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chemgear · 10-01-2013, 03:08 PM

Hmmm not sure where to put this but seemed like an interesting read. Have people noticed this before?

Interesting that they're specifically targeting benchmarks and artificially boosting performance above "normal" when it recognizes the name of the benchmark. I wonder how prevalent this is for the various phone makers.

EDIT: In more recent articles, this apparently applies well beyond Samsung - essentially everybody except Motorola and Apple.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7187/l...ons-galaxy-s-4

We should see roughly an 11% increase in performance in GLBenchmark 2.5.1 over GFXBench 2.7.0, and we end up seeing a bit more than that. The reason for the difference? GLBenchmark 2.5.1 appears to be singled out as a benchmark that is allowed to run the GPU at the higher frequency/voltage setting.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...s-by-up-to-20/

Above is a picture of Geekbench and of Stealthbench, which is identical to Geekbench in every way except for a different package name. With Geekbench, System Monitor shows that the CPU is locked into 2.3GHz mode and all cores are active, but in Stealthbench, the CPU is allowed to idle, shut off cores, and switch power modes, the same way it does in any other app. We have successfully disabled the special benchmark mode.

Geekbench is a popular benchmarking app, so the Note is programmed to give it special treatment. It has never heard of "Stealthbench," though, so despite being the exact same app, it does not get the special benchmark boost. The Note will run thisbenchmark like 99.99999 percent of the other apps on the device. The next step, then, is to run the two benchmarks and compare the CPU's benchmark mode with its non-benchmark mode.

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.

10-01-2013, 03:08 PM	#147
chemgear Franchise Player Join Date: Feb 2010 Exp:	Hmmm not sure where to put this but seemed like an interesting read. Have people noticed this before? Interesting that they're specifically targeting benchmarks and artificially boosting performance above "normal" when it recognizes the name of the benchmark. I wonder how prevalent this is for the various phone makers. EDIT: In more recent articles, this apparently applies well beyond Samsung - essentially everybody except Motorola and Apple. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7187/l...ons-galaxy-s-4 We should see roughly an 11% increase in performance in GLBenchmark 2.5.1 over GFXBench 2.7.0, and we end up seeing a bit more than that. The reason for the difference? GLBenchmark 2.5.1 appears to be singled out as a benchmark that is allowed to run the GPU at the higher frequency/voltage setting. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...s-by-up-to-20/ Above is a picture of Geekbench and of Stealthbench, which is identical to Geekbench in every way except for a different package name. With Geekbench, System Monitor shows that the CPU is locked into 2.3GHz mode and all cores are active, but in Stealthbench, the CPU is allowed to idle, shut off cores, and switch power modes, the same way it does in any other app. We have successfully disabled the special benchmark mode. Geekbench is a popular benchmarking app, so the Note is programmed to give it special treatment. It has never heard of "Stealthbench," though, so despite being the exact same app, it does not get the special benchmark boost. The Note will run thisbenchmark like 99.99999 percent of the other apps on the device. The next step, then, is to run the two benchmarks and compare the CPU's benchmark mode with its non-benchmark mode. 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. Last edited by chemgear; 10-02-2013 at 01:59 PM.