Tag: performance

Core i7-4790K Performance Testing (HDD & SSD)

December 27, 2014

A friend of mine let me use his computer for some testing. We first ran the tests using a Western Digital Black hard drive, then using a Samsung 840 Evo solid state drive.

System Specs:

Core i7-4790K

16GB Corsair Vengeance

Asus Z97-E Motherboard

EVGA GTX 760 Superclocked 2GB

Thermaltake 750W Modular Power Supply

First using the Hard Drive and the ASUS Bios setting of normal, the tests were as shown below (PassMark, FurMark, 3dMark):

Standard_PerformanceTestStandard_PerformanceTest2 FurMark 3dMark

Then using the preset optimal mode in the BIOS the following performance test was completed:

Performance_PerformanceTestPerformance_PerformanceTest2

Once the SSD was installed, the overall PassMark Rating was boosted by a hefty amount to 5743 from 3837:

PerformanceSSD_PerformanceTestPerformanceSSD_PerformanceTest2

OnePlus One 4.4.4 Update XNPH30O Review (CM 11s) (Updated)

August 12, 2014
Without Clear Image
Without Clear Image
With Clear Image On
With Clear Image On

Finally, the update has arrived, but not for everyone…including me. So if you go here over at Android Police, you can find the zip file that you can manually install. You can put it on the root of your device and just go to the stock recovery and apply update since it is an official update. I did it this way and it worked fine for me. Overall, the update is great so I will list the nice new things and I will also list the bad new things.

  • Good:
    • New Dialer
    • Search Feature in Settings
    • Clear Image Feature
    • Performance Improvements
    • App Drawer Grid is Now 6 Rows
    • Gestures Won’t Activate While in Pocket
    • Camera Features/Settings Tightened Up
    • Audio Recording Issues Fixed (Quality Is Still Bad Though)
    • Heads Up Notifications (If you like them)
    • New Launcher (Transition Settings and more!)
  • Bad:
    • Update 8/17/2014: Much worse battery life, getting around half the usage compared to before. A fix was promised to come soon though.
    • Screen is Now Too Blue (Let us choose the warmth please)
    • Back Removed From Settings Top Nav Bar
    • Clear Image Requires a Stable Hand/Tripod (Fine with me :D)

Enjoy the video below showing everything I just wrote about:

Update 8/23/2014: Update XNPH33R Incremental

This update is supposed to address the battery life issues and have security fixes. So far I have not noticed any real difference, but I will make a video after testing it for a few days to see how it is after it settles.

Incremental Update
Incremental Update

Update 9/18/2014: The update did not help much and the battery drain is still present as are the serious touch issues.

Update 10/7/2014: CM 11S 38R Update is out. It is supposed to fix the many things that were wrong. Check here for the changelog.

ART vs. Dalvik – OnePlus One Battery Life Review

August 7, 2014

We are all wondering…which gets better battery and which performs better? Watch the video to find out. I show two usual cases of standby and screen on time for each. Comparing the same usage on them both with several days of use on each after giving them time to settle in first, I have come to a definite conclusion. ART destroys Dalvik on the OnePlus One. Not only are things more responsive but it feels just lighter as if it is having an easier time running Android. This really showed in the battery life tests as I reached up to 7 hours of screen on time! If you have a OnePlus One, switch it to ART and see what I am talking about.

Here is the video review showing some screencasts and screenshots:

I have finally fixed my audio/mic recording issues and I will share how I did that soon.

 

Nokia Lumia 1520 on WP 8.1 (Battery Drain | Lag)

April 24, 2014

Feature wise, 8.1 has been a pleasure and joy to use. It looks great and feels great as you can see below. That is the end of the good.

WP_20140424

Battery wise, there have been times where it drains randomly and slightly heats up on top and there are other times where it lasts decently at best. Last night, from 1:30 AM to 7:30 AM it drained from 100% to 91% while on wifi which is unacceptable for the so called GSM Arena battery king. The standby time has been cut significantly with this update and I really hope that with the official Nokia Firmware, things return to the way they were.

On top of random battery drains throughout the day where it would heat up and drain around 5% every time, performance has also taken a hit. The majority of apps run slightly slower after the update and the new Music and Videos apps are horrible too. I have faith that Microsoft will update these apps as they are standalone now but overall system performance needs to be fixed too. I am not sure if it is an optimization issue that Nokia can fix on their hardware or if it is a system wide issue that Microsoft needs to address, but while using the phone for extended periods of time, weird things begin to happen…

  • The start screen gets stuck in a loading or resuming state
  • The notification bar gets stuck and freezes the phone
  • The phone heats above the camera on the back while in my pocket
  • The UI lags sometimes which is unacceptable as a lag free experience is the reason I switched to Windows
  • The Music, Videos and Games apps are slow and always loading something
  • The volume would not get lower even though it showed it was getting lower
  • The power button works when it feels like it, even when the device is already on and unlocked sometimes it doesn’t work
  • Some apps such as viber barely work in the background
  • Random reboots (very rare but they happen)

All in all, these are only a start to all of the issues there are in the current build of 8.1 on the Lumia 1520. I must say though, I am still enjoying it and I am still getting through a full day without charging it. I would however like to go back to reaching almost 2 days without charging it.