to do much for you outside of getting pretty benchmark numbers. Undervolting also isn't going to do much for battery life as you won't be able to drop the voltages enough to do anything appreciable. Having 50 different I/O schedulers and CPU Governors is great on paper, but really, most of them aren't going to improve performance or help battery life.
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Alright thanks
I have Perseus installed strictly for the screen tuning. If not for that one feature, I'd be on stock.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2
imnuts said:
I like my kernel Really, stock is already pretty good. For what 95% of users need, it will do just fine. My kernel just strips out a lot of stuff from stock and leaves you with pretty much just what is needed for the kernel to run, not much more. Overclocking isn't going to do much for you outside of getting pretty benchmark numbers. Undervolting also isn't going to do much for battery life as you won't be able to drop the voltages enough to do anything appreciable. Having 50 different I/O schedulers and CPU Governors is great on paper, but really, most of them aren't going to improve performance or help battery life.
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For what it's worth, PBJ was a close second on my device to Beans Stock. I would rank them 1 and 1a. I totally agree on the OC and UV comments...I tinkered with them a lot and it didn't seem to do anything. Appreciate your work...I was a Tweaked devotee on the droid charge.
Something that people probably don't realize, overclocking and undervolting will negatively affect the power usage stats in Settings. They are based on specific power usage levels for each frequency, and if you add frequencies or change voltages from stock, the stats won't work correctly. Will it be a big difference? No, but it will be affected nonetheless. It wouldn't make the battery drain faster or slower, but it would affect what application(s) the system sees as using the most battery.
Alright so if I use your kernel it won't miss up MeanBean stuff?? Are should I just leave it stock
JamesCaywood said:
Samsung Galaxy note 2 for JB ROMs. Like I have MeanBean there is only 3 but I been using saber??
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Subjective questions and what they do for you:
As a member of many different forums and networks, I see people asking subjective questions all the time and wanted to expand on them and what they do for the person asking.
I am going to use the topic of smartphones for the purpose of this post as it's easily the most frequent.
People always ask what launcher they should use, or what app works best for something etc..
Typically my answer [albeit cold and withdrawn] would be something like, "try all of them and choose the one that works best for you". This response is usually met with hurt feelings or some troll itching to lash out and pull his keyboard commando card.
I will liken this scenario to a car or truck. If someone were to ask me or you what make and model of car you drive and what you like, you could easily answer Kia [I'm using what I drive as an example here]. Then typically they would say they heard Chevy was better or Ford has something similar blah blah blah.
Ok, then if Chevy makes something better then why the hell did you ask me?! This type of question is always subjective because it builds on my personal choice. My preference. But the person asking the question almost always has their own preference or bias which taints the question to begin with.
Any question that asks a person or group of people for an answer that is inherently based off of personal preference begs to be answered the same way. It also makes the person who asked the question look stupid because they were too lazy to simply try the options and make a calculated decision themselves. They don't have the capacity to form an answer of their own. This is the uneducated method.
So when someone asks me which launcher I choose, I could answer Apex Pro. But that's only because it works well for my needs and my application which is specific to me and me only. Hundreds or thousands of people will argue why Nova, Launcher Pro, Chameleon or one of the many other launchers is better. This is an endless argument as again, the best launcher is the one that works best for you. On your phone. With the apps you have installed. The way you use your phone. The same holds true for kernels. Case closed.
Subjective questions will almost always be met with subjective answers. The easy way to not make yourself look and come off as lazy or stupid is to try things yourself and decide which works best for you in your specific situation.
After the Kitkat update, benchmarks went down and then everyone started complaining about it yet the phone itself performed A LOT BETTER. Gaming was better, opening apps was 1000x faster and the experience was overall much smoother and fast (2 completely different things). So if your phone is performing better and battery life is actually better (No Bluetooth wakelock on D803) Why the F*** are you guys complaining? The amount of useless threads about this and people complaining is actually quite annoying and makes people think that the Kitkat update is bad when in reality its way better. If you want high benchmark scores then turn MPDecision OFF... ITS AS SIMPLE AS THAT.
Just my .02
They are just searching for a reason to upgrade. " Maaaaan, this phone su*ks in bench maaaan, gotta upgrade"