Database Users

[Q] SetCPU governors - What is the difference for interactive, default, onedemand etc

I was looking at the setcpu governor and saw a list to choose from..
what are the difference in the way the kernel operate and which is the "better" governor for daily usage?
sorry if this qns has been asked before but the search result generated did not give me what i was looking for..
the only thread that was a bit useful was http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=793311

Bumps... anyone? Or any relevant thread for me to read up on?
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

From the setcpu website(found with a simple search of "setcpu" on google)
http://www.pokedev.com/setcpu/#7
CPU governors control exactly how the CPU scales between your "max" and "min" set frequencies. Most kernels have "ondemand" and "performance." The availability
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.
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.
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.
powersave - Available in some kernels. It will keep the CPU running at the "min" set value at all times.
userspace- A method for controlling the CPU speed that isn't currently used by SetCPU. For best results, do not use the userspace governor.
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socrated13 said:
From the setcpu website(found with a simple search of "setcpu" on google)
http://www.pokedev.com/setcpu/#7
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Click to collapse
thanks a lot.. just another question, u know whats the advantage of "interactive" vs ondemand?

bump, i'd also like to know the interactive vs ondemand

[GUIDE] Governors for NOOBS

Interactive - 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.
Smartass- Is an improved version of interactive governor
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.
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.
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 CPU load.
Powersave – Available in some kernels. It will keep the CPU running at the “min” set value at all times.
Userspace– A method for controlling the CPU speed that isn't currently used by SetCPU. For best results, do not use the userspace governor.
Hope those will able to help newbies to SetCPU or No Frills CPU.
Credit to LeeDroid for the infos

I believe Interactive is the most responsive kernel out there. Faster than ondemand. So it'll technically use more power when you are using the phone.
HOWEVER, isn't the best feature of Smartass the ability to cap frequencies when the screen is OFF? This essentially negates the need for using SetCPU to limit frequenceis when screen is off. Yes it's an improved version of interactive, but it should be just as responsive, but with these set limits in. I'm just not sure what the specific rules are. I used it for my Moto Milestone, but I'm unsure of what the rules are here.

window7 said:
Interactive - 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.
Smartass - Is an improved version of interactive governor
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.
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.
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 CPU load.
Powersave – Available in some kernels. It will keep the CPU running at the “min” set value at all times.
Userspace – A method for controlling the CPU speed that isn't currently used by SetCPU. For best results, do not use the userspace governor.
Hope those will able to help newbies to SetCPU or No Frills CPU.
And do correct me if I am wrong. Thank you
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You should credit the source you copy and pasted that from. Or even better post the link.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

dmo580 said:
I believe Interactive is the most responsive kernel out there. Faster than ondemand. So it'll technically use more power when you are using the phone.
HOWEVER, isn't the best feature of Smartass the ability to cap frequencies when the screen is OFF? This essentially negates the need for using SetCPU to limit frequenceis when screen is off. Yes it's an improved version of interactive, but it should be just as responsive, but with these set limits in. I'm just not sure what the specific rules are. I used it for my Moto Milestone, but I'm unsure of what the rules are here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SMARTASS is a rewrite of the INTERACTIVE governor, and it moves the CPU up/down depending on whether the phone is idle/locked/ ... etc.
But some problems that I experience with SMARTASS is that my music playback sometimes stutters(?). So I'm just sticking with INTERACTIVE.

http://setcpu.com
edit:/#7 didnt seem to work right?

matt2053 said:
You should credit the source you copy and pasted that from. Or even better post the link.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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Thanks for telling me that. I had changed it
However, I cant post the link as I cannot find the source I find it.
I only know that LeeDroid provided me the details

window7 said:
Thanks for telling me that. I had changed it
However, I cant post the link as I cannot find the source I find it.
I only know that LeeDroid provided me the details
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I believe it comes from SetCPU's website.
Http://www.setcpu.com
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

olorin86 said:
SMARTASS is a rewrite of the INTERACTIVE governor, and it moves the CPU up/down depending on whether the phone is idle/locked/ ... etc.
But some problems that I experience with SMARTASS is that my music playback sometimes stutters(?). So I'm just sticking with INTERACTIVE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this because your screen is off? Yeah, smartass has some issues when the screen is off. Main issue is wakeup and whatever else your phone has to do. I know the Netarchy kernel with smartass just got a revision lately to deal with more wake issues.
But in terms of when your screen is on smartass should function exactly like interactive. So that's why I said smartass is essentially interactive, but with those preset rules regarding screen off that you would otherwise have to create using SetCPU.
The reason you might have worse battery might be because during screen off, your phone is struggling to do work at a slower pace (ideally you shouldn't have to do much, but maybe some people's phones have a lot of stuff running in the background), and so the more time you spent with the CPU active ends up eating more power.
This is one of the arguments about Intel Atom vs. Intel i3. Both idle at the same wattage, but the i3 uses massively more power in load. Probably 2x-3x more. However, given that the i3 is like so FAST, it gets say an encoding job done in like 1/4 the time. Your overall power (Watts * time) used is actually less with the faster CPU. This might apply with the Smartass governor. If your CPU is struggling and maxing out at its cap for a long time because its not fast enough when the screen is off, then perhaps this can be an issue. Just a thought. This is why I think the max_freq for sleep should probably be set around 500-600mhz instead of like 200mhz.
But once again I'm not sure what the governor is set at right now. If someone knows, please do tel

Setcpu Governers ?

okay im sorry if this is one of the most noobish questions, but what exactly are governors , and how do they help ?
Sent from my Mytouch 4G Running Capychimps Sense 3.5 rom (v.4.0)

Cpu governors "govern" how the cpu works. There is a list somewhere that explains what a few of them do. Basically they dictate how your cpu behaves and therefore the performance you see and power consumption you experience. I'll see if I can find that list.
Edit:
- The ondemand governor is the default option used by Android. It scales the CPU speed between the minimum and maximum speeds depending on CPU load. If the system needs more speed, the kernel will rapidly scale up the CPU speed. - The conservative sets the CPU speed in a similar way to the ondemand governor, but scales the CPU up much less rapidly. This would theoretically save battery power, but may lead to less responsiveness. - The userspace governor is currently useless. It's another way for applications to set the CPU speed that SetCPU does not use. - The powersave governor always keeps the CPU at the minimum set frequency. - The performance governor always keeps the CPU at the maximum set frequency.
Except for "userspace," no matter which governor you set, the CPU will always stay within the bounds of the maximum and minimum speeds you set in SetCPU.
smartass governor -is based on the concept of the interactive governor. I have always agreed that in theory the way interactive works -by taking over the idle loop -is very attractive. I have never managed to tweak it so it would behave decently in real life. Smartass is a complete rewrite of the code plus more. I think its a success. Performance is on par with the "old" minmax and I think smartass is a bit more responsive. Battery life is hard to quantify precisely but it does spend much more time at the lower frequencies. Smartass will also cap the max frequency when sleeping to 352Mhz (or if your min frequency is higher than 352 -why?! -it will cap it to your min frequency). Lets take for example the 528/176 kernel, it will sleep at 352/176. No need for sleep profiles any more!
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

estallings15 said:
Cpu governors "govern" how the cpu works. There is a list somewhere that explains what a few of them do. Basically they dictate how your cpu behaves and therefore the performance you see and power consumption you experience. I'll see if I can find that list.
Edit:
- The ondemand governor is the default option used by Android. It scales the CPU speed between the minimum and maximum speeds depending on CPU load. If the system needs more speed, the kernel will rapidly scale up the CPU speed. - The conservative sets the CPU speed in a similar way to the ondemand governor, but scales the CPU up much less rapidly. This would theoretically save battery power, but may lead to less responsiveness. - The userspace governor is currently useless. It's another way for applications to set the CPU speed that SetCPU does not use. - The powersave governor always keeps the CPU at the minimum set frequency. - The performance governor always keeps the CPU at the maximum set frequency.
Except for "userspace," no matter which governor you set, the CPU will always stay within the bounds of the maximum and minimum speeds you set in SetCPU.
smartass governor -is based on the concept of the interactive governor. I have always agreed that in theory the way interactive works -by taking over the idle loop -is very attractive. I have never managed to tweak it so it would behave decently in real life. Smartass is a complete rewrite of the code plus more. I think its a success. Performance is on par with the "old" minmax and I think smartass is a bit more responsive. Battery life is hard to quantify precisely but it does spend much more time at the lower frequencies. Smartass will also cap the max frequency when sleeping to 352Mhz (or if your min frequency is higher than 352 -why?! -it will cap it to your min frequency). Lets take for example the 528/176 kernel, it will sleep at 352/176. No need for sleep profiles any more!
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
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wow ! , thanks i guess im gonna get rid of my sleeping profile and start using smartass, thanks for the help
Sent from my Mytouch 4G Running Capychimps Sense 3.5 rom (v.4.0)

do you happen to know any info about smartassv2 ? , i just checked my list and i have both smartass and smartassv2
Sent from my Mytouch 4G Running Capychimps Sense 3.5 rom (v.4.0)

You're welcome! By the way, I'd appreciate it if you'd hit the Thanks button. I help people all the time and am rarely thanked. I'm starting to get a complex. Ha.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

jjbat87 said:
do you happen to know any info about smartassv2 ? , i just checked my list and i have both smartass and smartassv2
Sent from my Mytouch 4G Running Capychimps Sense 3.5 rom (v.4.0)
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Click to collapse
Smart ass v2 is just an update of smart ass v1
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

[Q] What's the Best Governor for an Overclocked Droid X?

Rootzwiki FAQ: CPU Governors
I remember when Smartass came out a bunch of developers at the Droid X forums where recommending that for better performance than Conservative with roughly equal battery life, so my last governor on MIUI was the updated version of that: SmartassV2.
Now I've flashed Pooka's CM4DX build, and there are three governors included by default:
Ondemand (default)
Userspace
[*]Performance
I installed the last version of Jakesbitesmods for the Droid X found in post #1052 of the official Rootzwiki thread, v19f, and it adds these governors:
InteractiveX (default, recommended by Jake)
Conservative
Finally, from a flashable standalone zip, I added my last preferred governor from MIUI:
SmartassV2
So I have a lot of options. Now, as the Rootzwiki FAQ on governors I linked at the top says:
Rootzwiki said:
Smartass
Theoretically a merge of the best properties of Interactive and OnDemand; automatically reduces the maximum CPU frequency when phone is idle or asleep, and attempts to balance performance with efficiency by focusing on an "ideal" frequency.
Pro: Usually yields higher performance than OnDemand and theoretically has better battery life than Interactive or OnDemand.
Con: Same as Interactive, the CPU will slowly ramp down after it is no longer needed (compared to its ramping-up speed). Might also go too low when asleep (an issue with other governor when a Sleep profile is used in apps such as SetCPU), causing the device to malfunction. Most common example is the screen not powering on when the power button is pressed or the phone begins ringing. Might also effect apps running in the background while sleeping.
SmartassV2
A rewrite of Smartass that is easier for developers to program, and scales down quickly similar to Conservative. It has an "ideal" frequency which it will quickly ramp up to, then more slowly ramp up once past it, and vice-versa for down-ramping. A separate "ideal" frequency is used when the screen is off.
Pro: Same as Smartass, but theoretically better battery life and performance.
Con: Same as Smartass with the sleep state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, if the theory there holds true, then SmartassV2 should be generally superior to both InteractiveX and OnDemand. But on the last page of that Jakesbitesmod thread, in post #1063, there is a link with a flashable zip of BoostedassV2: yet a further modification of SmartassV2. I found the developer's thread for BoostedassV2, and in that thread, he says this about SmartassV2:
BMc08GT said:
This is based in part on the port done by First Encounter for the DX. I have discovered that it will also compile for the other DROID devices that were available at the time of the port. I went further to tweak the stock smartassv2, as I felt that it was to CPU needy, with the transisition ideal freq at 800MHz!! Not a very good frequency to be set for ideal, at resting awake state. I further dived into the code and changed majority of the other frequencies, and transistions-based on my conservative tweaks made from PowerBoost. I will have the comparison of smartassv2 vs boostedassv2 in the 2nd post.
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Would this in theory be better for general performance in a Droid X that's overclocked/undervolted? I'm using JBM's preset 1.15GHz settings, so I'm way off that 800MHz optimization. I realize that there's a tension in governors between best battery life and best responsiveness, but I'm curious which of these governors would probably offer the best general combination of the two on an OC'd DX running CM7 like mine.
If yes, I'll go about installing it some other way. That zip for BoostedassV2 is problematic because it searches out and deletes the InteractiveX governor, and it wreaked havoc on some of the core JBM files, because I could not overclock in terminal using JBM. The reference files got deleted. I would considering using SetCPU, but for some reason, on this CM4DX ROM, SetCPU doesn't have the "Autodetect" tab, and I can't clock the max frequency above 1000MHz using that app. Also, it's my understanding that JBM is more battery-efficient since it changes the clock in the boot files, so it doesn't require a constant service to maintain its settings.
Generally, I'm just curious what setup you guys would suggest for OC/governor running Pooka's CM4DX. Thanks.

H815 Kernel Setting Experiment

Hi
I have my G4 unlocked and rooted on 10C, and thought I would try some Kernel Setting experiments using Trickster.
Stock settings use Interactive.
So I tried Userspace but seems that Userspace sets the clock speed to full nearly 90% of the time for me.
So I decided to give Ondemand and read ahead 1024 CFQ a try.
Maybe a placebo? But watching the cpu clock speeds, it doesn't seem to hang up at 1248 like it does in Interactive and drops much quicker back to 384, but equally ramps up quicker too.
I seem to get less battery drain when browsing instead of Interactive 512 CFQ (Stock setting) after a few days testing.
I know very little about kernels on Android, but thought I would share my findings if anyone is interested.

damn i hope root will come fast, i need to have conservative govenor, as it the only one that plays ppsspp tekken well.

the major isue I see is the actual hotplug that keeps all cores always on.
That is pretty strange...LG's devs must be sleeping while our cores are not

Didn't find Conservative in the options. Only Interactive, Userspace, Ondemand, Powersave, & Performance.
Haven't tried Powersave yet though?

johnny8910 said:
Didn't find Conservative in the options. Only Interactive, Userspace, Ondemand, Powersave, & Performance.
Haven't tried Powersave yet though?
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I wouldn't play with actual governors and let them at their default value until we have a custom kernel.

Thanks, but I am still finding Ondemand seems to give me less battery drain under use such as web browsing.