[Nexus 4 Original Android Development] Hanny:
r192 -> r194 -> r195 -> r196

& franco.kernel from 4.3 to 4.4

& timer_rate 20k/25k/30k

Gaming Test

For folks from hammerhead thread reading this for the first time, I am regularly testing the gaming performance of franco.kernel with FPS meter and System Monitor, and reporting relevant information regarding the changes in recent kernel updates. In recent tests the Average FPS are being focused on (because the flashing FPS is inaccurate as well as hard to monitor). FPS meter updates the Average FPS every 1 minute, after starting the consistent race (same track and vehicle if they can be chosen) the first update is rejected due to app launch, and the second and third update are collected. I sometimes report CPU behaviour as well but it is irrelevant in current test.

Consistent values:

Touchboost freq at default 1.1ghz

Throttle threshold at 85C

In this test we will look at how things were improved since my last test in r192.

In that test (http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=46686758#post46686758) I've mentioned that 25k timer_rate is giving better battery to general users while gamers should lower their timer_rate to 20k for smooth performance because I have noticed visible lag in Beach buggy blitz at 25k timer_rate.

After a while on r195 I have surprisingly noticed a significant improvement in gaming performance especially at the default timer_rate at 30k hence I did this detailed test.

r192 with 20k timer_rate (previous results)

Beach Buggy Blitz: 40-45

Riptide GP2: 33-34

GTA VC Heavy Road: 29-31

r194 with 20k timer_rate

obviously performance is increased from 4.3 - 4.4 on franco kernel

Beach Buggy: 45-47

Riptide GP2: 36-40

GTA VC Heavy Road: 31 (Yup, didn't change much for this game)

now we increase the timer_rate, its for comparison to newer kernels

r194 with 25k timer_rate

as expected, the performance decreases a bit, but it is still comparable to a lower timer_rate (more battery wastage) on r192

Beach Buggy: 43-44

Riptide GP2: 34

GTA VC Heavy Road: 31 (Yup, again didn't change for this game)

kernel update, the default timer_rate is changed to 30k with all the improvements from hammerhead

r195 with default 30k timer_rate

and this is what surprised me. the average fps range is even higher than that of r192 and r194 with a 10k lower timer_rate. We will discuss this later

Beach Buggy: 46-49

Riptide GP2: 34-39

GTA VC Heavy Road: 30

Lowering the timer_rate accordingly for comparison

r195 with 25k timer_rate

now notice this, a lower timer_rate -> lower max fps? this is opposite to the theory. this phenomenon has also been confirmed by both Beach Buggy and Riptide GP 2 test, and will be summarized at the bottom

Beach Buggy: 46-48

Riptide GP2: 34-36

GTA VC Heavy Road: 31

lowering even further

r195 with 20k timer_rate

back to normal. 20k timer_rate should be having the best performance afterall.

Beach Buggy: 46-51

Riptide GP2: 37-40

GTA VC Heavy Road: 31 (didnt even change again)

now we are going to the future. r196 is an unreleased kernel with GPU governor algorithm improvements that Franco added yesterday.

r196

the enhancements improved FPS further on top of r195, and is most noticeable on Riptide GP2.

But again, the 25k timer_rate worse than 30k timer_rate issue is still appearing.

Beach Buggy (30k timer_rate): 48-49

Beach Buggy (25k timer_rate): 47-48

Beach Buggy (20k timer_rate): 49-50

Riptide GP2 (30k timer_rate): 38-39

Riptide GP2 (25k timer_rate): 36-38

Riptide GP2 (20k timer_rate): 40-41

GTA VC is ignored. It didnt change, doesnt change, wont change.

Summary

So for a better comparing experience here is a table of all the results I've collected above.

Notice, in theory the lower the timer_rate is, the better the gaming performance should be, because the CPU polls for load more frequently and hence it is more responsive to gaming loads.

For the leap from 4.3 to 4.4, it got better. it is just that.

The bold results are what you are having right now with the default values of r195. They are apparently better than the 20k timer_rate results from r192 and r194. This was, according to franco, due to thread migration awareness and a less expensive hotplug algorithm.

Then, the advancement from r195 to r196 is also a significant leap forward due to another less expensive gpu governor algorithm. These 3 features are currently on r15-test on hammerhead.

And beside all these tested improvements on real gaming scenarios, one more thing we have discovered is that 25k timer_rate is worse than either 20k timer_rate or 30k timer_rate which is higher. I guess it is because of the time calculation stuffs not being rounded to 10000 and this is franco's guess on it:

So there you go folks! :D Hope you enjoyed the improvements bringing into real life and another discovery on the timer_rate.

P.S. and yeah, I am going to stop testing GTA VC anymore. First of all it wastes the storage spaces in my n4 and I have to move the .obb to desktop everytime before I nandroid. Second it is not changing because it sucks at polling the CPUs and none constructive improvements to the kernel can affect the old game released for more than a year. To make it run faster just increase your touchboost freq in the per-app settings for GTA and the FPS will increase for 5-6 ;)

During the moment I will be in search for some really heavy games that hogs the CPU and make the FPS low. If you have any suggestions, PM me.