Like it did with its Galaxy S 4 smartphone, Samsung has once again been caught artificially increasing CPU speeds on its Galaxy Note 3 phone when benchmark apps are running, reports Ars Technica.
Samsung uses special code inside its operating system to identify benchmarking apps by name to boost CPU clock speeds and prevent CPU cores from entering low-power modes. As a result, Ars discovered, Galaxy Note 3 benchmarks report CPU performance roughly 20 percent faster than most apps will experience on the device.
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The difference is remarkable. In Geekbench's multicore test, the Note 3's benchmark mode gives the device a 20 percent boost over its "natural" score. With the benchmark boosting logic stripped away, the Note 3 drops down to LG G2 levels, which is where we initially expected the score to be given the identical SoCs. This big of a boost means that the Note 3 is not just messing with the CPU idle levels; significantly more oomph is unlocked when the device runs a benchmark.
Apple executive Phil Schiller -- senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and the most prolific tweeter amongst Apple's senior staff -- linked to the Ars article in a tweet, saying only "shenanigans".
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(View all)Apple executive Phil Schiller -- senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing and the most prolific tweeter (https://twitter.com/pschiller) amongst Apple's senior staff -- linked to the Ars article in a tweet, saying only (https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/385069430335488001) "shenanigans".
Phil is ****ing awesome!
This is pretty hilarious actually. Why not just always run the CPU this way :rolleyes:
My guess is if they did, you'd get about 30 minutes of battery life...
Does this seem more of a feature only to me?
When a particularly demanding task, like a benchmark, is executed, the CPU releases more power. I call this "efficiency".
And these numbers come out from the CPU's calculating power, not from nowhere.. how is this fake?
Because its only unlocking the power for these benchmarks. You don't get to experience that power in everyday use.
Its analogous to a governor on a car. Yes, the engine can take you to 200mph but if the governor only lets you hit 130mph then you can never use that extra 70mph.