yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 7 General] stfudude:
IMHO, the test should be done like this:

1- all at stock CPU speed (1.3 GHz) with the kernel default settings (including CPU governor) with

antutu.

2-

Overclockable

kernels at maximum CPU speed allowed, with the kernel default settings (but with performance governor) with

antutu.

3- battery test with MX player software rendering at FULL brightness of screen and MAX volume level.

With these tests, people who don't want to OC will know what kernel to try according to their needs (battery life VS performance). People who want to OC will also know what kernel can ultimately powered his tablet.

And if I may add, "best kernel for battery" or "best overall" or whatever award you're giving should not be written because Nexus users are educated enough to choose what they want. This will also prevent devs' feelings from being hurt.

Just my suggestion. :)
[Nexus 7 General] Sveke:
This is a tough thread just due to how everyone's device reacts different to each kernel.

With that said, they have all worked well for me but as the tests show, M kernel performs best on my particular tablet.

Sent from my Grouper
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
I agree with this. Only change I would make would be using Performance governor for the second test, as those that want to see just what the kernel's capable of like to see its highest possible performance, which the performance governor will hold the kernel at max speed during the test.
[Nexus 7 General] stfudude:
Oh I was going to edit my post. I totally want to say that. But I'll just leave it as it is. haha

But wait. It's still unfair for those kernels that can't OC like franco for example.
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Beat you to it haha. It is still unfair for that test, but there just is no way to even out that test unless you just test everything at stock, only use performance governor for stock being the change. The stock results are much clearer, for what you can expect in real world performance. The overclocked benchmarks are just to show off, so they don't matter quite as much.
[Nexus 7 General] stfudude:
LOL quadrant should also be replaced by other reliable benchmarking app. Most people swear by Antutu, but I don't really know how reliable it is.
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
Yes, there is a general agreement that Quadrant is not anymore appropriate for benchmarking!

Antutu is definitely a better approach (notably for the graphic part since Quadrant is stuck by vsync), but I experienced important variation between successive runs! Basemark ES 2.0 (for the GPU) and CF-bench (for CPU) does not show such a variation. There is also PassMark which seems interesting for an overall test (?).

edit: ... you all beat me!
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
With the mention of the graphics tests, that brings in another variable as the kernels also all can overclock the GPU. It might be a good idea to agree on a baseline comparison for that as well, although I'm not certain stock would be the best for that one seeing as like none of the kernels are running stock with the exception of stock itself, for that one. Even if it's just a mild overclock, it's still usually there.
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Sounds good. I will redo all the tests again. I do the 'best' the section so that you can look at the results as a glance. The last thing I want though is devs feelings getting hurt.

So it looks like the tests will be this

Performance

1.3, default governor, using Antutu.

OC MAX, performance governor, using Antutu.

Battery Tests

720p video playing on loop with MX player software decoding.

Full brightness and Max volume.

Versions for 1.3 and full OC

Test Notes

Hopefully this will be in a table

Does flash work?

Kernel features: USB OTG, Init.d, etc

Any other tests you would like added?

Bit off-topic but what's the quickest and speediest ROM you guys are using?
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Those tests sound perfect. Definitely much more informative and remove some of the variables from the equation while adding some other great information. As for the ROMs, I've been using Kaos Droid exclusively for a while now. Omega Kaos is a great dev to deal with and he constantly tries to do whatever those who use his ROM want. I've mentioned many additions I would have liked in a ROM and he does his best to add it. Other than that, a lot of people use Paranoid Android, some use EOS, some use rasbeanjelly, and those who like stock experiences go with CleanROM or SmoothROM. I have yet to test out the 4.2.1 ROMs, but I will likely test some of them tonight. For me, there is one feature that can make or break some of the 4.2.1 ROMs, and that's having the 4.1.2 tablet UI that I love, unlike the stock UI. I'm not sure which ROMs have that feature, but I will be looking out for it, especially if one can allow me 160 DPI with 4.1.2 tablet UI.
[Nexus 7 General] niveaux:
I would be quite happy if the kernel tests could be performed on the Stock ROM for objectivity reasons. Other than that, can`t wait for the new results.
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
A stock based ROM could work possibly, but as things such as whether the kernels are init.d compatible or if they're OTG compatible are being added to the results, it might be best to use a ROM that can support that just as a test to make sure it isn't broken.
[Nexus 7 General] puacham:
Any one can you help me? My nexus 7 have jelly bean 4.2.1 stock (non root) and battery life is weak just about 4h-5h .what should i do?
[Nexus 7 General] VenomTheCat:
Root it and change the kernel!
[Nexus 7 General] whittikins:
I might be missing something obvious, but why is Motley shown as the best overall when the M-kernel beats it in the battery and performance test?

Also, you state that they are all using Interactive, but some of the kernels (m-kernel at least, maybe more) state to use Ondemand b/c they have tweaks and optimizations. It doesn't seem right to use Interactive in the tests if the dev optimized and states that another governor is best.

Thanks for doing these comparisons! I just got my N7 for Christmas, so this was really helpful. :)
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
I will take that into consideration. I'm going to start redoing the tests really soon. Which ROM should I use? Not stock ROM.
[Nexus 7 General] xfrancis14:
Paranoid android :o
[Nexus 7 General] killa12222:
^^ +1! Great rom :)
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
I support Kaos Droid. That developer is great and integrates many tweaks as well as adding in many different features, such as CM code and for his next build (which he just told me likely hit beta tomorrow) he'll be adding in some PA code as well. He puts a lot of different choices into his builds as well, including having many kernels available for selection during install. I know it may be slightly gimmicky, as you can download the pieces yourself, and some will choose to add some of his mods themselves, but Omega Kaos is such a great developer that I support him and his work entirely.
[Nexus 7 General] Sveke:
I wish he or any dev for that matter didn't use that stupid installer or just dropped flashable zips for us normal people.
[Nexus 7 General] DZonikg:
I dont agree with some..test should show common use ..who use all the time full brightness??I use it 0.001% of time so no point of that...also battery power needed for max volume will always be the same on all kernels so no point and for that..that has only point on defferent devices.
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
can t wait for the updated results, these are and will be very helpful!

however, I don't understand why not to keep the stock ROM ?

Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
The test is to compare the kernels to each other. If it took the same battery life on all kernels to push full brightness, then why world there be such a spread at half brightness? Yes, the power to light the screen is the same, but the power for other operations, such as CPU processing is not the same. The point of setting full brightness is to get a faster discharge, because otherwise the tests take much longer to accomplish, and realistically whether 50% or 100%, it makes no difference, because realistically many of us are using low or automatic anyway. It's just too remove a variable, that's all, and setting it at full brightness just speeds up the tests.

---------- Post added at 09:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 AM ----------

Recently that installer has cooperated. The whole problem is that part of the idea behind that ROM is all the customizations he allows, which includes the ability to choose between a bunch of features that sound people love and may need, whereas others will hate. For example, I love 160 DPI and tablet mode, and from my request, he added that choice into the installer so I wouldn't have to manually change the DPI and need to reset my device after. It's not a big tweak, but it's convenient. The installer isn't perfect, but for that specific ROM, I do feel it is necessary. And for the OP, once Omega Kaos sends me the beta, assuming it is relatively stable, would you like for me to send you the download link and maybe use that ROM? Just let me know.
[Nexus 7 General] Mac of York:
Thank you for this thread -- I'm trying out Franco kernel right now to see how it performs. I was on M-kernel so I'm trying to decide which one is the best for me.
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
One of the reasons I prompted for a more even test environment actually is due to those 2 kernels alone, as I've used Franco almost exclusively, however if M-Kernel performs better, I may switch. The issue is that although the battery life question is pretty clear for the most part, the performance comparisons weren't. Hopefully after the next round of testing this can be cleared up a bit at least temporarily.
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
Right now, from my observations, M-kernel seems to be the best for performance and battery... Trying trinity right now and it is using battery... fast... and has only 4 governor options.

and by the way, antutu simply crashes everytime I try to take a benchmark, so that might not be the best app to use.

Update: Beyond conventional logic, it seems that Trinity works better if you are overclocked to its maximum setting, 1.7ghz and with interactive governor. I was on 1.4ghz before with interactive and it was using a lot of the cpu, but I just set it to 1.7 and now it seems to be working much better now. I'd still be interested in seeing the newest results for all the kernels. Also, bricked has a beta for 4.2.1 that might be worth testing.
[Nexus 7 General] simms22:
when testing battery, you need to go through at least 1-2 cycles before you can accurately test battery life. btw, ondemand/deadline is the recommended governor setting for trinity.
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
Deadline doesn't show up in the latest version, I'm using on demand but interactive seems to work well too
[Nexus 7 General] simms22:
deadline is always in trinity kernel. what cpu control app are you using?
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
Trickster mod

---------- Post added at 10:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

Oh never mind I thought deadline was a governor... Yeah I have it set for deadline.

As a sidenote... why do you use trinity if you have your max freq set so low? Wouldn't it be better to go with a kernel not aimed at power for that?
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Going to start testing today, decided with PA 2.99 what I'm going to use as the ROM. I'm debating weather I use the default governor for the kernels or not. At the moment I'm leaning towards interactive for all of them.
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
OnDemand has been tweaked by a few of the developers, so it is the better choice to use for those kernels. If they haven't touched Interactive, but have worked heavily on tweaking OnDemand, it's not a fair representation of the kernel.
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
+1

Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7
[Nexus 7 General] jamesst20:
Wish you had tested Bricked kernel for battery life too :S the v0.58 beta is out and compatible with 4.2.1 and also clemsyn battery saver
[Nexus 7 General] Metallice:
The same reason i run trinity on my gnex. So I can run 1GHz max with performance like stock.

---------- Post added at 01:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 AM ----------

By the way... Because of the lp core/G core i interaction a low CPU usage battery test would be interesting.

(Optimally some sort of sin wave of cpu load) (Have cpu load slowly rise and fall repeatedly)

(But i don't know how one would do that :P)
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
That would be really interesting. No idea how to do it. And it would take forever to finish the test. I do want my nexus 7 to use sometime in the next week or 2 ;)
[Nexus 7 General] kapitanbasa:
im having a problem...i've tried most of these kickass kernels...bricked, motley...trinity...they all work nice...butters up my Nexie noticeably...but all of em seem to cause my Need For Speed Most Wanted game to deteriorate...where there were shiny cars...they become solid cyan or another color... weird.
[Nexus 7 General] Ahres:
Hey guys...i tried most of kernels but any of them dont have features what i expected so i want to ask if some1 can make stock + OTG kernel for 4.2.1
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Test's are moving along nicely, a few surprising results but still going well.
[Nexus 7 General] Metallice:
You have to download a modded version of NFS MW to trick your device into thinking the maximum possible CPU speed is 1.3GHz.
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Should I make a new thread for the new results or keep this one?
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Just keep this one. May as well.
[Nexus 7 General] VenomTheCat:
If you keep this thread please fix the best overall!

Thanks for all the tests and hope you post all the new info soon

Also did you decided to test in the default governor? I vote for that and doing the performance test with stock kernel settings
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
Excited for the new results. I'm going to predict that Motley kernel is still going to be rated as best overall, though.
[Nexus 7 General] xateeq:
This guide relay helps a lot:)
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Technically the winner was M-Kernel before, but he wrote the wrong one. Right now the main competitors are M-Kernel and Franco Kernel, so we'll see what happens.
[Nexus 7 General] jumbleh:
Franco always has great battery since NS, but the newest r37 has some frezen problem... hope he can fix problem later
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
What is francos performance like? It seems like to have that great of battery, performance would be hit...

Also... Are you going to use Jays recipe again? I looked at it and it doesn't appear to be updated for 4.2.1...

Edit: Saw I was looking at the wrong recipe... Guess it is for 4.2.1
[Nexus 7 General] Matteom789:
Quote, now I have the M-kernel due to this problems.

A question: if I want to change kernel (M-kernel -> franco for example), I only need to flash another one or restore with the CWM an image with stock and then install other kernel?

Thanks
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
Going from franco to m-kernel or the other way around you simply need to flash the kernel in CWM. But to go back to stock kernel you need to reflash your ROM as theses kernels have a tweaked ram disk (it has been discussed previously in this post).

Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7
[Nexus 7 General] Matteom789:
Thank you, so except the stock, I can change every kernel by simply flashing it?

Sorry but yesterday I had not found anything about that here!
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
From my understanding it's not the case for all the kernels since they do not all include a ramdisk such as _motley.

Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Sorry guys, I have been away for a few days working on some other stuff. Now I'm back and starting to test again today.
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
Hey, you are doing a really helpful job nobody else is willing to do ... so you really don't have to be sorry!!!!!!

Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
If you ever get time you should test the best ROM and then best kernel and ROM configuration
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Haha, no. It's a good idea but ROM's are constantly being updated, but I guess kernels are too. How would I be able to test the 'best' ROM? What would I test it on?

The only idea I could think of is flashing the ROM and then the 'best performance' kernel and test what gets the highest anatutu score. Maybe a boot time test. Any other ideas?
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
bcvictory, did you publish any sort of summary of the new results ?

Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Still cracking through them. Got 1 more test to go. Hopefully should have it done in a few hours. Then the results!

Maybe I might to the ROM thingo.
[Nexus 7 General] NicoGa:
OK great, thanks!

Envoyé depuis mon Nexus 7
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Almost finish your testing then Metallice pushes a new M-Kernel with a bunch of changes and Franco pushes a new build to fix issues with the more recent builds, especially with Interactive, which is his more endorsed governor. Probably worth testing just those last two before posting results seeing as those are probably the 2 biggest competitors I would think.
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
Yeah boot times would be a good idea, but probably battery life as well. Do ROM's effect graphical performance too? It would seem like, but I'm not sure... Yeah testing rom's would be a pain, but could be interesting.
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
ROMs are significantly more subjective than kernels, so that may be a nearly impossible test.
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
I'll see how bored I get. I have one more test to do. Devs keep updating!
[Nexus 7 General] bervin:
can you do one franco r38, seems to be stable already. would be nice to see how it fares against mkernel a28
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Sorry for the delay guys, Had a few things on today. Will hopefully be done tomorrow or the next day.
[Nexus 7 General] Lillz:
I'm excited! The betting booths are open! Who will come out victorious?
[Nexus 7 General] puffel86:
lower cpu performance since franco's r38?

In antutu the integer and floatpoint cpu scores are much lower with franco's r38 kernel compared to older kernel versions.

Does anybody can confirm that?

Is there a fault which causes this performance drops or what's causing it?
[Nexus 7 General] gokart2:
I say Morfic's kernel. He reminds me of someone else i know that makes amazing kernels, doesn't cherry-pick and claim that they "were first" or created it, and is generally a "real" guy. IIRC, he does/did kernels as a job, and for pc's. That says something.
[Nexus 7 General] GedBlake:
franco's r38... in conjunction with MoDaCo Jr13 ROM...

I must admit some ignorance here... until I started tinkering around and experimenting with kernel's... I really had no idea the effect they could have on a given ROM.
[Nexus 7 General] Dr.Molestratus:
I use lean, I differently get at least eight hours of screen o time.

Sent with my Google Nexus 7 through the XDA Developers APP.
[Nexus 7 General] O2Blevel:
Which version of an tutu are you using. Version 3 seems to give results that vary somewhat from results using the previous versions.
[Nexus 7 General] puffel86:
I use latest antutu v3.0.3

When switching to older kernel versions i get higher cpu scores...so r38 of franco's kernel seems to be causing some drops in cpu performance?
[Nexus 7 General] Richieboy67:
Thanks for this thread and for all the info and testing.

I am sorry if this has been answered but I was unable to find it with search. Which rom were you using during this test?

Thanks again..awesome thread!
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
I have been insanely busy! But I have the results done. I'm working on updating the OP right now. This might take half an hour or more to finish. Tell me what you think of the results!
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Patiently waiting.
[Nexus 7 General] S3tArtist:
Bring it on man!
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
It's up!
[Nexus 7 General] Metallice:
Thanks for doing this. FYI faux does have an LP over clock.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
[Nexus 7 General] lrefra:
Mount (and un mount) USB drive without StickMount only work with M-Kernel and Motley Kernel (in PA and CM 10.1).

In franco and Bricked dont work well for me.
[Nexus 7 General] bervin:
thank you for doing this much needed and appreciated service.
[Nexus 7 General] puffel86:
I only get 11500 in antutu with franco's r38 at default settings. Something is wrong with my n7? My cpu scores are much lower now with r38 than before. Will be testing m-kernel later.

Edit:

Now tested with stock kernel and got 12800 and with m-kernel a28 (@1,3ghz) got 13200.

So what is wrong with my n7 running franco's latest r38? 11500 points in antutu doesn't seem to be normal.
[Nexus 7 General] thanh933:
How about clemsy battery save kernel. I've run it on smoothrom 4.2 and galaxy sbean v2.
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Unless Franco changed something recently, it used to work without StickMount. I just recently switched to M-Kernel, and as far as I'm aware, both should operate the same in regards to that.

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:49 PM ----------

For the feature list, unless it's just me being unlucky, I'm not seeing M-Kernel work with Flash, but besides that excellent work! It pretty much was what I predicted would happen, that adding that last test would more or less balance Franco and M-Kernel, so the difference is pretty insignificant. What I would like to know is what then sets them apart from one another? Metallice, any chance you can interject on this?
[Nexus 7 General] puffel86:
Flash is working for me with m-kernel. Did you installed the flash apk manually? When not you need to do it.
[Nexus 7 General] simms22:
works with trinity kernel too. update last night fixed the reboot when unplugging usb drive.
[Nexus 7 General] lrefra:
Flash no work with a26. I dont try a28.

I will try now.
[Nexus 7 General] simms22:
1. it could be that thermal throttle is getting to your device. itll automatically lowet your cpu speed and scores.

2. you might be letting the cpu speed scale up and down. if youre not setting your cpu to 1320 high/1320 low, then you dont really know what speed is being tested.
[Nexus 7 General] bervin:
Max Freq at stock speed (1.3GHz)

1. Franco: 7 hours 10 minutes

2. M-Kernel: 7 hours

3. Motley:5 hours 54 minutes

4. Trinity: 5 hours 45 minutes

5. LeanKernel: 5 hours 40 minutes

6. IntersectRaven: 5 hours 30 minutes

7. S-T Squirrel: 5 hours 30 minutes

8. Bricked 5 hours 20 minutes

9. Faux: 5 hours 10 minutes

10. Stock 4 hours 45 minutes

Was your stock recently tested or did you reuse results? I don't recall stock battery life to be this bad from your last tests
[Nexus 7 General] puffel86:
But why I get normal scores with stock, m-kernel and older franco kernel versions. Only r38 seems to cause these performance drops on my n7. And I thought when benchmarking and stressing the cpu, with interactive or ondemand governor the cpu automatically scales as high as max clock settings are. When benchmarking I used ondemand and interactive governor, so the cpu has to scale to the max 1,3ghz clock speed or not? So I think that can't be the problem.
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Retested it. It was 5 hours last time but that was on 50% brightness.
[Nexus 7 General] bcvictory:
Okay, will add I when I have the chance. Any other categories you guys want to be added to the comparison chart?
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
Okay, it's working on Firefox Beta, but not Browser for the most part, which I used to have it working on.
[Nexus 7 General] puffel86:
I use firefox normal version for flash. Most other browser doesn't support flash like chrome or opera and dolphin doesn't support flash anymore on newer devices with ics or jb. When i use flash with dolphin the browser crashes.
[Nexus 7 General] dstryrwiz:
I actually was referring to AOSP Browser in my post which used to work with Flash, but now has issues.
[Nexus 7 General] xateeq:
OP thanks for ever thing, but for some odd reason i just cant read the full thread (attention deficit disorder may be)

But you did good and are the BEST.