[dishe]

Ok, here's the theory:
Since the Optimus shares the same Adreno GPU as the EVO, yet sports less than half the pixels, it SHOULD be capable of greater performance on the little LG than the more demanding display on the EVO.

Granted, the EVO is faster at most things because of the beefier CPU, however specific hardware-accelerated graphic intensive apps, such as the photo Gallery, rely more on the GPU than it does the CPU. That means the performance should be smoother/faster on the little Optimus.

Sure enough, in my informal testing with a rooted EVO (so I could remove Sense and run the standard Froyo Gallery), it DID seem smoother on the Optimus, but my perception doesn't prove anything.
There were some nay sayers here who asked to see proof that the Optimus can actually outperform the EVO at anything.

So I decided to conduct a test with real numbers to compare.

Using an app I found on the market called "Open GL test", you can watch a shaded triangle rotate slowly for 10 seconds, followed by the average fps displayed.

Here are the results (with screenshots taken from the other phone since I didn't have a camera handy at the time):

LG Optimus (stock):
65 Avg FPS



HTC EVO:
51.6 FPS



So there you have it. At displaying 3D graphics, the cheap little Optimus displayed roughly 27% more frames per second than the flagship EVO.

[transientjetlag]

Originally Posted by dishe

Ok, here's the theory:
Since the Optimus shares the same Adreno GPU as the EVO, yet sports less than half the pixels, it SHOULD be capable of greater performance on the little LG than the more demanding display on the EVO.

Granted, the EVO is faster at most things because of the beefier CPU, however specific hardware-accelerated graphic intensive apps, such as the photo Gallery, rely more on the GPU than it does the CPU. That means the performance should be smoother/faster on the little Optimus.

Sure enough, in my informal testing with a rooted EVO (so I could remove Sense and run the standard Froyo Gallery), it DID seem smoother on the Optimus, but my perception doesn't prove anything.
There were some nay sayers here who asked to see proof that the Optimus can actually outperform the EVO at anything.

So I decided to conduct a test with real numbers to compare.

Using an app I found on the market called "Open GL test", you can watch a shaded triangle rotate slowly for 10 seconds, followed by the average fps displayed.

Here are the results (with screenshots taken from the other phone since I didn't have a camera handy at the time):

LG Optimus (stock):
65 Avg FPS



HTC EVO:
51.6 FPS



So there you have it. At displaying 3D graphics, the cheap little Optimus displayed roughly 27% more frames per second than the flagship EVO.

I was one of the first to mention this. One thing I did notice though is that gaming is still a bit better on the EVO. Apps like the 3D gallery are mostly reliant on the GPU because of HW acceleration but games and other similar apps that aren't just UI related depend on both the CPU (for AI, physics, etc) and GPU. The cortex A8 architecture + the 1 GHz clockspeed obviously blow away the Armv6 600 MHz CPU in the Optimus.

Keep in mind one thing: The JIT compiler (you know, the thing that makes Froyo fast) is disabled in the Optimus and you can enable it if you're rooted. It doesn't make it as fast as the EVO but you get s nice healthy bump. It'll help with some 2D games and almost all apps but most (all?) 3D games don't use the JIT at all. This should make Transform owners even more annoyed.

That said, I used to freaking hate the Adreno 200; and it's still one of (if not the) weakest high end GPUs currently on the market. But after playing with a Windows Phone 7 device I realized that most of hate should be directed at Android. Most WP7 phones use the same first gen Snapdragon and are sooooo smooth that I couldn't believe that they were using the same GPU. So hopefully Google can get their **** together for 2.3; if they do and either phone gets it, expect a even better, smoother experience.

[dishe]

Originally Posted by transientjetlag

Keep in mind one thing: The JIT compiler (you know, the thing that makes Froyo fast) is disabled in the Optimus and you can enable it if you're rooted. It doesn't make it as fast as the EVO but you get s nice healthy bump. It'll help with some 2D games and almost all apps but most (all?) 3D games don't use the JIT at all. This should make Transform owners even more annoyed.

I'm going to try that next. This was just to prove stock performance CAN (not necessarily will, as you pointed out) outdo the flagship.

If I understand correctly, only way to enable JIT is with a custom ROM, correct?

[Krayzie Joe]

That's great and all, but the call quality on the Optimus is terrible

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by transientjetlag

Keep in mind one thing: The JIT compiler (you know, the thing that makes Froyo fast) is disabled in the Optimus and you can enable it if you're rooted. It doesn't make it as fast as the EVO but you get s nice healthy bump. It'll help with some 2D games and almost all apps but most (all?) 3D games don't use the JIT at all. This should make Transform owners even more annoyed.

It is? This is the first I heard of this. Why did they disable the JIT? Is the GPU then the only reason why the Optimus is a better performer to the Transform and Zio?

Is the JIT enabled on the Evo and the Epic?

--
Bill

[transientjetlag]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

It is? This is the first I heard of this. Why did they disable the JIT? Is the GPU then the only reason why the Optimus is a better performer to the Transform and Zio?

Is the JIT enabled on the Evo and the Epic?

--
Bill

1. I don't know why they disabled it.

2. The Optimus has both a better GPU and double the RAM. The CPU also seems to benchmark better then both even with JIT disabled, this could mean that the CPU is better even though it's lower clocked (Maybe more cache? More efficient? I can't say for certain but it's a possibility).

3. JIT is enabled by default on the EVO, the Epic doesn't have JIT available to it because it's a 2.2 feature.

[chiphead]

It also has double the RAM and running Froyo.

[transientjetlag]

Originally Posted by chiphead

It also has double the RAM and running Froyo.

Most, if not all, of Froyo's performance advantage comes from the JIT which is disabled by default (but can enabled through rooting) in the Optimus.

Edit: A stock Optimus CPU benches about double that of the Transform. With JIT it's 3-4 times more. Like I said, it's sure to piss off some Transform owners.

[chiphead]

http://smartphonebenchmarks.com/foru...good-are-they/

[dishe]

Originally Posted by Krayzie Joe

That's great and all, but the call quality on the Optimus is terrible

I beg to disagree. Call quality is excellent in my experience, and that's comparing it to the Palm Pre, Evo and Touch Pro 2 that have all been on my desk over the last couple of weeks.

Originally Posted by transientjetlag

Most, if not all, of Froyo's performance advantage comes from the JIT which is disabled by default (but can enabled through rooting) in the Optimus.

Edit: A stock Optimus CPU benches about double that of the Transform. With JIT it's 3-4 times more. Like I said, it's sure to piss off some Transform owners.

Yep. The performance boost on the Optimus apparently has little to do with Froyo because they left JIT disabled (I'm surprised too!).

I keep hearing people say "oh just wait until the Transform gets froyo! Then you'll see!".
No. The Transform, Intercept and Zio are just horribly underpowered. My guess is that Samsung wanted to make more of a distinction between their flagship and low end phones, so purposely chose older hardware. LG has no higher model to compete against, so the Optimus is pretty hot.

The Zio on the other hand... gosh, I don't know who thought that CPU/GPU + WVGA resolution was a good idea. I've got no explanation for that one... That thing is so laggy, it gives Android a bad name.

Meanwhile, would love to do some tests with JIT on this thing. Still reading up on the custom rom front before I dive in and test that again.

This little powerhouse continues to impress me!

[transientjetlag]

Originally Posted by chiphead

http://smartphonebenchmarks.com/foru...good-are-they/

Will there you have it, the CPU is a past gen ARMv6 but with a very Snapdragon-like architecture. With the 512MB of RAM and lower resolution, it ends up being really fast. It's pretty amazing that this is Sprint's bottom of the barrel smartphone.

[transientjetlag]

Dishe, you don't have to flash a custom ROM to enable JIT.

Instructions here: http://forum.sdx-developers.com/opti...on-optimus-st/

If you're knowledgeable enough it should be no problem. Don't know how stable it is though.

Edit: I'd also suggest that all Optimus S owners make androidcentral.com's Optimus S forum a second home. It seems to have the most dev support right now -- unless XDA decides to create a forum. If LG decides not to update it to 2.3 (which they really should but might not) then it will be up to the devs to port Cyanogen Mod or something similar to it. The more support/community, the better your phone will be.

[KAT]

Originally Posted by transientjetlag

Will there you have it, the CPU is a past gen ARMv6 but with a very Snapdragon-like architecture. With the 512MB of RAM and lower resolution, it ends up being really fast. It's pretty amazing that this is Sprint's bottom of the barrel smartphone.

Seems the only thing that is "bottom of the barrel" about this phone is the price

[Krayzie Joe]

Originally Posted by KAT

Seems the only thing that is "bottom of the barrel" about this phone is the price

You forgot the screen size and 3.2 mp camera with no flash...makes it pretty low end if you ask me

[KAT]

Originally Posted by Krayzie Joe

You forgot the screen size and 3.2 mp camera with no flash...makes it pretty low end if you ask me

Well, I see it as higher end than the Hero, so that's why I'm getting the LG to replace mine