*** The Official Samsung Galaxy S4 Thread ***

[doodah]

Yep supports different bands on LTE.

RE - Octa vs 600 (shouldn't care but you know you want to ). Saw this snippet over at The Register (a review of the HTC One):

The AnTuTu synthetic benchmark returned a score of 24,205 which, if nothing else, proves that the One is possessed of savage amounts of raw power. From what I’ve can gather, the Galaxy S4’s Exynos 5410 Octa chipset beats that by around 1000 points but at this level the difference is irrelevant.

So not much between the Octa and 600 @ 1.7GHz which I presume suggests the 600 @ 1.9Ghz is going to be closer or on par. Though not sure what he means 'from what I can gather'.......

 

[mattyg]

I don't know. Samsung are testing technologies so you can use a flexible penis instead of one that is stiff.

ooh ooh I want a bendy penis











Thread derailment

 

[estebanrey]

To the octo complainers....

1) It is not a true octocore processor, it's two quad cores stuck together. The Exynos 5 will never use all 8 cores on the same task, hence it is not an octocore processor. Reminds me of the old Jaguar games system that claimed to be 64 bit when in fact it was 2 separate 32 bit chips on the same board.

2) More <> better. Even in 2013 games and application developers are still struggling to equally distribute the work across X number of cores. The vast majority of apps will work better on a higher clocked quad core (like the snappie) than a lower cloked 'octo' -core (like the Exynos).

3) The snapdrgaon is much better for rooters given the open source nature of it. Exynos refuse to give devs the source for their processor.

4) An octocore processor is overkill on a high end PC, so it is all but pointless in a phone right now.

 

[muffins]

For me it's not about the cores.

It's about the powervr gpu and the fact that the snapdragon version on the gs3 didn't run as smoothly as the Exynos version, despite it having 2gb of ram.

 

[Nexus18]

It's about the powervr gpu and the fact that the snapdragon version on the gs3 didn't run as smoothly as the Exynos version, despite it having 2gb of ram.

That was due to Samsung's poor optimisation with the chipset, the one XL/S, razr HD/M are great performers in everything, my one S is just as fast/smooth as an exynos GS 3, very little difference between the two, in some areas the one S is smoother/faster, in some areas the GS 3 is faster/smoother, overall I find my S to be "snappier" though, probably due to it having more performance per core (same animations timings etc.)

Software/driver optimisation is the most important thing, without that then no matter how good the hardware is, the phone UI etc. will not be fast/smooth.

If the S600 is being used in a lot more places, I imagine that Samsung will put more effort into it this time.

Besides, this snapdragon chipset has a lot more powerful GPU than the one which was being used in the USA GS 3.

To the octo complainers....

1) It is not a true octocore processor, it's two quad cores stuck together. The Exynos 5 will never use all 8 cores on the same task, hence it is not an octocore processor. Reminds me of the old Jaguar games system that claimed to be 64 bit when in fact it was 2 separate 32 bit chips on the same board.

2) More <> better. Even in 2013 games and application developers are still struggling to equally distribute the work across X number of cores. The vast majority of apps will work better on a higher clocked quad core (like the snappie) than a lower cloked 'octo' -core (like the Exynos).

3) The snapdrgaon is much better for rooters given the open source nature of it. Exynos refuse to give devs the source for their processor.

4) An octocore processor is overkill on a high end PC, so it is all but pointless in a phone right now.

Well put.

Many apps/tasks still don't even utilise a good dual core chip properly let alone quad yet. Although I think Samsung have tweaked touchwiz/android a lot more so that it utilises the extra cores a lot better, however, with 3rd party apps, developers will also have to do something to take advantage of that system I think.

In theory the more cores the better i.e. multi-tasking and battery life but we have to have better software optimisation throughout first in order to really achieve the potential of quad/octo etc.

Another advantage of snapdragon, you are less likely to have problems with apps i.e. a lot of apps were force closing or had some form of a problem on the gs 3 when it was first released. Plus they will be better optimised for snapdragon chipset due to the majority of phones using snapdragon chips (especially when the nexus 4 is using the s4 pro)


If people aren't going to be getting the GS 4 due to it not using exynos chipset then the phone really mustn't be that special in the first place

 

[Bloomfield]

To the octo complainers....

1) It is not a true octocore processor, it's two quad cores stuck together. The Exynos 5 will never use all 8 cores on the same task, hence it is not an octocore processor. Reminds me of the old Jaguar games system that claimed to be 64 bit when in fact it was 2 separate 32 bit chips on the same board.

2) More <> better. Even in 2013 games and application developers are still struggling to equally distribute the work across X number of cores. The vast majority of apps will work better on a higher clocked quad core (like the snappie) than a lower cloked 'octo' -core (like the Exynos).

3) The snapdrgaon is much better for rooters given the open source nature of it. Exynos refuse to give devs the source for their processor.

4) An octocore processor is overkill on a high end PC, so it is all but pointless in a phone right now.

1. I think most people know it's 4+4, most seem to want the Exynos for power saving rather than it having more cores.

2. is wrong. MHz isn't the only important thing. If it was all down to MHz then the Snapdragon would be faster at everything, since they both only use 4 cores max. Whether the Exynos uses 1 core or 4 it will be faster than the Snapdragon using the same amount of cores. Whether or not it overheats in minutes is another matter though . It also has a different GPU, which if faster at 1080p will be important, even if it isn't right now, contracts are mainly 24 months nowadays and a lot of people only go for contracts.

3. It's only really better for those that want AOSP, for those happy to stay with Samsung ROMs (I prefer them to AOSP) having all of the source doesn't matter (the main source needed for Samsung ROMs is the kernel source, and even that's only needed if you want a custom kernel, which they release).

4. As you said, it's not an 8 core processor, it's 2 quad cores that are supposed to bring power savings, which given current batteries is far from pointless.

 

[doodah]

I think there are instances where all 8 can be used.....

Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP)

This is the other actual implemented function mode of a big.LITTLE CPU. In this case, all 8 cores can be used simultaneously by the system.

GPUS - it 'appears' in terms of raw performance they are on par

PowerVR 544MP3 - 51.1 GFlops
Adreno in the 600 - 51.2 GFlops

Source

Though I have just read that GFlops on its own can be pretty useless.

 

[doodah]

DP - my bad

 

[estebanrey]

1. I think most people know it's 4+4, most seem to want the Exynos for power saving rather than it having more cores.

Most techies and people on forums like this may know it, but the laymen (which is the vast majority) will be fooled by the 'octo' moniker.

2. is wrong. MHz isn't the only important thing. If it was all down to MHz then the Snapdragon would be faster at everything, since they both only use 4 cores max.

Strawman, I never claimed MHz was the ONLY thing that mattered. I was pointing out that until devs can come up with a system that fully utilises X number of cores where the work is equally shared whether you have 1 or 32 cores then MHz is important. A single threaded application will run better on a 3GHz single core processor than it will on a dual core 1.5Ghz CPU.

We simply aren't at the point where we can solve the problem of more cores = equal split work.

Whether the Exynos uses 1 core or 4 it will be faster than the Snapdragon using the same amount of cores.

Only if you're using an application specifically designed to take advantage of 8 cores, otherwise it will be slower.

Whether or not it overheats in minutes is another matter though . It also has a different GPU, which if faster at 1080p will be important, even if it isn't right now, contracts are mainly 24 months nowadays and a lot of people only go for contracts.

The GPU is a fair comment but as for the latter, we've had multic-ore processors for over a decade now and yet they still haven't solved the problem I've described above so I don't think it's a safe bet it will be done in the next two years.

3. It's only really better for those that want AOSP, for those happy to stay with Samsung ROMs (I prefer them to AOSP) having all of the source doesn't matter (the main source needed for Samsung ROMs is the kernel source, and even that's only needed if you want a custom kernel, which they release).

Having the option of A & B is always better than only having the option of A, even if you prefer A.

4. As you said, it's not an 8 core processor, it's 2 quad cores that are supposed to bring power savings, which given current batteries is far from pointless.

There are far more efficient ways of extending battery power than using more cores.

 

[muffins]

Yes, all I'm worried about is optimisation.

Samsung to optimise touchwiz to the snapdragon and developers of games to optimise to the adreno gpu.

 

[Bloomfield]

Most techies and people on forums like this may know it, but the laymen (which is the vast majority) will be fooled by the 'octo' moniker.

Then why are you replying to people that don't read these forums?

Strawman, I never claimed MHz was the ONLY thing that mattered. I was pointing out that until devs can come up with a system that fully utilises X number of cores where the work is equally shared whether you have 1 or 32 cores then MHz is important. A single threaded application will run better on a 3GHz single core processor than it will on a dual core 1.5Ghz CPU.

We simply aren't at the point where we can solve the problem of more cores = equal split work.

What? You said the Snapdragon would be faster on single threaded apps because it's clocked faster. They're both quad core processors, if the Exynos is faster using 4 cores it's faster using one core.

Only if you're using an application specifically designed to take advantage of 8 cores, otherwise it will be slower.

Again, what? Having 8 cores has nothing to do with what you quoted.

Having the option of A & B is always better than only having the option of A, even if you prefer A.

Having the option of something I and others don't want isn't better than power savings and performance increases

There are far more efficient ways of extending battery power than using more cores.

Maybe, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try and use as many ways of saving power as possible.

 

[thep02]

Octo does support LTE and it looks as if the UK is getting both.

Yup, South Korea are getting an Octa lte, that's what's making me think they might release Octa lte here later in the year, however some top devs on xda think the q600 and adreno will be at least as good if not better.

http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/

http://www.qualcomm.com/media/relea...olution-enables-single-global-lte-design-next

Couple of interesting links loosely linked to the topic first one is a GPU chart iirc

Edit to add thanks to jedit and trifid!!!!!!!

 

[thep02]

ooh ooh I want a bendy penis





Thread derailment

And me my greatest fear is sitting on my penis and snapping it

 

[Owenb]

There are far more efficient ways of extending battery power than using more cores.

It isn't about more cores, it's about the type of cores. A7 has been designed to be a power efficient core for the very propose that Samsung are using it for-to save power when the work loads are light to moderate.

 

[estebanrey]

Then why are you replying to people that don't read these forums?

I'm replying to you, talking about people that don't read the forums. You said that "most people know it's 4+4", I don't think 'most people' do, hence my clarification.

What? You said the Snapdragon would be faster on single threaded apps because it's clocked faster. They're both quad core processors, if the Exynos is faster using 4 cores it's faster using one core.

No I didn't, I said....

"The vast majority of apps will work better on a higher clocked quad core (like the snappie) than a lower cloked 'octo' -core (like the Exynos)."

and tried to further explain that notion further by also saying in another post that...

"A single threaded application will run better on a 3GHz single core processor than it will on a dual core 1.5Ghz CPU."

The first is directly about the two CPUs to be used in the S4, the second is an example on the same subject but using a different scenario.

The salient piece of information you seem to be missing is that the four cores of the Exynos are clocked at 1.6GHz, the four cores on the snapdragon are clocked at 1.9GHz. So the snappie would be faster with any application that isn't optimised to use more than four cores (which is pretty much all of them).

Having the option of something I and others don't want isn't better than power savings and performance increases

Fair comment but this whole battery saving thing is an assumption right now. As far as I'm aware there are no benchmarks or much information for it so anything on battery savings is speculation at the present.

Maybe, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try and use as many ways of saving power as possible.

But it does mean you shouldn't put off buying the phone or choosing another out of spite cause you wanted the octocore (which is some of the replies my original comment was aimed at).

 

[grudas]

so penis and s4's.. :O what has this thread became?

am i the only one that prefers the 600 over octoboob?

 

[mrk]

I don't care about cores, I care about power efficiency and LTE

 

[thep02]

so penis and s4's.. :O what has this thread became?

am i the only one that prefers the 600 over octoboob?

I don't so much prefer it as not mind it and want lte, the thing that would annoy me is the octa getting lte later in the year.

 

[dbmzk1]

Still nothing from Samsung themselves, just a random website saying Samsung have said something. Until there is an actual press release it's all just rubbish imo.

Not anymore... newer versions of Android removed the "apps to SD" feature. Currently I have a 16gb Note 2, although only 10 gbs are available to the user. Games like Bard's Tale are well over 3gb and considering every app gets saved on the phone with no option to move to the SD card you run out of space fast.

Therefore you have to root in order to store games on the SD card now. I'm rooted and I use an app called Directory Bind to move large games to my SD card. However with a 64gb S4 I wouldn't have to bother with directory bind or even rooting. Rooting after every update is a pain in the ass.

Can still do it on my SGS2 with 4.1.2... and my mates S3 with 4.2.2 can do it too...

 

[Nexus18]

Android central are highly regarded when it comes to android/mobile news so I wouldn't say "just a random website" I don't think I have seen them report any false info. unless there was some truth behind it, certainly not like phonearena who report every single little rumour even if it is completely of the mark.