As the tech world was abuzz with claims about Samsung overclocking Galaxy S4's processor for higher benchmark scores in Android Benchmarking tools like Antutu and Quadrant, Samsung had to clarify certain things. Samsung was being looked down upon for the foul play by many and I was eagerly waiting for an official response.
The issue was first brought into limelight when a forum memebr on xda claimed that Sasmung was using not-so-cool tactics to boost the Galaxy S4's benchmarks. Anandtech decided to test the claim and reached to this conclusion. Read the original claim Anandtach amde about Samsung overclocking the Galaxy S4 here.
Samsung raised the topic on its Samsung Tomorrow Blog and stated that the Galaxy S4's GPU was designed to run at a max of 533 MHz whenever a full screen app, like games, S Browser and anything that's full screen, is running on the phone. In other normal apps, Galaxy S4 would automatically underclock the GPU to 480 MHz for battery savings coupled with optimal performance. The same explanations covers the overclocking of CPU. Prolonged use of some heavy games, though, brings the GPU back to 480 MHz so that the phone doesn't overheats.
The issue was first brought into limelight when a forum memebr on xda claimed that Sasmung was using not-so-cool tactics to boost the Galaxy S4's benchmarks. Anandtech decided to test the claim and reached to this conclusion. Read the original claim Anandtach amde about Samsung overclocking the Galaxy S4 here.
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| Image Credits: Mashable |
Samsung raised the topic on its Samsung Tomorrow Blog and stated that the Galaxy S4's GPU was designed to run at a max of 533 MHz whenever a full screen app, like games, S Browser and anything that's full screen, is running on the phone. In other normal apps, Galaxy S4 would automatically underclock the GPU to 480 MHz for battery savings coupled with optimal performance. The same explanations covers the overclocking of CPU. Prolonged use of some heavy games, though, brings the GPU back to 480 MHz so that the phone doesn't overheats.What we think?
We found the explanation to be quite believable. Samsung Galaxy S4 packs a really enviable hardware and I don't think Samsung would opt for foul play to boost its shine further. Overclocking the CPU and GPU in certain apps is certainly being done in most multi-core devices in recent days. Also, the big.LITTLE architecture the international version of Galaxy S4 uses is based on the very same principle of switching to more powerful cores in case of resource intensive apps and games. And it is a well known fact that Benchmarking apps test the hardware to the limits, so the clarification looks justifiable.
To the end users and potential buyers of any device, we would recommend that you should never buy based on its Benchmark scores. They mean nothing in the real world.
