Database Users

SetCPU...Beneficial for Battery Life?

I've seen a few different posts in some of the kernel threads debating whether SetCPU is helping or hurting battery life. SO, I'm just kind of curious to see what results are on a larger scale? Based on your own experiences, do you have SetCPU installed and if so, does it help or hurt battery life generally? Also, if you do have it installed, do you use profiles? What are the most beneficial settings to use?

1. Not in right section
2. SetCPU not intended for battery life
3. It only adjusts CPU clockspeed
4. This thread is mostly meaningless

5. It's been discussed ad nauseam.

charnsingh_online said:
1. Not in right section
2. SetCPU not intended for battery life
3. It only adjusts CPU clockspeed
4. This thread is mostly meaningless
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SetCPU is not intended for battery life? Go to the Market and look at the description. If I posted this in the wrong section I apoligize. But, I think you are mistaken with your comment about SetCPU not being intended to increase battery life or increase performance...

THATTON said:
SetCPU is not intended for battery life? Go to the Market and look at the description. If I posted this in the wrong section I apoligize. But, I think you are mistaken with your comment about SetCPU not being intended to increase battery life or increase performance...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SetCPU only sets clock speeds and governors already in the kernel. If you just install SetCPU and adjust no settings your battery life will not change. Thus, "does SetCPU help battery life?" is utterly and completely meaningless.
Discussion of different governors and clock speeds has occurred (and is still occurring) ad nauseum and is really more suited for the General forum.

Thread moved as it does not pertain to N1 development.

I see very little gains from setcpu but I use it because I purchased it from the market and why not use it if you bought it right?
This method does not apply to drug addiction LOL
-Charlie

bri3d said:
SetCPU only sets clock speeds and governors already in the kernel. If you just install SetCPU and adjust no settings your battery life will not change. Thus, "does SetCPU help battery life?" is utterly and completely meaningless.
Discussion of different governors and clock speeds has occurred (and is still occurring) ad nauseum and is really more suited for the General forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol Why would you download an application, not use it, and expect results?
If you throttle your CPU down you WILL get better battery life. My phone is set to never go over 600mhz and I get bettter life with it than if I turn off setcpu altogether.

charnsingh_online said:
1. Not in right section
2. SetCPU not intended for battery life
3. It only adjusts CPU clockspeed
4. This thread is mostly meaningless
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a lot of knowledge, this is obvious but you're unnecessarily harsh (mean).
It's boring but's it's a legitimate question because people still make inaccurate conclusions about CPU and battery life. Those of us with some knowledge can really help those that are trying to understand.
#2 above is correct. But the question remains, does a forced lower clock speed ceiling have an effect on battery life? It could do, of course it could, but without a baseline and a control environment it's impossible to prove either way. I suspect the OP is simply looking for subjective opinions.
And on this basis I offer:
The CPU only has a material effect on battery drain when it's being utilised.
When the Nexus CPU is not required to work it idles using the lowest power possible
The radio (network) interface is the second most demanding element of on your battery over time (next to the display). Although the CPU peak demand is higher than the radio.
SetCPU does not impact radio battery use.
SetCPU can not have a positive effect on battery usage if it's using more power to run it's clock cycles.
SetCPU can force the processor to use less power (wind down speed).
Slowing the processor means some tasks will take longer to perform.
If those tasks require a high-drain elements (display, radio, WiFi or BT for example) then it's counter-productive (battery wise) to slow them down.
However, because CPU power consumption does not have a liner relationship to clock speed, then some tasks that don't use high-drain elements will consume less power to complete.
So, whilst it's unlikely that your battery life will benefit from the use of SetCPU alone there is a chance that it will.
SetCPU is a fantastic app designed for overclocking, the profiles are niche facilities that may offer battery benefit to a narrow range of users.

Hey djmcnz thanks for the indept look at this app but more importantly thanks for showing respect to those of us who are just learning. We all have to learn information at some point and there are people that forget that at one point some one had to tell them.

Thank you for the clarification on that! Djmcnz-that was exactly what I was looking for in terms of an answer. I really appreciate you taking the time out to explain everything for me and anyone else that may have been curious.

charnsingh_online said:
1. Not in right section
2. SetCPU not intended for battery life
3. It only adjusts CPU clockspeed
4. This thread is mostly meaningless
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know why you're so pissed off by a thread...
1. Not a very big issue. We have mods here to take care of this.
2. I don't know if SetCPU affects battery life or not but similar thing on a PSP device does increase the battery life. I have tried it on my PSP and setting the clock speed to the lowest acceptable level (depending upon what you're doing) does help maximizing the battery life.
3. You're absolutely right here.
4. Don't know what to say man.. but being a little humble doesn't hurt....

I never meant to be rude. I always get pissed off when people post in wrong sections Seriously. If people post in right section it just frees up moderator time. And about CPU nexus CPU has same voltage for many frequencies like 998,960 have same voltage. Going so down doesn't mostly benefit. So setcpu is only good for overclocking IMO. Display uses most of the power along with radio n CPU is one of those in middle of usage maybe 3rd or 4th. So underclocking will give a big battery boost is just a placebo. Atmost 10 minutes more is what underclocking can provide. N its not worth sacrificing the performance. Go for something underpowered if u want to underclock IMO. So setcpu serves more purpose of power than battery

I use it for the cool widget and standby/idle profile. B-)

you know what?youre allright.i follow your threads and you explain things well for someone like me learning all this ****.i got no time for keyboard commandos.thanks for the explanation.
djmcnz said:
You have a lot of knowledge, this is obvious but you're unnecessarily harsh (mean).
It's boring but's it's a legitimate question because people still make inaccurate conclusions about CPU and battery life. Those of us with some knowledge can really help those that are trying to understand.
#2 above is correct. But the question remains, does a forced lower clock speed ceiling have an effect on battery life? It could do, of course it could, but without a baseline and a control environment it's impossible to prove either way. I suspect the OP is simply looking for subjective opinions.
And on this basis I offer:
The CPU only has a material effect on battery drain when it's being utilised.
When the Nexus CPU is not required to work it idles using the lowest power possible
The radio (network) interface is the second most demanding element of on your battery over time (next to the display). Although the CPU peak demand is higher than the radio.
SetCPU does not impact radio battery use.
SetCPU can not have a positive effect on battery usage if it's using more power to run it's clock cycles.
SetCPU can force the processor to use less power (wind down speed).
Slowing the processor means some tasks will take longer to perform.
If those tasks require a high-drain elements (display, radio, WiFi or BT for example) then it's counter-productive (battery wise) to slow them down.
However, because CPU power consumption does not have a liner relationship to clock speed, then some tasks that don't use high-drain elements will consume less power to complete.
So, whilst it's unlikely that your battery life will benefit from the use of SetCPU alone there is a chance that it will.
SetCPU is a fantastic app designed for overclocking, the profiles are niche facilities that may offer battery benefit to a narrow range of users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

djmcnz said:
You have a lot of knowledge, this is obvious but you're unnecessarily harsh (mean).
It's boring but's it's a legitimate question because people still make inaccurate conclusions about CPU and battery life. Those of us with some knowledge can really help those that are trying to understand.
#2 above is correct. But the question remains, does a forced lower clock speed ceiling have an effect on battery life? It could do, of course it could, but without a baseline and a control environment it's impossible to prove either way. I suspect the OP is simply looking for subjective opinions.
And on this basis I offer:
The CPU only has a material effect on battery drain when it's being utilised.
When the Nexus CPU is not required to work it idles using the lowest power possible
The radio (network) interface is the second most demanding element of on your battery over time (next to the display). Although the CPU peak demand is higher than the radio.
SetCPU does not impact radio battery use.
SetCPU can not have a positive effect on battery usage if it's using more power to run it's clock cycles.
SetCPU can force the processor to use less power (wind down speed).
Slowing the processor means some tasks will take longer to perform.
If those tasks require a high-drain elements (display, radio, WiFi or BT for example) then it's counter-productive (battery wise) to slow them down.
However, because CPU power consumption does not have a liner relationship to clock speed, then some tasks that don't use high-drain elements will consume less power to complete.
So, whilst it's unlikely that your battery life will benefit from the use of SetCPU alone there is a chance that it will.
SetCPU is a fantastic app designed for overclocking, the profiles are niche facilities that may offer battery benefit to a narrow range of users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HUH English Please
Kidding

mikey1022 said:
huh english please :d
kidding
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
34567890

Personaly done many tests and the result was:
Test config: WiFi tethering all the way, screen 100% Playing video all the time 2G only
4:10 @ 245Mhz hard
3:30 @ 998Mhz hard
No use actually - using N1 on 245Mhz is impossible - too sluggish.
SetCpu is ussefull:
1) If u have OC kernel to set OC mode for games like Asphalt
2)For letting android vary frequence ondemand instead of 998 all the time
3)For downclocking while in sleep mode (why use full power when u dont use it?)
4)For using Failsafe profile, to prevent battery and hardware damage.
That's all.
No use trying saving battery setting profiles like 100% - 998, 50% - 576, 20% - 499. This is useless.
On UV kernels the same thing +\-30 minutes battery life. And UV kernels themselfs dont give segnificant battery life increase, only lags and unstability ti system.
Dont believe me try yourself - Create yourself some actions fo testing and repeat them 2 time (Min cpu and Max cpu) on any kernel. Results will be very close.

SeriousX said:
3)For downclocking while in sleep mode (why use full power when u dont use it?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CPU steps down to it's minimum speed by itself. It never uses more juice than it needs to.

As far as i know, it is always at maximum, but maybe im wrong and you are right - then theres even less sence in this app.

Undervolting? (any devs working on it?)

Ok, so you guys all rock first off. I'm a PC nerd and one of the ways i've over clocked and reduced power consumption on my laptop is to under-volt the CPU. Basically keeping the clock speed equal, but lowering the voltage to use less power, less heat, less battery. At some point your CPU becomes unstable....
Is anyone actively attempting to do this on the eris? I saw a brief comment by Ivan, but he's not active in the Eris world.. any of you Eris Devs even remotely looking into this? I could point you in the PC direction of how to do this, but I am clueless (and dont have that much time) to teach myself how to go about this in android.
If anyone is trying i'd love to be a beta tester.
---------------------
the only clues are outside of the Eris world, but possibly within reach?:
http://androidspin.com/2010/02/19/nexus-one-undervolted-at-stock-speeds/
are these portable?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=653598
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=654416

Izeltokatl said:
Ok, so you guys all rock first off. I'm a PC nerd and one of the ways i've over clocked and reduced power consumption on my laptop is to under-volt the CPU. Basically keeping the clock speed equal, but lowering the voltage to use less power, less heat, less battery. At some point your CPU becomes unstable....
Is anyone actively attempting to do this on the eris? I saw a brief comment by Ivan, but he's not active in the Eris world.. any of you Eris Devs even remotely looking into this? I could point you in the PC direction of how to do this, but I am clueless (and dont have that much time) to teach myself how to go about this in android.
If anyone is trying i'd love to be a beta tester.
---------------------
the only clues are outside of the Eris world, but possibly within reach?:
http://androidspin.com/2010/02/19/nexus-one-undervolted-at-stock-speeds/
are these portable?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=653598
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=654416
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would be interested in this as well. I know the current kernel uses a lower voltage at 480 MHz and below, but it would be nice to go above that while using a lower voltage. Don't know if it's possible.

set cpu

OK for those that boast supreme bat life and performance please share your "EXACT" setup for set CPU, rom, kernel etc. Pretty please.

btucker2003 said:
OK for those that boast supreme bat life and performance please share your "EXACT" setup for set CPU, rom, kernel etc. Pretty please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing you're looking to underclock your CPU right?
Because "supreme bat life" and overclocking in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

The best thing I did was uninstall setcpu and let the custom kernel work,
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

Currently running Taboonay 2.1b with rtrip's custom kernel 3.4 - it had issues with setcpu so I uninstalled it and am letting the kernel do it's thing - OC'd t 1.4 and it's smooth and fast but still has a decent battery life despite running a bunch of stuff, games, music, email and navigation - wifi on always...
Standby is about 3.5 days / on constantly about 7.5 hour life, so..yeah...Me likey..
YMMV

kjy2010 said:
I'm guessing you're looking to underclock your CPU right?
Because "supreme bat life" and overclocking in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, I was wondering the same thing about "boast supreme bat life and performance". This reminded me of my days of tuning cars and we we used to say "Fast, cheap, and reliable. You can have 2 of the 3."
OP, all machines won't react exactly the same way and people use their tablets for difference purposes, so having others post exactly what they have setup probably isn't the best way to go. First, you need to find a kernel that works and is stable for everything you need. Kernels are changing all the time, sometimes they move two steps forward and 1 step back before they are stable again and support everything a user needs (docking, NTFS mount, cifs, 3G etc.). After you find a kernel that is stable and suits your needs using the defaults, then you can take it a step further if you wish.
If you want a performance minded setup, setup a profile (in setcpu or one of the others) using the desired clock speed. Try 1.4 or 1.5 Ghz to start as that seems to work for most. Use the governor recommended by the kernel developer for best results. The more you over-clock, the more battery you will consume.
If things are stable with the default voltages, then experiment with under-volting to get the best battery life you can for your performance profile. Start with the recommended voltages with your kernel and adjust down -10uV at your max CPU frequency to find out how much voltage you can reduce and still have a stable system. Make sure you run through all the things you typically do and give it a good workout before moving down to another voltage. Using benchmarks can be helpful for finding stability, but may not match how you use the tablet in the real world.
If you want the best battery life, then experiment with under-clocking to 912MHz and then try under-volting that clock speed to find your stable point. You could then setup a setup "battery mizer" profile for that.
If this sounds too difficult and time consuming for you, then do as the others have stated and just install a custom kernel that does what you need and let it work for you. It should give you a good "in-between" setup. For me, I am addicted to 1.5GHz as the increased smoothness from stock is very noticeable for me. I can recharge every night after 6 hrs or so, so this works great for me. If I go on the road and need to take it easy on the battery, I use another profile to get better battery life for the time being.
Hope this helps you out.

kjy2010 said:
I'm guessing you're looking to underclock your CPU right?
Because "supreme bat life" and overclocking in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
_motley said:
LOL, I was wondering the same thing about "boast supreme bat life and performance". This reminded me of my days of tuning cars and we we used to say "Fast, cheap, and reliable. You can have 2 of the 3."
OP, all machines won't react exactly the same way and people use their tablets for difference purposes, so having others post exactly what they have setup probably isn't the best way to go. First, you need to find a kernel that works and is stable for everything you need. Kernels are changing all the time, sometimes they move two steps forward and 1 step back before they are stable again and support everything a user needs (docking, NTFS mount, cifs, 3G etc.). After you find a kernel that is stable and suits your needs using the defaults, then you can take it a step further if you wish.
If you want a performance minded setup, setup a profile (in setcpu or one of the others) using the desired clock speed. Try 1.4 or 1.5 Ghz to start as that seems to work for most. Use the governor recommended by the kernel developer for best results. The more you over-clock, the more battery you will consume.
If things are stable with the default voltages, then experiment with under-volting to get the best battery life you can for your performance profile. Start with the recommended voltages with your kernel and adjust down -10uV at your max CPU frequency to find out how much voltage you can reduce and still have a stable system. Make sure you run through all the things you typically do and give it a good workout before moving down to another voltage. Using benchmarks can be helpful for finding stability, but may not match how you use the tablet in the real world.
If you want the best battery life, then experiment with under-clocking to 912MHz and then try under-volting that clock speed to find your stable point. You could then setup a setup "battery mizer" profile for that.
If this sounds too difficult and time consuming for you, then do as the others have stated and just install a custom kernel that does what you need and let it work for you. It should give you a good "in-between" setup. For me, I am addicted to 1.5GHz as the increased smoothness from stock is very noticeable for me. I can recharge every night after 6 hrs or so, so this works great for me. If I go on the road and need to take it easy on the battery, I use another profile to get better battery life for the time being.
Hope this helps you out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hah! Well thanks but I'm pretty sure I didn't say "overclocking" but gotcha thanks for the feedback and answers. I was merely looking for setups compared to what I'm running now. TIA

Suggestions for Renix63's Kernel for s3 neo

I have a few suggestions for this kernel and i hope you, Renix63, can see this and add it.
please let us:
overclock the cpu to higher clocks (maybe until 2ghz? )
let the gpu be overclocked (maybe until 600-700mhz?)
thank you very much for your kernel. i hope you have a nice day!

I would suggest not to rush... We got governors and a modded gpu gov. It's not that necessary, 2ghz? It's very unstable and god, your battery will go to 0% in no time because voltage needs to be raised thus consuming more battery. Same goes for the gpu, even if I think gpu OC would be a great feature, but again, not yet. Believe me, resolving stability issues and managing memory etc, is far more important and can get a better performance without OC

NikitoGR said:
I would suggest not to rush... We got governors and a modded gpu gov. It's not that necessary, 2ghz? It's very unstable and god, your battery will go to 0% in no time because voltage needs to be raised thus consuming more battery. Same goes for the gpu, even if I think gpu OC would be a great feature, but again, not yet. Believe me, resolving stability issues and managing memory etc, is far more important and can get a better performance without OC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I agree.

NikitoGR said:
I would suggest not to rush... We got governors and a modded gpu gov. It's not that necessary, 2ghz? It's very unstable and god, your battery will go to 0% in no time because voltage needs to be raised thus consuming more battery. Same goes for the gpu, even if I think gpu OC would be a great feature, but again, not yet. Believe me, resolving stability issues and managing memory etc, is far more important and can get a better performance without OC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hahahaha yeah sorry bout that, im still noob but it would be great to have overclocking for the gpu tho. for the battery, some people buy powerbanks or battery packs but if ever they want to prolong their battery life because they dont have an extra battery, they can just underclock. but yeah youre right, resolving stability issues and managing memory etc is more important. hahaha sorry

Wake Gesture
What do you think about adding double tap to wake (or wake gesture)? I'd love it!
But the only question is? Is it possible on our device?

Is there a way to manually switch between Performance and power CPU cluster?

I am loving LG G6, but I feel it eats the battery too fast. I am not saying it is worse than other new flagships, but still it feels like it drinks the battery juice very fast. Even when I am playing simple games that do not really need much CPU power, the battery starts dropping faster than you can say "charge-me-again!"
Seeing how my mother's Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 can last twice as much (as in it uses half mAh, but since it's battery is larger it can last more than twice), always doing the same things, I am guessing if I could somehow control which cluster the LG G6 uses, it's battery life would improve, as it would use the performance cluster only for apps and games that really require it.
Is there some custom rom or any way (which I am sure it requires root) to be able to manually switch between clusters?

Your best bet is Kernel Adiutor. There you can create profiles and create shortcuts on your home screen. For example, create a profile that sets your CPU governor to powersafe. Just experiment with it.

Schlengge said:
Your best bet is Kernel Adiutor. There you can create profiles and create shortcuts on your home screen. For example, create a profile that sets your CPU governor to powersafe. Just experiment with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Duly noted, thank you! I am asking for future reference mostly. I want to use my phone for some months, as I want to see if something will go wrong. I do not want to root it yet and lose my warranty.