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Google Nexus S Processor Overclocked To 1.2GHz

Posted by samzenpus on from the greased-lightning dept.

dkd903 writes "Though Google's Nexus S is powered by a single core Hummingbird processor, it looks like the one core would be enough to put LG's dual-core processor powered Optimus to shame. An XDA Forums user morfic has overclocked the processor on Nexus S up to 1.2GHz in a new kernel based on the Bionix NS1 mod."

15 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. So... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

    How is the battery life after you install a pump for the coolant and a fan for the radiator?

    1. Re:So... by jsse · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Funny as it seems, but overclocking could sometime save battery life as it could alter the default voltage usage of a particular frequency. At least, this is the case of Nokia N900 with Titan's Kernel Power, where we could choose 'starving' profile for overclocking with less voltage than default. Say it can run at almost half as much voltage at 600Mhz than normal. (fyi. N900 can be overclocked to 1.15GHz max. with Kernel Power)

    2. Re:So... by adolf · · Score: 5, Informative

      Funny as it seems, but overclocking could sometime save battery life as it could alter the default voltage usage of a particular frequency. At least, this is the case of Nokia N900 with Titan's Kernel Power, where we could choose 'starving' profile for overclocking with less voltage than default. Say it can run at almost half as much voltage at 600Mhz than normal. (fyi. N900 can be overclocked to 1.15GHz max. with Kernel Power)

      That's not necessarily overclocking -- see also, undervolting or even underclocking.

      On my Droid 1, I do all three: It runs at, IIRC, 1GHz, some of the time. Its lowest clock speed is 125MHz, where it spends most of its time (half of the default lowest rate of 250MHz). And all of these speeds are at lower voltage than default.

      In the end, it's about a wash: I get a faster device for about the same battery life as I had at stock clocks. Heat generation is about the same, by my estimation, in common use.

      None of this is particularly new: I have a fanless, diskless K6-2 350 that gets used for some realtime audio processing tasks using KX audio drivers. It is equipped with a big heatsink, clocked down to 200MHz, and running at low voltage. The hard drive is a CF card on an IDE bus.

      It's stable as a champ, doesn't make a peep, and never gets too warm. (These days there's better options for that sort of work, with Atom and SSD, but it was the best I could come up with back then, and it still works just as well today as it did then.)

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
    3. Re:So... by CreamyG31337 · · Score: 2

      The fastest speed at a given voltage is always the most efficient, so overclocking is really only a battery killer if you run at higher than stock voltages to reach the top speeds.
      n900 also becomes both faster and more efficient by disabling the 125 and 250 mhz frequencies. This is because they use very similar low voltages, with nokia's kernel they are close, and some of the other voltage profiles commonly used with titan's kernel they are identical. So it's better to do x cycles of work at 500mhz and sleep for as long as possible (shut off the cpu as much as possible to save power) than to run twice or four times as much to the same amount of work.
      Anyways, I wish people on the maemo forums would understand this before crying that the 125/250mhz isn't "working"...

  2. Hummingbird by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does the Hummingbird processor require more nectar when it's overclocked?

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  3. Really?? by mejogid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Given that the LG Optimus 2x - also known as the Star - benchmarks pretty impressively, I doubt a Nexus S overclock will put it to shame. In the quadrant benchmark the Nexus S has been noted as obtaining a score of 1474, whilst the Star scores 1759.

    Assuming linear scaling from 1ghz, the Nexus S would obtain 1769 with android 2.3 whilst the star manages the previously stated 1759 with android 2.2 which has received fewer performance optimisations. Whilst this is only one benchmark, the more graphically focussed ones favour the Star's tegra (nVidia) processor to an even greater extent.

    Therefore far from putting the new dual core Optimus to shame, I would argue that an overclocked Nexus S can just about keep level with it whilst using a faster OS version on benchmarks that favour it. Hardly putting the Star to shame...

    1. Re:Really?? by teh31337one · · Score: 4, Informative

      Quadrant is a pretty flawed test.

      That said, based on some other benchmarks and their respective specs, tegra2 has roughly 2.5x more CPU power compared to the hummingbird SOC. (1ghz A9 runs 25% faster than 1ghz A8, and tegra 2 is a dual core A9) Anadtech's Linpack scores seem to show that too. (Ignore the bloated snapdragon class scores, it has floating point performance optimisations) Article here

      GPU performance is where it gets interesting. It seems like the PowerVR 540 GPU on the hummingbird SoC is better than the GPU used in the Tegra 2 SoC. Odd considering nVidia make the tegra2. Instances where Tegra 2 outperforms the hummingbird in GPU benchmarks are as far as i can tell down to the extra CPU power (roughly 250% faster)

      Samsung's upcoming Orion chip also looks promising, and is a closer match to the Tegra 2.

  4. And? by teh31337one · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a hummingbird. And it's been overclocked to 1.6ghz on Galaxy S phones. Besides, 1.2ghz OC is pretty standard. I've got my Galaxy S i9000 overclocked to 1.2ghz, and it's using the same voltage as 1ghz would. I've undervolted the other frequencies, and the battery life is great - better than stock 1ghz.

    1. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      totally otherwise unnoticable performance gain.

      Bullshit.

      My Droid came out of the box at 550 MHz. I over clock it to 1.2 GHz and experience significant performance gains. Programs start faster, there isn't any menu stuttering, the web browser scrolls smoothly, etc. At stock speeds, the phone runs okay but not nearly as well as with the over clock. It also helps with things like emulation, flash, pdf rendering, you name it, over clocking makes it better.

      And the really beautiful thing about it all... the battery life is actually better thanks to the kernel I have installed automatically undervolting the cpu. And it is 100 percent stable to boot. So, please, take your uninformed cynicism elsewhere.

  5. Nothing to see here... by msauve · · Score: 4, Interesting

    move along.

    How is this news? The year old Motorola Droid (also using an ARM Cortex A8 core) was overclocked to 1.2 GHz quite a while ago (as with all overclocking, it works fine with some units, not so well with others). I understand the Hummingbird has had some microcode tweaks, and so is a bit more efficient than the OMAP (5-10%), but that's mice nuts. This isn't news, or even very interesting outside of Nexus S owner circles.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  6. Overclocking != Dual Core by Lord+Byron+II · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not matter how fast a single core goes, there is still a cost associated with having to perform a bunch of context switches and you have to share all of the cache. There are benefits to having a real dual core implementation.

    1. Re:Overclocking != Dual Core by mlts · · Score: 2

      Dual core devices are not new. The HTC Wizard had this in '05. However, the phone had separate cores so the radio could do what it needed to while the OS was able to do what it needed, both cores running at a fairly low clock speed. The device had a pretty amazing battery life though.

      I'd like to see multiple cores... perhaps fast and slow (but battery saving) cores and a smart process scheduler. This would go a way to help with battery life, as well as provide smoother performance for apps.

    2. Re:Overclocking != Dual Core by Mulder3 · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Dual core devices are not new. The HTC Wizard had this in '05. However, the phone had separate cores so the radio could do what it needed to while the OS was able to do what it needed, both cores running at a fairly low clock speed. The device had a pretty amazing battery life though."

      That's not dual core... All current smartphones use that... One Application CPU that runs Android/Symbian/iPhoneOS/whatever and another CPU inside the modem that runs the GSM stack on a RTOS... Only very low end phones run the GSM stack on the app processor...

    3. Re:Overclocking != Dual Core by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      One Application CPU that runs Android/Symbian/iPhoneOS/whatever and another CPU inside the modem that runs the GSM stack on a RTOS... Only very low end phones run the GSM stack on the app processor...

      Actually, of those OSs, Symbian is the only one capable of running the OS and baseband on the same CPU. Not that Nokia uses that feature for the high end phones.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  7. How is this news? by brunes69 · · Score: 2

    The Samsung Galaxy S and it's cousins have the exact same processor and it was overclocked too 1.2 Ghz 3 months ago.

    Is it news because it has Google in the title? Seeing how Samsung makes the phone and it is basically a copy of the galaxy S with a few minor changes, I don't see why this is new news.