[Nexus 4 Original Android Development] Hanny:
A short intense gaming review because I think the difference is already shown and felt.

Setup

AOKP roman Jan27 Unofficial

franco r67 interactive (default gov control), deadline scheduler

thermal throttle temporary raised to 70 in order to prolong testing

Test objectives: To differentiate the performance and behavior of the cores in the 3 modes provided. Temperature is ignored but could be estimated theoretically. (More cores = faster heat up, right?)

Note: Ignore the min/max/average FPS as they were updated at unknown intervals.

r67/68 Gaming Review with all 3 modes

NFS Most Wanted

Same car, same track

New hotplugging routine ENABLED i.e.

Hotplugging Mode

The overall experience (on monitoring Perfmon) is totally different from what I have experienced in old hotplugging routine in my last gaming review http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=36661239

Last time while playing with hotplugging, the cores on/offline and their frequencies were totally fluctuating and I could not predict or observe a stable trend of them - sometimes it was 2 cores running at high frequencies, sometimes 4 running at lower frequencies.

However with the new hotplugging routine, I definitely can tell.

Behaviors of cores: First, the first core stayed at 1.5ghz at all of the time. Only itself. The second core (cpu1) kicks in occasionally for a few seconds at any frequencies between 384-1512. I cannot generalize the trigger point for this. While crashing on the wall or cars (which makes a bammmm sound), The second, third and forth cores kicks in together for a few seconds, and then go off for cpu0 to work ALONE.

Performance: At the very beginning of the track, I experienced several slight stutters (while only cpu0 is working). However, what surprised me is that 15 seconds after the beginning of the track until the end, there were no more stutters (even while theres still only cpu0 is working). At this moment I am asking myself - oh really, so what the F do quad cores do? I found the answer after the test.

Hotplugging routine DISABLED i.e.

Dual Core Mode

Extra: I am not sure, but after enabling dual core mode, there were a bit lag after i first screen off and on, and while swiping across lockscreen widgets. (I have 3 of them in total, including the clock widget and excluding the camera) Since the second screen off/on, no more lags on them.

Behaviors of cores: Both of them work together, apparently. Cpu0 is staying at 1.5ghz at all the time, and the other one is fluctuating between 1026 to 1512.

Performance: First of all, the slight lag at the beginning of the track is not present anymore. Second, there were absolutely no lag during crashes - therefore,

in the hotplugging routine stated above, 3rd and 4th cores were unnecessarily kicked in during crashes.

However, in general experience of the entire race, the smoothness is the similar with hotplugging mode. That means, single core and dual core on intensive graphics make not much difference.

Hotplugging routine disabled + Quad core ENABLED i.e.

Quad Core Mode

Behaviors of cores: Two of them are wandering most of their time at 1.5ghz. There is no specific which two of them, as they switches to each other. For the other two, they go between 384 and 1.3ghz, there was a very least amount of time, all four of them goes to 1.5ghz together.

Performance: This is not placebo, but I felt buttery throughout the race, while comparing to the last 2 modes as I have just tested them. For the two modes before, they should be called "no stutter/no lag". But for this one, the increase in performance is completely notable.

GTA:Vice City

Max graphics

Before this test, NFSMW and GTA are at the same graphics intensive level for me, as i dont see a difference about lag between them. (they lagged together before throttling was fixed, and they were smooth together after throttling was fixed)

After this test, I have put them into different levels. GTA is the more graphics intensive (or the more poorly written? lol), based on their results on hotplugging mode.

Hotplugging mode:

It stayed at 1-2 cores most of the time while 3rd and 4th cores kicks in occasionally.

There was a significant lag (yes the cores still stay at 1-2 but didnt ramp up the 3rd and 4th) while the character is running around and turning the angle aggressively. I immediately felt dizzy.

For cars, there were no lag at all. Maybe the angles didnt turn as much as running around as a person.

Since Dual core mode, the character running around did not lag anymore. It was smooth.

Conclusion

The new hotplugging routine shows a more stable sequence than the previous one. It is conservative (based on the default gov settings for interactive) in terms of performance, hence should theoretically save more juice, even when gaming. However during some peak moments (crashes in NFSMW), it unnecessarily (in terms of GRAPHICS) ramps up too many cores where it would already been the same smoothness with 2 cores. Nevertheless this is understandable because while opening apps and doing something else other than gaming, the hotplugged 3rd and 4th cores would definitely benefit the processing speed.

Dual core mode, as others have reported in r62, is smooth in terms of UI. The smoothness of it is more or less the same as single core in terms of gaming,

I did not try out r62 and stayed at r61 because of business before today, and while I was reading the reports about smoothness in dual core mode, i judged myself why did i buy a quad core phone but now i get it. In Quad core mode the significant increase in smoothness makes beautiful days for intense gamers. It is smoother than the old hotplugging as well. In regard of the awesome powerstates that did not make my battery take a hit over the week on r61, I am happy with it and will stay on Quad core mode.

Hope you guys have enjoyed my feedback :D