Samsung Caught Boosting Galaxy S4 Benchmarks 234
A recent forum post at Beyond3D made an interesting claim: that the Samsung Galaxy S4's GPU ran at 532 MHz for certain whitelisted benchmark applications, and at 480 MHz for everything else. The folks at AnandTech decided to investigate and found out that the phone does indeed let its GPU run at a higher frequency when particular benchmark software is running. They found a similar oddity with the CPU — it wasn't restricted for other apps, but it was forced to run at max speed during benchmarks. Then they decided to look for direct evidence that this was intentional.
"Poking around I came across the application changing the DVFS behavior to allow these frequency changes – TwDVFSApp.apk. Opening the file in a hex editor and looking at strings inside (or just running strings on the .odex file) pointed at what appeared to be hard coded profiles/exceptions for certain applications. The string 'BenchmarkBooster' is a particularly telling one. ... Quadrant standard, advanced, and professional, linpack (free, not paid), Benchmark Pi, and AnTuTu are all called out specifically. Nothing for GLBenchmark 2.5.1 though, despite its similar behavior."
Re: Government Regulation (Score:0, Funny)
Samsung is blacklisted in my house. Would definitely not choose an S4 even if it would be the last remaining Smartphone.
Samsung = Scamscum.
Re: Government Regulation (Score:4, Funny)
And in my house:
Sony = Pony
Panasonic = Wankasonic
Apple = Crapple
Nokia = Cock-ia
I live alone.
Re: Government Regulation (Score:5, Funny)
Sony = Pony
What's wrong with ponies? :(
Re:Wake up, fandroids! (Score:3, Funny)
Samsung copy everything Apple do, so it is Apple's fault :P
Re: Government Regulation (Score:5, Funny)
Pony and trap, crap. AC is a cockney.
Re:Government Regulation (Score:5, Funny)
But I wouldn't want to buy a Delorean advertised to be capable of going 95 mph, only to find out that it can go 95 mph when it's being timed on a closed course; when normally used, it can only physically run at 86mph. I need 88 mph in a mall parking lot, otherwise the mother fucking Libyans will get me.
You can't handle full power! (Score:5, Funny)
It's not overclocking, it's just that Samsung underclocks their phones to save battery and to stay within the specified thermal envelope.
Only the benchmarking apps run at full speed, because they're the only apps that need the full power of the phone at all times.
Other apps can't handle the full power of the Samsung ecosystem, thus Samsung protects them from the overwhelmingly high power coolness that is the Samsung platform.
So really, everything we do is in the best interest of our customer. We protect our customers from experiencing the full power of our phones to preserve their mental cohesiveness. Anything less would open a wormhole in the fabric of reality, and we wouldn't want that.