Antutu is generally a test that rewards processors disproportionately much for being multi-core or multi-threaded compared to other tests. Doubling the number of cores or threads on the CPU tends to nearly double the total score, while the effect is more subdued on many other tests.
Should this be seen as a strength or a weakness of the test? Is its emphasis on multi-threading reflective of real everyday use conditions?
Android seems to be quite good with multi-core and using cores when they're needed. I'm not sure whether quad-cores equates to twice as powerful as dual in real world use. I think it would depend a lot on the type of application as well.
It could be that other tests aren't sufficiently tasking the multiple cores. I haven't delved into this enough to really know. I'm just speaking off the top of my head here.
I would say my quad-core MTK6589 seems twice as responsive at many things as my dual-core MSM8625. That's just general system responsiveness. Typing on the keyboard, browsing, etc...I haven't actually compared for example re-encoding a video or some such. Also, the MSM8625 phone is only 512MB, so that could be playing a large part of it as well.
(2013-08-04, 01:43)Gizbeat Wrote: [ -> ]Android seems to be quite good with multi-core and using cores when they're needed. I'm not sure whether quad-cores equates to twice as powerful as dual in real world use. I think it would depend a lot on the type of application as well.
It could be that other tests aren't sufficiently tasking the multiple cores. I
Yes that.
Anybody w/programming experience knows that one has to put some extra efforts in order to utilize multicore.
Quad is relatively new, developers mostly don't bother to optimize their apps for the effective use.
Another thing that makes absolutely no sense about Antutu: my cortex A7 1.5 Ghz Quad Core phone scores HIGHER than the nexus 4's 1.5Ghz Qualcomm Krait Quad Core SoC on CPU related benchmarks. Based on the DMIPS comparison between the two architectures that makes the antutu result of my phone MORE THAN 1.7 times as high as it should be. Or the nexus 4's result too low by that much.
I think there are some reasons to think Cortex A7 is a massively underrated archtecture even performance wise, but this is just pushing it.