Pandora Sgx Driver Benchmarks

[WizardStan]

^WizardStan or Peca said that 500MHz is the default, a while ago. I searched a few minutes for a good quote back then, but didn't find anything.
I don't want to reopen old(?) sores, but "clever marketing" might explain it quite well

Oh, don't quote me. I'm wrong far too often
That being said, I am pretty sure this is right. Default clock is supposed to be 500 with a guarantee that it can reach at least 600, even if you have to use the overdrive OPP5. The reason for this is that TI only guarantees that it can run at 500 in OPP3, and the fact that they've consistently been getting more than 600 in OPP3 may just be a fluke. Rather than assume the fluke holds for all (even though it probably will, why take the risk?) they'll just set it to 500, the guaranteed rate. It can still go to 600 guaranteed, but like I said, that may (or may not) require OPP5. OPP5 requires a lot more power than OPP3, so running it in OPP3 at 500 will have a much greater battery life than OPP5 at 600, hence why 500 should be the default.
So, to reiterate, if I remember everything that Craig and MWeston have said correctly, you will be guaranteed to reach 600mhz, but you may not be able to do so in OPP3, so just in case, the default will be 500MHz in OPP3 rather than 600MHz in OPP5 to save power.

If I had to guess, the reason we've been seeing a lot of demos at 500 is because someone realized they've been showing too many at 800 and giving the wrong impression, that you HAVE to overclock in order to do anything useful. Seeing all these videos running at 500 is very comforting.

 

[laurencevde]

I guess that the OMAP also uses quite a significant amount of additional power on OPP5, while 600Mhz only gives you max 20% additional performance compared to 500Mhz. So, for normal usage, it doesn't really make sense auto-throttling it to 600Mhz/OPP5. And 600Mhz/OPP3 isn't guaranteed to be stable... The 600Mhz/OPP5 setting is there, it's stable and safe enough, it just won't auto-throttle to it by default.
Is there any way in libPND or something for a game/app to specify what speed it needs? If so, problem solved

Anyways, I'd say getting the games running properly at 500Mhz should be the goal for developers, so testing at that speed would be logical.

 

[darkblu]

If I had to guess, the reason we've been seeing a lot of demos at 500 is because someone realized they've been showing too many at 800 and giving the wrong impression, that you HAVE to overclock in order to do anything useful. Seeing all these videos running at 500 is very comforting.

exactly. the machine gives more than enough oomph at its nominal performance levels, let's not give the impression you need to go 'above 900' to get anything useful out of it.


on a performance tangent, here's something some of you may find interesting:

Eigen (a top-notch vector math lib) ported to NEON

 

[MDave]

I wonder what the default MHz is for the GPU? 100MHz? What can it overclock to, and is it safe?

i am currently playing quake 3 on the psp at 22/28fps

Got a source on that one? I can't find a legitimate link, video or screenshot of this. Previous efforts had fallen over due to the 24/56MB *USER* RAM limit. (Bottom 8 MB is system only)

I call shenanigans.

Edit: I've seen versions which are Q1/2 ports of the Quake 3 maps, not the same as real quake 3...

It was ported by Crow_bar recently, here is a video of an old version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XTqMvegBj0&feature=related

 

[juniorm33]

Arggghhhh trying but failing not to respond. :angry:
I'm all for showing it at a range of speeds, e.g. less point showing N64 if it's totally unplayable at 500, but show surfing, some emu's etc at 400,500.
I think it's been made clear, although should still be noted on any vid that's clocked higher than 600 that results may very and may not even be able to run at that speed.

Laurencevde I'm sure that all dev's are trying to optimise to run as best as possible, it's just not always going to be possible to run it at a lower frequency adequately.

Hmmmmm.... Very low on OP's team of things to do, but you can't leave it marketed at 600+Mhz, otherwise that's how it should ship. (Just my view) Because they have to be able to work at the stated speed, and it implies that's it's 'deault' speed.

Anyway guess my question has been answered now anyway. 500 is the shipped default
And it's not like I'm unhappy with it, as for me it's not changed anything.

 

[Exophase]

I wonder what the default MHz is for the GPU? 100MHz? What can it overclock to, and is it safe?

110MHz is the maximum and it's probably being clocked at either that or 55MHz. I believe 96MHz is also an option. I don't think you can clock the GPU beyond 110MHz without overclocking the entire L3 bus, which could have dire results and may well not be achievable in software.

 

[WizardStan]

Hmmmmm.... Very low on OP's team of things to do, but you can't leave it marketed at 600+Mhz, otherwise that's how it should ship. (Just my view) Because they have to be able to work at the stated speed, and it implies that's it's 'deault' speed.

I disagree. This isn't an x86 where the speed is set. The OMAP can clock up and down at will, during runtime. Kick it into overdrive (OPP5) and overclock it, no problem. It can (with the help of the kernel, I'm not sure if the Pandora's OS has this set up yet) automatically downclock to a very low speed when idle so it uses up very little power.
Think about it like a car. The highway is listed at max 60km/h, but to save gas, you only go 50km/h. The road is still a 60km/h road, even if you choose to go slower. You can, at any time, choose to hit the gas and accelerate to 60. You can go beyond 60km/h, but performance is not guaranteed (in this analogy, being stopped by police is equivalent to crashing the system and having to reboot).
Or you can slow it right down because you are actually driving a gearless electric vehicle where power consumption is linear. Ok, the analogy breaks down there, but you know what I mean
Just because it will be defaulted to run at 500 doesn't mean they shouldn't say it is capable of 600.

 

[ldesnogu]

This isn't an x86 where the speed is set.

Huh? My x86 changes frequency and voltage on the fly without any issue, using cpufreq.

 

[lulzfish]

This isn't an x86 where the speed is set.

Huh? My x86 changes frequency and voltage on the fly without any issue, using cpufreq.

Yeah, I'm confused. x86s have had runtime adjustable frequency for years now.
Also, 'overdrive' is a misnomer since vehicles have less torque in overdrive, and you can't go up hills.
I would say that overclocking is more like lighting the afterburners on a jet engine. It's not fuel-efficient, but it's flashy and gets you a little more power.

 

[Phawx]

I believe Intel calls it speedstep.

 

[urjaman]

Not such a long time ago (2005?), most x86 desktops ran always at their stated speed, and needed a visit to BIOS + reboot (or if we'd go to the '90s, poweroff + jumpering) to change the speed.
That's propably what the poster meant when comparing the ability to change the frequency on the fly from the OS vs. what x86's used to be.

EDIT: For me DIP switch ~= jumpering. It's electrically the same thing, just a bit easier - not needing to worry about losing jumpers. (I didnt live in the 80's, but what I've read is that back then overclocking was: desolder old crystal + solder new crystal...)

 

[Asiyura]

Not such a long time ago (2005?), most x86 desktops ran always at their stated speed, and needed a visit to BIOS + reboot (or if we'd go to the '90s, poweroff + jumpering) to change the speed.
That's propably what the poster meant when comparing the ability to change the frequency on the fly from the OS vs. what x86's used to be.

The mid-90's (or so) introduced a little revolution on the motherboards called the DIPswitch.

And yeah, since not so long ago, only the mobile version of the X86 processors had "multi speed" to save battery.

 

[Elanzer]

Ideally you would want to run a shell script upon execution of each program which configures all the clocks to their optimal speeds for each emulator.

Like if SNES emulation can run fine at 300mhz OPP2 or something like that with the SGX clocked at 55mhz, you'd save a good amount of battery life, then upon closing the emulator, trigger the usual speeds needed for basic desktop/browsing type use. Likely you could keep the SGX at 55mhz and only ramp it up for things that even need 3D.

There are so much possibilities to further extend battery life beyond the 10 hours, it sounds like much more will be possible after software gets optimized.

 

[alucart1984]

Those stats don't really impress me ,i hope the driver gets the full treatment
as i am currently playing quake 3 on the psp at 22/28fps - drops to 12fps when
all hell breaks loose.And well we already know quake 1 runs at a constant 60fps
on the psp and quake 2 runs at 30-40 fps.

I dont like to put against the psp but it's all i could think of at the time
but in light of those stats ,craig's vid looks minted and i would think
it was running at around 50-60fps and thats at a standard 500mhz so wow!

Paddy

The Pandora is running it at over THREE TIMES THE PSP RESOLUTION.

No actually it is exactly 2.9411764705882352941176470588235 times the resolution. Not over 3 times. Not trying to be a smart ass but your comment could have been worded better. You try to make the Pandora sound like the holy grail of gaming handhelds which right now the PSP has it beat totally cause I can go buy a PSP right this second but I can't get a Pandora and probably won't be able to for months. Granted I agree that the Quakes will be much more playable on the Pandora...when it becomes available.

 

[wermy]

...Not trying to be a smart ass...

Really? Then what ARE you doing?

 

[ldesnogu]

Not such a long time ago (2005?), most x86 desktops ran always at their stated speed, and needed a visit to BIOS + reboot (or if we'd go to the '90s, poweroff + jumpering) to change the speed.
That's propably what the poster meant when comparing the ability to change the frequency on the fly from the OS vs. what x86's used to be.

PowerNow has been available for AMD chips since 2000 on the K6-2+.

 

[mali]

SpeedStep is irrelevant, the sleep states are much more important. I get the most battery life with disabled SpeedStep running at the highest clock all the time. Race to idle. When SpeedStep is enabled, the OS switches too late to the next higher clock, thus processes take longer and need more power.

 

[lulzfish]

SpeedStep is irrelevant, the sleep states are much more important. I get the most battery life with disabled SpeedStep running at the highest clock all the time. Race to idle. When SpeedStep is enabled, the OS switches too late to the next higher clock, thus processes take longer and need more power.

Hm. I should look into this.

 

[mali]

^ If you are running Windows, you can look here for hints:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5312927&postcount=87

In case anyone owns an 1410/1810, check this. Check the Hardware section for overclocking and further undervolting MODs
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=419117
The list isn't up to date any more though, too much Pandorism right now

 

[Aninhumer]

No actually it is exactly 2.9411764705882352941176470588235 times the resolution. Not over 3 times. Not trying to be a smart ass ...

Actually it's "exactly" 50/17 mathematically speaking.
Just so we're clear.