Mediatek E4 bad AES performance

[xdadevc]

I've been looking at the benchmark results for E4 and noticed that the Mediatek variant has sub-optimal AES performance compared to the Qualcomm one.

Specifically, the Qualcomm version scores about 300MB/s/core while the Mediatek falls short at 15MB/s/core (!).

The MT6737 arm core is actually the same as the Snapdragon 425 (i.e. it supports the hardware AES accelerator) however it seems not enabled in the kernel.
I found some MT6737 based phones (like the Asus Zenfone 3 Max) where the AES speed is approximately the same as the one in Qualcomm.
Other designs however exhibit the same poor performance.

Now this is something that could be easily overlooked during the compilation of the kernel, but it has dramatic effects when running a VPN (say to the office). The Qualcomm variant will hardly notice the VPN while the Mediatek will use most of the processors for AES encryption/decryption and become sluggish, battery-hungry etc.

Not to speak about the crypto world (i.e. wallets etc where aes is also used for verification and general checksumming).

Can you confirm this is an issue with the mediatek version of Moto E4 ?
If possible, I'd like you to test and report about download/upload speed tests performed while under VPN (OpenVPN and similar). VPN normally use AES ciphers (either AES128 or 256) so that will be a good indicator about speed of the AES acceleration.

xdadevc

 

[madbat99]

It's a $50 phone. If you're looking to do resource intensive things, and crypto type things, and super speed is necessary... Spend a couple more bucks. That said, I have the Qualcomm version and using a VPN works fine. Pure VPN in my case. But it's doubtful anyone is going give you the response you want, it's an entry level phone. Get one and test it. I've seen them for $25.

 

[DB126]

It's a $50 phone. If you're looking to do resource intensive things, and crypto type things, and super speed is necessary... Spend a couple more bucks. That said, I have the Qualcomm version and using a VPN works fine. Pure VPN in my case. But it's doubtful anyone is going give you the response you want, it's an entry level phone. Get one and test it. I've seen them for $25.

Exactly! FWIW - I have a Qualcomm variant and run a VPN based firewall 7x24 with zero subjective performance hit. Haven't bothered with objective analysis as throughput and battery endurance exceed expectations for a budget device.

 

[xdadevc]

Sorry, I think I did not make myself clear.

I understand it's a cheap phone. It's more like $100 without operator subsidies in Europe too, but this is not the point.

My point was more technical. I noticed that *this* phone, in the MTK version, regardless of having the right CPU with hardware AES support, did not seem to be using it. So I sought some confirmations (because I don't own it atm). Take my thread as a bug-report if you like pointing that the kernel for MTK missed something. I know the Qualcomm is OK, as I wrote in the OP.

And, IMHO, VPN is not advanced stuff at all. It's rather a basic security provision everybody shall just keep in the background of their phone while connecting out of their own home, and I mean even using mobile service too, in addition to the obvious free and unsecured wifi hotspost that we all like to use.

 

[madbat99]

Sorry, I think I did not make myself clear.

I understand it's a cheap phone. It's more like $100 without operator subsidies in Europe too, but this is not the point.

My point was more technical. I noticed that *this* phone, in the MTK version, regardless of having the right CPU with hardware AES support, did not seem to be using it. So I sought some confirmations (because I don't own it atm). Take my thread as a bug-report if you like pointing that the kernel for MTK missed something. I know the Qualcomm is OK, as I wrote in the OP.

And, IMHO, VPN is not advanced stuff at all. It's rather a basic security provision everybody shall just keep in the background of their phone while connecting out of their own home, and I mean even using mobile service too, in addition to the obvious free and unsecured wifi hotspost that we all like to use.

I didn't say it was advanced, I said "resource intensive".
I was pointing out (admittedly sarcastically) that I doubt anyone is going to give you the answer involving the testing you're requesting.
I know a VPN isn't advanced, I use one on all my devices, have for years. Nothing you said was "advanced", I just don't think anyone cares enough to do the testing you're asking.

Granted, I worked long hours that week and was a little "rough" on you. But it doesn't look to be getting responses.
Sorry for being ... Well, kinda jerky.
And most Qualcomm chipsets are going to outperform similar mtk ones.

 

[xdadevc]

No problem man. Perhaps somebody from lenovo will see the thread and (dare to) fix the E4.

Meanwhile there are perfectly good MT6737 based chinese copy-cats that work at the same speed as the qualcomm (it's the same cpu core ater all).