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Sense 6.0 official game boost method
HTC added High Performance Mode in it's Sense 6.0 update, which is acts like an official form of game boost, now locked users can enjoy the full speed of the s600 as well
Higher Performance Mode (HPM) in Stock Sense 6 software, hidden in developer options (Screenshots)
This will force the CPU into higher frequencies, delay throttling and prevent stalls/fps dips from any affected app (try it with Ripetide GP2)
Always remember that this boost will take a heavy tole on the battery and thermals, so remember to disable HPM when you are done gaming
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The following information is for Sense 5.0 / 5.5 and more advanced performance tips
Fast version of this guide and simple solution:
For new comers, this section should be enough
Facts: Gaming on the HTC One can be negatively affected by two factors, CPU/GPU thermal throttling (down) and the inability to boost the CPU in tilt /sensor controlled games
Example: By default Asphalt 8 in tilt controls will fluctuates between smooth and laggy, with touch controls it's smooth until the GPU throttles down after 15 minutes and then it becomes laggy, with the following solution the HTC One will run this game above 30fps locked even with max graphics effects
I still recommend to take the time and read through the the rest of this guide, it will help you understand how the HTC One processor works and how to extract the best of it
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Comprehensive HTC One gaming performance guide and multiple solutions:
The HTC One runs heavy 3D games like Modern Combat 4 in full visual quality, native 1080p resolution and remains above 30fps, equally the HTC One Adreno 320 GPU beats the iPad 4 GPU in native performance, unfortunately you will be surprised when your powerful HTC One suddenly drops smooth frame rate after some time of gameplay
This because like most Snapdragon 4 pro and 600 devices, Qualcomm throttles the CPU clocks when it hits a select temperature target, this is done to both protect the device, reduce overheating and extend battery life, unfortunately the target temperature is entirely up to the OEM and these targets vary greatly between quad core krait devices, to make matters worse certain OEMs choose to throttle the Adreno 320 GPU as well, the GPU is the most important gaming hardware in your device, currently we have abundance of CPU power but we can never have enough GPU power, this is why dropping the GPU clocks will directly drop your gaming performance, check this post on how different device builders throttle their Snapdragons
The HTC One by default throttles the CPU when it reaches 57c but it also throttles the GPU with CPU when the battery arrives at 40c (probably to safeguard the built-in battery), it drops from 400mhz to 320mhz, after 20 minutes or so of gameplay the GPU will slowdown, throttling the CPU at 57c is fine but the 40c battery GPU threshold is simply too soon, this throttling is just preservative especially since the GPU is already under clocked at 400mhz, equally this device metal shell actually acts a heatsink and gets rids of it's heat quite well
The other part of this gaming equation is CPU speed, by default the speedy quad core favors medium CPU frequencies for average jobs and will ramp up fairly well when more is needed, this is all controlled by the CPU governor, however there are certain heavy games which still fail to call full CPU speed or maintain it, particularly if a game relies on tilt or sensor controls, like Asphalt 8 or Ripetide GP 2, for such games you will need to increase the CPU aggressiveness
In conclusion, if we want to have the full gaming performance expected from our HTC One, we will have to disable GPU throttling and boost the CPU
This guide consists of three parts:
. Part I: GPU Throttling
. Part II: CPU Boost
. Part III: More performance tricks (future proofing)
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Part I: GPU Throttling
Part II: CPU Boost
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Part III: More performance tricks
Sense 6.0 official game boost method
HTC added High Performance Mode in it's Sense 6.0 update, which is acts like an official form of game boost, now locked users can enjoy the full speed of the s600 as well
Higher Performance Mode (HPM) in Stock Sense 6 software, hidden in developer options (Screenshots)
- Go to your HTC One (M8) settings menu and scroll to the very bottom. Select "About" and open the "Software Information" menu.
- Tap on the "Build Number" several times until you get a message confirming that "you're now a developer".
- The developer options menu should now appear in your settings list. Go ahead and open it. Note that this section contains settings that should not be modified unless necessary. Doing so may make your phone behave in unexpected ways. Proceed at your own risk from now on.
- The fifth option in the list should be labeled "High Performance Mode". Enable it by marking the tick to the right. Tap again to disable the mode when it isn't required.
This will force the CPU into higher frequencies, delay throttling and prevent stalls/fps dips from any affected app (try it with Ripetide GP2)
Always remember that this boost will take a heavy tole on the battery and thermals, so remember to disable HPM when you are done gaming
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The following information is for Sense 5.0 / 5.5 and more advanced performance tips
Fast version of this guide and simple solution:
For new comers, this section should be enough
Facts: Gaming on the HTC One can be negatively affected by two factors, CPU/GPU thermal throttling (down) and the inability to boost the CPU in tilt /sensor controlled games
Example: By default Asphalt 8 in tilt controls will fluctuates between smooth and laggy, with touch controls it's smooth until the GPU throttles down after 15 minutes and then it becomes laggy, with the following solution the HTC One will run this game above 30fps locked even with max graphics effects
Scripts: Prevent CPU / GPU throttling and Boost the CPU | last updated 11-12-2013
Simply use my Boost script before your start your favorite game, it will insure using the max CPU and GPU speed during your game session, once you are done gaming unBoost and the device returns to it's stock state
The only requirement is acquiring root
- Simply download my HTC One Simple Gaming Boost scripts and follow the tutorial for a one click solution
Remember to always unBoost once you are done gaming to allow the phone to cool down
I still recommend to take the time and read through the the rest of this guide, it will help you understand how the HTC One processor works and how to extract the best of it
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comprehensive HTC One gaming performance guide and multiple solutions:
The HTC One runs heavy 3D games like Modern Combat 4 in full visual quality, native 1080p resolution and remains above 30fps, equally the HTC One Adreno 320 GPU beats the iPad 4 GPU in native performance, unfortunately you will be surprised when your powerful HTC One suddenly drops smooth frame rate after some time of gameplay
This because like most Snapdragon 4 pro and 600 devices, Qualcomm throttles the CPU clocks when it hits a select temperature target, this is done to both protect the device, reduce overheating and extend battery life, unfortunately the target temperature is entirely up to the OEM and these targets vary greatly between quad core krait devices, to make matters worse certain OEMs choose to throttle the Adreno 320 GPU as well, the GPU is the most important gaming hardware in your device, currently we have abundance of CPU power but we can never have enough GPU power, this is why dropping the GPU clocks will directly drop your gaming performance, check this post on how different device builders throttle their Snapdragons
The HTC One by default throttles the CPU when it reaches 57c but it also throttles the GPU with CPU when the battery arrives at 40c (probably to safeguard the built-in battery), it drops from 400mhz to 320mhz, after 20 minutes or so of gameplay the GPU will slowdown, throttling the CPU at 57c is fine but the 40c battery GPU threshold is simply too soon, this throttling is just preservative especially since the GPU is already under clocked at 400mhz, equally this device metal shell actually acts a heatsink and gets rids of it's heat quite well
The other part of this gaming equation is CPU speed, by default the speedy quad core favors medium CPU frequencies for average jobs and will ramp up fairly well when more is needed, this is all controlled by the CPU governor, however there are certain heavy games which still fail to call full CPU speed or maintain it, particularly if a game relies on tilt or sensor controls, like Asphalt 8 or Ripetide GP 2, for such games you will need to increase the CPU aggressiveness
In conclusion, if we want to have the full gaming performance expected from our HTC One, we will have to disable GPU throttling and boost the CPU
This guide consists of three parts:
. Part I: GPU Throttling
. Part II: CPU Boost
. Part III: More performance tricks (future proofing)
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Part I: GPU Throttling
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Reminder the following tips will use the device to its potential and therefore will abuse the battery life, so try to be moderate and don't over use the device at high temps
General tips for stock non rooted users
In order to control throttling on your HTC One without root, you have little choice but to prevent your device from heating and so delay throttling, consider the following tips:
- Never play games on the charger otherwise this means instant overheat
- Covers and cases this might be the most important tip, the metalic back plate is linked to the CPU and meant as a heatsink by design, so covers especially hard covers will prevent the metal back plate from releasing heat, choose a cover which doesn't trap the heat, i found the worst is polycarbonate hard shells, meanwhile TPU did conduct heat a little better, finally the official double flip case was best for me since it's rubber, has many exposed areas and the device a little relaxed
- Thankfully the power saver mode doesn't reduce the GPU clock only the CPU is dropped to 1134mhz, so you can rely on the power saver mode to delay throttling
- Auto Sync and background activity will contribute to processor usage and heat increase, so disable auto sync and kill background processes
- Screen brightness is also be a contributor to temperatures as well, so don't go for the max
- Ambient temperature your ambient temperature will affect the temps of your device, so if you are in a hot environment throttling will come sooner than later
Unfortunately at 40c battery there isn't much we can do, when gaming your device will reach this temp sooner or later, this is why rooting and custom recovery gives us much greater control and allows us to unleash gaming on this device
Prevent CPU / GPU throttling and Boost the CPU - requires root
You can simply lock the Max CPU and GPU speeds using the gaming boost scripts described in the second part of this guide, the Boost script will set the Max CPU and GPU clock to read only preventing the system from throttling them down, once you unBoost the device returns to it's stock state
- Simply download my HTC One Simple Gaming Boost scripts and follow the tutorial for a one click solution
Remember to always unBoost once you are done gaming to allow the phone to cool down
Disable GPU throttling - requires root and custom recovery
You can also disable GPU throttling all together or configure throttling on stock kernel thanks to jerrylzy's work
- Download the Stock no gpu patch (stock_nogpu.zip) and flash it from custom recovery
This will keep the CPU throttling at 57c but disables GPU throttling, your games will no longer lag suddenly once the battery reaches 40c, you can also use the performance patch which further delays CPU throttling
Alternatively you can read through the tutorial and customize the thermald file for your liking
Custom kernels with built-in thermal control - requires root and custom recovery
If your device is Unlocked and Rooted, you can flash a custom kernel which has thermal controls, for example the ElementalX Kernel replaces the HTC thermal driver with it's own and gives us control during the kernel installation process, as explained by flar2 the kernel developer
Thermal Control
I've added kernel based thermal control and throttling. HTC's thermald is very aggressive and throttles the CPU frequency pretty much anytime you use all four processors. This kernel based implementation allow better performance while still protecting your phone from overheating. There are three levels of thermal control, which can be chosen in the installer or changed in /etc/elementalx.conf. The default option is recommended. With the run cool option, your CPU will run about 5C cooler than default while under heavy load. With the run hot option, the CPU will run about 5C warmer than default under heavy load.There is no throttling of the GPU.
The CPU throttling kicks in when it hits certain temperatures. The first level throttles to 1728 if you're overclocking (there is no change if you are at stock freqs or lower), the second level throttles to 1350, the third level throttles to 918, the fourth to 384. It is unlikely that you will ever get to the fourth throttling level even in an extremely hot climate.
The Snapdragon 600 GPU is able to achieve 450mhz, in fact it's the stock clock on the SGS4, ElementalX OCs the GPU to 450mhz by default, the default throttling behavior for this kernel starts at 63c which is massively better than HTC's 40c and thankfully it only affects the CPU
By the way the default throttling files on the s600 SGS4 will not start to throttle before 85c and it doesn't drop the GPU either, this should give a good idea how held back the s600 is on the HTC One
I found the following configuration the most optimal when using ElementalX
- Don't go above the stock 1728mhz in AROMA (kernel installer), for gaming we really don't need more so lets not OC to keep the heat down, in fact most games will not use more than 2 to 3 CPU cores, also if you don't lock it from the installer it will never stick, you can even go with 1533mhz lock for further heat reduction
- Select your throttling temps from AROMA, thankfully this only affects the CPU and not the GPU, at default throttling it begins at 63c, with run hot it starts at 66c, run cool is 58c and run extra cool is 54c, you will have to find the sweet spot for your device, more info here
- Select GPU 450mhz from AROMA, we didn't OC the CPU in order to have thermal room for GPU OC
- You can even go with power saver mode which reduces CPU to 1134mhz, in most games you notice any drop at these CPU clocks, GPU will remain at max clock and heat will be further delayed
Part II: CPU Boost
CPU Boost: Tweaking CPU governor for Games in need of single threaded top speed (ex: Asphalt 8 & Ripetide GP2 which suffer from performance dips unless the CPU is boosted)
For certain games you might have unexplained bad performance, this means the game is not really optimized for the device since the default ondemand CPU governor is usually pretty good in extracting performance, some games also suffer if they rely on tilt controls since without screen interaction the CPU fails to ramp up, for such issues you can boost the ondemand CPU governor, a better alternative to the performance governor (which would lock the cpu at high clocks causing heat/drain)
Note for HTC stock Kitkat kernel you will need to use performance CPU governor since ondemand boost no longer works
These tweaks require root access
More info about games in need of CPU governor boost>>
Optimize the stock CPU Governor for more aggressive behavior using a one click script (Free)
- Simply download my HTC One Simple Gaming Boost scripts and follow the tutorial for a one click solution
Remember to always unBoost once you are done gaming to allow the phone to cool down
How to Manually Optimize the stock CPU Governor for more aggressive behavior (Free)
- Download a free app like Tickster MOD
- Go to the General tab scroll down to CPU governor control section and click the Governor Control button, scrolldown to Up_Threshold* and lower it to 50
- From the General tab I/O control section, change the Scheduler to deadline and raise the Read Ahead Buffer Size to 1024 or 2048
- You can Set On Boot from the app's main menu
*Up_Threshold: This is the main load threshold, reducing this value from the stock 90 will make the CPU more aggressive, recommended for gaming: 50
This no longer work for HTC stock Kitkat kernel, instead switch to performance CPU governor as described below
How to Manually Switch your CPU governors (Free)
- Download a free app like Tickster MOD
- Go to the General tab scroll down to CPU governor control section and switch your CPU governor to performance for example, you can also switch your scheduler to deadline in the I/O Control section
How to Automatically Switch your CPU governors for Games of choice (Paid)
- You need to purchase the SetCPU app or another app with similar profile functions
- Launch the app, leave the CPU governor at default ondemand, also leave the scheduler at default
- Go to the PROFILES tab and tick Enable profiles
- Press the plus sign at the top and then Turn this profile one when...
- Select App when asked to Add Condition, select apps again and then the game of your choice
- Press Next, make sure to untick set the CPU Speed, this because we still need to have the ability to use the power saver function so lets leave them at default
- Tick Set CPU governor and select Performance or any other governor of choice
- Tick Set the I/O scheduler and select Deadline or any other scheduler of choice
- Press Next Twice
and you are done! SetCPU will remain resident in the memory and switches to the your selected CPU governor and scheduler on the fly, when you exit the game it will return back to stock, keep in mind the app will remain running in the background so sometimes Android might close it but it will launch again, i suggest you don't close it yourself
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Part III: More performance tricks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------GPU Boost: Reducing Android's Native Resolution (Proof of concept for future performance needs)
The panel of the HTC One is 1080p and although the GPU is powerful there is no denying that almost 70% of it's performance is wasted in the jump from 720p to 1080p especially considering that even at 720p the density is still above 300ppi, thankfully many new games already offer in-game resolution slider like RipeTide GP2 or run in sub 1080p out of box like IronMan 3, RR3 and Asphalt 8, still if any game is badly optimized in the future you might want to use the following tricks in order to downscale the native resolution and almost double your GPU power, one more thing to keep in mind there are some games on the Playstore which fail to support 1080p like Need For Speed Most Wanted, forcing it to 720p will run this game with full effects including motion blur
ADB Shell: The display change Android command
4.2.2
Code:am display-size 720x1280
4.3
Change Android's Native Resolution, using ScriptsCode:wm size 720x1280
Change Android's Native Resolution on the fly, using Tasker by @neuTrue
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