Here is a list of governors (not all are in my kernel) and what they do......
CPU Governors
OnDemand
OnDemandX
Performance
Powersave
Conservative
Userspace
Min Max
Interactive
InteractiveX
Smartass
SmartassV2
Scary
Lagfree
Smoothass
Brazilianwax
SavageZen
Lazy
Lionheart
LionheartX
Intellidemand
Hotplug
Badass
Wheatley
Lulzactive
PegasusQ\PegasusD
HotplugX
Abyssplug
MSM DCVS
Intelliactive
Adaptive
Nightmare
ZZmove
Sleepy
Hyper
SmartassH3
SLP
NeoX
ZZmanX
OndemandPlus
DynInteractive
Smartmax
Ktoonservative\KtoonservativeQ
Performance may cry (PMC)
Dance Dance
AbyssPlugv2
IntelliMM
InteractivePro
Slim
Ondemand EPS
Smartmax EPS
Uberdemand
Yankactive
Impulse
Bacon
Optimax
Preservative
Touchdemand
ElementalX
Bioshock
Bluactive
Umbrella_core
ConservativeX
Hyrdxq
DevilQ
Yankasusq
Darkness
Alucard
Descriptions:
1. OnDemand Governor: This governor has a hair trigger for boosting clockspeed to the maximum speed set by the user. If the CPU load placed by the user abates, the OnDemand governor will slowly step back down through the kernel's frequency steppings until it settles at the lowest possible frequency, or the user executes another task to demand a ramp.
OnDemand has excellent interface fluidity because of its high-frequency bias, but it can also have a relatively negative effect on battery life versus other governors. OnDemand is commonly chosen by smartphone manufacturers because it is well-tested, reliable, and virtually guarantees the smoothest possible performance for the phone.
This final fact is important to know before you read about the Interactive governor: OnDemand scales its clockspeed in a work queue context. In other words, once the task that triggered the clockspeed ramp is finished, OnDemand will attempt to move the clockspeed back to minimum. If the user executes another task that triggers OnDemand's ramp, the clockspeed will bounce from minimum to maximum. This can happen especially frequently if the user is multi-tasking. This, too, has negative implications for battery life.
2. OndemandX: Basically an ondemand with suspend/wake profiles. This governor is supposed to be a battery friendly ondemand. When screen is off, max frequency is capped at 500 mhz. Even though ondemand is the default governor in many kernel and is considered safe/stable, the support for ondemand/ondemandX depends on CPU capability to do fast frequency switching which are very low latency frequency transitions. I have read somewhere that the performance of ondemand/ondemandx were significantly varying for different i/o schedulers. This is not true for most of the other governors.
3. Performance Governor: This locks the phone's CPU at maximum frequency. While this may sound like an ugly idea, there is growing evidence to suggest that running a phone at its maximum frequency at all times will allow a faster race-to-idle. Race-to-idle is the process by which a phone completes a given task, such as syncing email, and returns the CPU to the extremely efficient low-power state. This still requires extensive testing, and a kernel that properly implements a given CPU's C-states (low power states).
4. Powersave Governor: The opposite of the Performance governor, the Powersave governor locks the CPU frequency at the lowest frequency set by the user.
5. Conservative Governor: This biases the phone to prefer the lowest possible clockspeed as often as possible. In other words, a larger and more persistent load must be placed on the CPU before the conservative governor will be prompted to raise the CPU clockspeed. Depending on how the developer has implemented this governor, and the minimum clockspeed chosen by the user, the conservative governor can introduce choppy performance. On the other hand, it can be good for battery life.
The Conservative Governor is also frequently described as a "slow OnDemand," if that helps to give you a more complete picture of its functionality.
6. Userspace Governor: This governor, exceptionally rare for the world of mobile devices, allows any program executed by the user to set the CPU's operating frequency. This governor is more common amongst servers or desktop PCs where an application (like a power profile app) needs privileges to set the CPU clockspeed.
7. Min Max well this governor makes use of only min & maximum frequency based on workload... no intermediate frequencies are used.
8. Interactive Governor: Much like the OnDemand governor, the Interactive governor dynamically scales CPU clockspeed in response to the workload placed on the CPU by the user. This is where the similarities end. Interactive is significantly more responsive than OnDemand, because it's faster at scaling to maximum frequency.
Unlike OnDemand, which you'll recall scales clockspeed in the context of a work queue, Interactive scales the clockspeed over the course of a timer set arbitrarily by the kernel developer. In other words, if an application demands a ramp to maximum clockspeed (by placing 100% load on the CPU), a user can execute another task before the governor starts reducing CPU frequency. This can eliminate the frequency bouncing discussed in the OnDemand section. Because of this timer, Interactive is also better prepared to utilize intermediate clockspeeds that fall between the minimum and maximum CPU frequencies. This is another pro-battery life benefit of Interactive.
However, because Interactive is permitted to spend more time at maximum frequency than OnDemand (for device performance reasons), the battery-saving benefits discussed above are effectively negated. Long story short, Interactive offers better performance than OnDemand (some say the best performance of any governor) and negligibly different battery life.
Interactive also makes the assumption that a user turning the screen on will shortly be followed by the user interacting with some application on their device. Because of this, screen on triggers a ramp to maximum clockspeed, followed by the timer behavior described above.
9. InteractiveX Governor: Created by kernel developer "Imoseyon," the InteractiveX governor is based heavily on the Interactive governor, enhanced with tuned timer parameters to better balance battery vs. performance. The InteractiveX governor's defining feature, however, is that it locks the CPU frequency to the user's lowest defined speed when the screen is off.
10. Smartass Is based on the concept of the interactive governor. I have always agreed that in theory the way interactive works – by taking over the idle loop – is very attractive. I have never managed to tweak it so it would behave decently in real life. Smartass is a complete rewrite of the code plus more. I think its a success. Performance is on par with the “old” minmax and I think smartass is a bit more responsive. Battery life is hard to quantify precisely but it does spend much more time at the lower frequencies. Smartass will also cap the max frequency when sleeping to. Lets take for example the 528/176 kernel, it will sleep at 352/176. No need for sleep profiles any more!"
11. SmartassV2: Version 2 of the original smartass governor from Erasmux. The governor aim for an "ideal frequency", and ramp up more aggressively towards this freq and less aggressive after. It uses different ideal frequencies for screen on and screen off, namely awake_ideal_freq and sleep_ideal_freq. This governor scales down CPU very fast (to hit sleep_ideal_freq soon) while screen is off and scales up rapidly to awake_ideal_freq (500 mhz for GS2 by default) when screen is on. There's no upper limit for frequency while screen is off (unlike Smartass). So the entire frequency range is available for the governor to use during screen-on and screen-off state. The motto of this governor is a balance between performance and battery.
12. Scary A new governor wrote based on conservative with some smartass features, it scales accordingly to conservatives laws. So it will start from the bottom, take a load sample, if it's above the upthreshold, ramp up only one speed at a time, and ramp down one at a time. It will automatically cap the off screen speeds to 245Mhz, and if your min freq is higher than 245mhz, it will reset the min to 120mhz while screen is off and restore it upon screen awakening, and still scale accordingly to conservatives laws. So it spends most of its time at lower frequencies. The goal of this is to get the best battery life with decent performance. It will give the same performance as conservative right now, it will get tweaked over time.
13. Lagfree: Lagfree is similar to ondemand. Main difference is it's optimization to become more battery friendly. Frequency is gracefully decreased and increased, unlike ondemand which jumps to 100% too often. Lagfree does not skip any frequency step while scaling up or down. Remember that if there's a requirement for sudden burst of power, lagfree can not satisfy that since it has to raise cpu through each higher frequency step from current. Some users report that video playback using lagfree stutters a little.
14. Smoothass: The same as the Smartass “governor” But MUCH more aggressive & across the board this one has a better battery life that is about a third better than stock KERNEL
15. Brazilianwax: Similar to smartassV2. More aggressive ramping, so more performance, less battery
16. SavagedZen: Another smartassV2 based governor. Achieves good balance between performance & battery as compared to brazilianwax.
17. Lazy: This governor from Ezekeel is basically an ondemand with an additional parameter min_time_state to specify the minimum time CPU stays on a frequency before scaling up/down. The Idea here is to eliminate any instabilities caused by fast frequency switching by ondemand. Lazy governor polls more often than ondemand, but changes frequency only after completing min_time_state on a step overriding sampling interval. Lazy also has a screenoff_maxfreq parameter which when enabled will cause the governor to always select the maximum frequency while the screen is off.
18. Lionheart: Lionheart is a conservative-based governor which is based on samsung's update3 source. The tunables (such as the thresholds and sampling rate) were changed so the governor behaves more like the performance one, at the cost of battery as the scaling is very aggressive.
19. LionheartX LionheartX is based on Lionheart but has a few changes on the tunables and features a suspend profile based on Smartass governor.
20. Intellidemand: Intellidemand aka Intelligent Ondemand from Faux is yet another governor that's based on ondemand. Unlike what some users believe, this governor is not the replacement for OC Daemon (Having different governors for sleep and awake). The original intellidemand behaves differently according to GPU usage. When GPU is really busy (gaming, maps, benchmarking, etc) intellidemand behaves like ondemand. When GPU is 'idling' (or moderately busy), intellidemand limits max frequency to a step depending on frequencies available in your device/kernel for saving battery. This is called browsing mode. We can see some 'traces' of interactive governor here. Frequency scale-up decision is made based on idling time of CPU. Lower idling time.
To sum up, this is an intelligent ondemand that enters browsing mode to limit max frequency when GPU is idling, and (exits browsing mode) behaves like ondemand when GPU is busy; to deliver performance for gaming and such. Intellidemand does not jump to highest frequency when screen is off.
21. Hotplug Governor:
The Hotplug governor performs very similarly to the OnDemand governor, with the added benefit of being more precise about how it steps down through the kernel's frequency table as the governor measures the user's CPU load. However, the Hotplug governor's defining feature is its ability to turn unused CPU cores off during periods of low CPU utilization. This is known as "hotplugging."
22. BadAss Goveronor:
Badass removes all of this "fast peaking" to the max frequency. To trigger a frequency increase, the system must run a bit with high load, then the frequency is bumped. If that is still not enough the governor gives you full throttle. (this transition should not take longer than 1-2 seconds, depending on the load your system is experiencing)
Badass will also take the gpu load into consideration. If the gpu is moderately busy it will bypass the above check and clock the cpu with 1188Mhz. If the gpu is crushed under load, badass will lift the restrictions to the cpu.
23. Wheatley:
Building on the classic 'ondemand' governor is implemented Wheatley governor. The governor has two additional parameters. Wheatley works as planned and does not hinder the proper C4 usage for task where the C4 can be used properly. So the results show that Wheatley works as intended and ensures that the C4 state is used whenever the task allows a proper efficient usage of the C4 state. For more demanding tasks which cause a large number of wakeups and prevent the efficient usage of the C4 state, the governor resorts to the next best power saving mechanism and scales down the frequency. So with the new highly-flexible Wheatley governor one can have the best of both worlds.
Wheatley is a more performance orientated governor as it scales more aggressively than ondemand and sticks with higher frequencies.
24. Lulzactive:
It's based on Interactive & Smartass governors.
Old Version: When workload is greater than or equal to 60%, the governor scales up CPU to next higher step. When workload is less than 60%, governor scales down CPU to next lower step. When screen is off, frequency is locked to global scaling minimum frequency.
New Version: Three more user configurable parameters: inc_cpu_load, pump_up_step, pump_down_step. Unlike older version, this one gives more control for the user. We can set the threshold at which governor decides to scale up/down. We can also set number of frequency steps to be skipped while polling up and down.
When workload greater than or equal to inc_cpu_load, governor scales CPU pump_up_step steps up. When workload is less than inc_cpu_load, governor scales CPU down pump_down_step steps down.
25. Pegasusq/Pegasusd The Pegasus-q / d is a multi-core based on the Ondemand governor and governor with integrated hot-plugging. It is quite stable and has the same battery life as ondemand. However, it is less stable than HYPER on some devices like the S2 (before the PegasusQ governor was updated). Ongoing processes in the queue, we know that multiple processes can run simultaneously on. These processes are active in an array, which is a field called "Run Queue" queue that is ongoing, with their priority values arranged (priority will be used by the task scheduler, which then decides which process to run next).
To ensure that each process has its fair share of resources, each will run for a certain period and will eventually stop and then again placed in the queue until it is your turn again. If a program is terminated, so that others can run the program with the highest priority in the current queue is executed.
26. Hotplugx It's a modified version of Hotplug and optimized for the suspension in off-screen
27. AbyssPlug It's a Governor derived from hotplug, it works the same way, but with the changes in savings for a better battery.
28. MSM DCVS A very efficient and wide range of Dynamic Clock and Voltage Scaling (DCVS) which addresses usage models from active standby to mid and high level processing requirements. It makes the phone's CPU smoothly scale from low power, from low leakage mode to blazingly fast performance.Only to be used by Qualcomm CPUs.
MSM is the prefix for the SOC (MSM8960) and DCVS is Dynamic Clock and Voltage Scaling. Makes sense, MSM-DCVS
29. IntelliActive Based off Google's Interactive governor with the following enhancements:
1. self-boost capability from input drivers (no need for PowerHAL assist) 2. two phase scheduling (idle/busy phases to prevent from jumping directly to max freq 3. Checks for offline cpus and short circuits some unnecessary checks to improve code execution paths. Therefore, it avoids CPU hotplugging.
This is a more performance oriented CPU governor but isn't that much different from interactive (in terms of code).
30. Adaptive This driver adds a dynamic cpufreq policy governor designed for latency-sensitive workloads and also for demanding performance. This governor attempts to reduce the latency of clock so that the system is more responsive to interactive workloads in lowest steady-state but to reduce power consumption in middle operation level, level up will be done in step by step to prohibit system from going to max operation level.
31. Nightmare A PegasusQ modified, less aggressive and more stable. A good compromise between performance and battery. In addition to the SoD is a prevention because it usually does not hotplug.
32. ZZmove
The ZZmove Governor by ZaneZam is optimized for low power consumption when the screen off, with particular attention to the limitation of consumption applications in the background with the screen off, such as listening to music. ZZmoove is not a good gaming governor as it aims to save battery. This governor is still a WIP as the developer is constantly giving updates! Here are the available profiles:
33. Sleepy
The Sleepy (formerly known as Solo) is an attempt to strike a balance between performance and battery power to create. It is based on Ondemand. It includes some tweaks like the Down_sampling variable and other features that set by the user through the sysfs of "echo" call. Sleepy is quite similar to Ondemandx.
34. Hyper
The Hyper (formerly known as kenobi) is an aggressive smart and smooth governor based on the Ondemand and is equipped with several features of Ondemandx suspend profiles. It also has the fast_start deep_sleep variable and detection features. In addition, the maximum frequency is in suspend mode 500Mhz. This is a more smoothness oriented governor which means that it is good for performance, without sacrificing much battery life.
35. SmartassH3
The SmartassH3 governor is designed for battery saving and not pushing the phones performance, since doing that drains battery and that's the one thing people keep asking for more of. Based on SmartassV2.
36. SLP
It is a mix of pegasusq and ondemand. Therefore, it has a balance between battery savings and performance.
37. NeoX
An optimized version of the pegasusq governor but with some extra tweaks for better performance. This means more battery drainage than the original PegasusQ.
38. ZZmanx
ZZmanx is exactly the same as ZZmove, but it has been renamed because DorimanX made it into his own version (possibly better performance) . However, it still suffers from below average gaming performance. (Refer to ZZmoove description for guide on profiles)
39. OnDemandPlus Ondemandplus is an ondemand and interactive-based governor that has additional power-saving capabilities while maintaining very snappy performance. While the interactive governor provides a modern and sleek framework, the scaling logic has been been re-written completely. Reports have found that users find ondemandplus as a more battery friendly governor. In ondemandplus, the downscaling behavior from ondemand is only very slightly modified. However, the upscaling has been modified to not scale up to maximum frequency immediately.
40. DynInteractive A dynamic interactive Governor. This Governor dynamically adapts it's own CPU frequencies within your parameters based off the system(s) load.
41. Smartmax
This is a new governor which is a mix between ondemand and smartassv2. By default this is configured for battery saving,so this is NOT a gamer governor! This is still WIP!
42. Ktoonservative\KtoonservativeQ
A combination of ondemand and conservative. Ktoonservative contains a hotplugging variable which determines when the second core comes online. The governor shuts the core off when it returns to the second lowest frequency thus giving us a handle on the second performance factor in our CPUs behavior.
43. Performance may cry (PMC)
A governor based on Smartmax except it's heavily tweaked for better and maximum battery life. This is not a gaming governor!
44. Dance Dance
Based on conservative with some smartass features, it scales accordingly to conservatives laws. So it will start from the bottom, take a load sample, if it's above the upthreshold, ramp up only one speed at a time, and ramp down one at a time. It will automatically cap the off screen speeds to 245Mhz, and if your min freq is higher than 245mhz, it will reset the min to 120mhz while screen is off and restore it upon screen awakening, and still scale accordingly to conservatives laws. So it spends most of its time at lower frequencies. The goal of this is to get the best battery life with decent performance. It is a performance focused governor but also blends with some battery savings.
45. AbyssPlugv2
AbyssPlugv2 is a rewrite of the original CPU governor. It also fixes the problem where the governor is set only for the first core, but now governs all cores right from whatever utility you use. There have been comments on the lack of stability with this governor.
46. IntelliMM
A rewrite of the old Min Max governor and has 3 cpu states: Idle, UI and Max. Intelliminmax (intellimm) governor is designed to work with the newer SOCs with fixed voltage rails (ie MSM8974+ SOCs). It is designed to work within those fixed voltage ranges in order to maximize battery performance while creating a smooth UI operations. It is battery friendly and spends most of the time at lower frequencies.
47. Interactive Pro
A newer (modified) version of interactive which is optimized for devices such as the One Plus One. It is a more efficient than the original Interactive because it continuously re-evaluates the load of each CPU therefore allowing the CPU to scale efficiently.
48. Slim
A new governor from the cm branch and the slimrom project. This is a performance optimized governor and has been tuned a lot for newer devices such as the One Plus One.
49. Ondemand EPS
Once again, a modified version of Ondemand and is optimized for newer devices. It is based on the Semaphore Kernel's Ondemand which is more optimized for battery life and better performance than the traditional ondemand governor.
50. Smartmax EPS
A newer smartmax governor that has been slightly optimized for newer devices.
51. Uberdemand
Uberdemand is Ondemand with 2-phase feature meaning it has a soft cap at 1728 MHz so your cpu won't always go directly to max, made by Chet Kener.
52. Yankactive
A slightly modified interactive based governor by Yank555.lu. It has battery tweaks added onto it so expect better battery life! Based on user reports, this governor behaves more battery friendly than the original interactive governor without sacrificing performance.
53. Impulse
An improved version of interactive modified by neobuddy89. Impulse aims to have a balance between battery and performance just like interactive but has some tweaks to save battery.
54. Bacon
This is nothing but polished interactive governor branded as "bacon" since it was adapted from bacon device thanks to neobuddy89. Most of the tweaks are for performance/latency improvements
55. Optimax governor
This is based on ONDEMAND, like almost all governors that have arisen from XDA. It contains some enhancements from LG, particularly to freq boost handling so it will boost to a set level, almost like HTC's governor. It has different tunables to the HTC governor but it behaves pretty similar, the tunables it comes with default are a bit more conservative.
It originates from Cl3kener's Uber kernel for Nexus 5, where it has quite a reputation for battery life
56. Preservative governor
This is based on the idea that the CPU will consume a lot of power when it changes frequency. It is based on the conservative governor. The idea is that it will stay at the step specified (702MHz selected by the creator Bedalus) unless needed. You will notice it will hover around 702 a lot, and not go above too much, and only to min freq when NOTHING is happening at all. This is most beneficial when you are doing something like reading; the screen is static or playing light games that won't need boosting any more
The governor comes from Moob kernel for nexus 4
57. Touchdemand
Touchdemand is based on the ondemand cpu governor but has been modified for the Tegra 3 chip (tablet only) and has additional tweaks for touchscreen responsiveness.
58. ElementalX
If you are an owner of a nexus device, you probably have heard of a governor named ElementalX. Named after the kernel, elementalX is based on interactive but with some additional performance tweaks. This governor focuses on performance and not battery savings!
59. Bioshock
Not the game, but rather the CPU governor developed by Jamison904. A mix of ConservativeX and Lionheart. Good balance between battery savings and performance.
60. Blueactive
A new cpu governor based on interactive with tweaks to improve battery life. This governor is heavily focused in battery savings while performing decent in multitasking. Not a recommended gaming governor.
61. Umbrella_core
A new cpu governor based on interactive that is focused on battery life and not performance. It will still ramp up to a set frequency but will not stay at high frequencies for long. Users have reported weird behavior with this governor
62. ConservativeX
Essentially, it is a less aggressive version of conservative. More battery life, less performance.
63. HydrxQ
Simply a lulzactiveq governor with tweaks to performance (thanks to tegrak).
64. DevilQ
An aggressive pegasusq governor which keeps the hotplugging at max 2 cpu cores to offline). This is pretty much a more optimized pegasusq for phone's with quad core processors.
65. YankasusQ
Yankasusq is another modified pegasusq but with including screen off freq tunable and some other modifications as well. Possibly better battery life.
66. Darkness
It's based on nightmare but more simple and fast, basic configs but very complex structure. It is an updated nightmare gov and improved stability, so far it is quite stable in tests
67. Alucard
A favourite choice and one of the original governors that Alucard_24 made. Alucard is based on ondemand but has been heavily tweaked to bring better battery life and performance. It has been known to be battery friendly without sacrificing much performance.
Thanks to poondog for some of his governor descriptions!
Continued in next post
Credits for this info can be found at the original thread by clicking the link below.
I want to apologize to the original author......I was given all of this info via a ReadMe file.
Original Thread
