[Q] Galaxy Tab 10.1 stutters especially with live wallpaper on

[empathyvirus]

I've only got my galaxy tab 10.1 for a week or so. It ran rather smoothly out of the box. But then it just slowed down. Now it frequently stutters when multitasking, screen rotating orientation, or even just running some applications. Things get particularly worse when live wallpaper is on. I checked in the setting/applications/running services to make sure I didn't run out of RAM (there was often still 300 something MB free).

Did any of you experience that? What would you suggest me doing to resolve this issue? Or is there no solution to this? I do remember everything running fine without lagging when I first used it.

Any sharing or suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[Itaintrite]

None of the available tablets are capable of running live wallpapers smoothly. I don't have any problem otherwise though. Try doing a factory reset.

 

[empathyvirus]

thanks. i probably should.

 

[5thElement]

The Tegra 2 chip is not capable of running live wallpapers smoothly due to its crippled 32bit memory interface. It simply does not have enough memory bandwidth to process. Tegra 2 was SUPPOSED to have dual channel memory but Nvidia decided to ditch the second 32bit channel (which would have greatly improved performance under live wallpapers and games) to save power

This is the same reason why you notice your tablet slowing down after using it for a little while. Once system memory starts to get filled Android OS needs to shuffle around memory, remove apps from memory to make room for newly launched apps, ect. This all takes alot of memory bandwidth and with only a 32bit wide channel you can see why your tablet slows down. Especially when doing anything visual like swiping home screens across.

Most people dont know that Tegra 2 is an old chipset. Its been around for over a year now. I was blown away and shocked when I found that Nvidia used a crippled 32bit single channel memory interface. Not sure what they were thinking

I cant wait for TIs dual-core SoC, they run dual channel memory and have a GPU many times faster that Tegra 2. If you want to run live wallpapers its best to skip any Tegra 2 device and wait for a unit with TIs SoC later this summer or a Tegra 3 which will be in tablets in 5 months.

 

[kytz]

Many people feel their tablets and phones perform a lot better (at least when on the home screens) when you use a third-party launcher like ADW Launcher Ex or Launcher Pro.

 

[5thElement]

Many people feel their tablets and phones perform a lot better (at least when on the home screens) when you use a third-party launcher like ADW Launcher Ex or Launcher Pro.

third-party launcher will do nothing to improve performance and has absolutely nothing to do with live wallpapers or the performance of the unit.

 

[cyberleader]

magic smoke

I re flashed the tab 10.1 back to the 3.01 OS and It runs live wall papers great. No shuddering and my applications load quickly. I Do use android assistant and shut down any programs I don't use. Gonna try the new kernel.

 

[beaker2007]

so 3rd party launchers are bad... why? also, a new kernel for the tab? already?

 

[5thElement]

so 3rd party launchers are bad... why? also, a new kernel for the tab? already?

3rd party launchers are just apps. There is nothing wrong with them but they certainly don't improve performance of any aspect of the device.

 

[ericc191]

Any upcoming devices that will have the TI dual core cpu in it? Or will Tegra 3 be far superior by that time?

 

[5thElement]

Any upcoming devices that will have the TI dual core cpu in it? Or will Tegra 3 be far superior by that time?

Archos is launching a tablet with the 1.5ghz TI dual core chip really soon. Itll be much faster than tegra 2 and have 3 times the gpu performance. The gpu performance on the tegra 2 is just plain awful even for a 1st gen device.

 

[empathyvirus]

Thanks 5thElement for your detailed information. Now I have a much better understanding of how this problem came to be. For now though, I couldn't stand the lagging behind any more and reset the tab to factory setting. Smooth all around once again. Will have to re-purchase all the apps I paid for though. This part sucks!

 

[empathyvirus]

Actually just found out u need not repurchase anything. Google sync remembers everything and does a full recovery of all settings and apps for u. Kudos to google!

 

[mannequin]

If you want to run live wallpapers its best to skip any Tegra 2 device and wait for a unit with TIs SoC later this summer or a Tegra 3 which will be in tablets in 5 months.

and those tablets are...?

 

[MrSewerPickle]

Archos is launching a tablet with the 1.5ghz TI dual core chip really soon. Itll be much faster than tegra 2 and have 3 times the gpu performance. The gpu performance on the tegra 2 is just plain awful even for a 1st gen device.

They will indeed be more than likely faster than Tegra 2 but for the record the TI OMAP 4460 uses Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 540 GPUs which are the same GPUs used in the Samsung Galaxy S phones (not the new SIIs). That isnt a massive difference between Gefore ULP.

Now, the TIs OMAP 5 chipset does use a shock and awesome GPU that is dangerously similar to the iPads GPU which is from ITs PowerVR SGX 544 MP line and those are a true dual core GPU. Anandtech has some GPU benchmarks covering this....

 

[5thElement]

They will indeed be more than likely faster than Tegra 2 but for the record the TI OMAP 4460 uses Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX 540 GPUs which are the same GPUs used in the Samsung Galaxy S phones (not the new SIIs). That isnt a massive difference between Gefore ULP.

Now, the TIs OMAP 5 chipset does use a shock and awesome GPU that is dangerously similar to the iPads GPU which is from ITs PowerVR SGX 544 MP line and those are a true dual core GPU. Anandtech has some GPU benchmarks covering this....

The PowerVR 540 will be significantly faster than tegra 2 not only because it has a unified architecture but because TIs SoC will have dual channel memory unlike the crippled single channel memory the Tegra 2 has. The memory bandwidth on the tegra 2 is pathetic and it has to be shared with video which is seriously crippling for the Tegra 2 and its poor performance sticks out like a sore thumb as you can see when you try to run live wallpapers.

 

[dave420wank]

switched to launcher pro live wallpapers run fine

third-party launcher will do nothing to improve performance and has absolutely nothing to do with live wallpapers or the performance of the unit.

You are wrong my live wp work fine no stutters now. Thanks for the single channel knowledge.Although launcher pro seemed to fix my issue

 

[wisdom1456]

third-party launcher will do nothing to improve performance and has absolutely nothing to do with live wallpapers or the performance of the unit.

On MY Tab, Adw EX outperforms the stock launcher by leaps and bounds. I don't know what they did programatically, but it consistently moves smoother, faster than the stock launcher.

Live wallpapers are still problematic, but I do feel the presentation of icons/widgets is better. Not all launchers are created equal... including the default one.

 

[sin(x]

I've just received the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and I already own a Galaxy S2 phone. I was very disappointed with the stutter and lag in the GT 10.1 compared to the GS2. In fact I was sort of amazed because I hadn't seen any reference to the poor video and livewallpaper performance when looking at reviews of the tab.

I've tried resetting to factory defaults after installing the latest firmware update from Samsung and I simply can't use a livewallpaper - the slowdown in performance of the tablet is quite noticable.

I've got videos on my GS2 that play fine but on the Galaxy Tab, they just stutter (and I'm not using a livewallpaper). I've tried all sorts of video player apps as well.

I wished I'd known that the Tegra 2 would not be capable of the sorts of things my GS2 is. It's just weird that I hadn't seen any reference to this before.

 

[FordTaurus]

As suggested, try using a different launcher. While it doesn't change the hardware, most users find that the stock launcher is inherently laggy. ADW for example also has user adjustable tweaks which can improve perceived speed.

As for live wallpapers, some are worse than others of course. Experiment a bit. Also check widgets you may have on screen which could be causing slow downs. Things like circle launcher and updating social apps are known to cause slowness.

I am running Bonsai ROM with various tweaks, overclocked at 1.4gHz and can run live wallpapers smoothly with no problems.

Edit: You should also be able to run video smoothly. Using stock player or Rockplayer, etc. I regularly watch movies and videos, as well as Netflix with no issues. Of course video type, size, etc will make a difference, but even non-optimized movies seem smooth for me.