Force lower / upper CPU cap according to currently running application

[tltester]

Hi.

After buying my minix x7 I've followed the endless discussion about running the CPU capped with min. 1200mhz and personally was feeling a little bit uncomfortable about this way to fix a video speed problems. I thought to myself why can't I just make it run this way only when needed to play a video and run in lower speed when just sitting idle?

I think that I've finally found a way to achieve this.

I took the kernel of 006c and patched it with modified version RKPatchomatic tools from phjanderson, thus keeping the (IMHO) required GPU and DDR overclocking (or, more precisely, un-underclocking ) but adding more CPU scaling options to the speeds table. Then I've used the resulting kernel (the one I personally use is 1080p 667DDR 600GPU 1704CPU) along with SetCpu app that allows to alter profiles to run the CPU with different speeds on different conditions. I've defined a main profile that runs it in 504-1608 range in normal conditions, just 504 when screen is off and 1200-1708 when MXPlayer or XBMC are running (you have to create a distinct profile for each app).

So far everything seems to run fine and does its' job.
I've uploaded the modified kernels here so you may try it by yourself.

The 1608mhz kernels are working in 312-1608 range, and the 1704 are working in 504-1704 range.

The SetCpu is not a free app, but you can try Cpu Adjust that supposed to allow the same results.

So here we go, try it and tell the rest if this helped or your minix were blown up in fire

[Batfink32]

Great work, thanks!

Sent from my Faea F2S using Tapatalk

[i8urpizza]

Hi.

After buying my minix x7 I've followed the endless discussion about running the CPU capped with min. 1200mhz and personally was feeling a little bit uncomfortable about this way to fix a video speed problems. I thought to myself why can't I just make it run this way only when needed to play a video and run in lower speed when just sitting idle?

I think that I've finally found a way to achieve this.

I took the kernel of 006c and patched it with modified version RKPatchomatic tools from phjanderson, thus keeping the (IMHO) required GPU and DDR overclocking (or, more precisely, un-underclocking ) but adding more CPU scaling options to the speeds table. Then I've used the resulting kernel (the one I personally use is 1080p 667DDR 600GPU 1704CPU) along with SetCpu app that allows to alter profiles to run the CPU with different speeds on different conditions. I've defined a main profile that runs it in 504-1608 range in normal conditions, just 504 when screen is off and 1200-1708 when MXPlayer or XBMC are running (you have to create a distinct profile for each app).

So far everything seems to run fine and does its' job.
I've uploaded the modified kernels here so you may try it by yourself.

The 1608mhz kernels are working in 312-1608 range, and the 1704 are working in 504-1704 range.

The SetCpu is not a free app, but you can try Cpu Adjust that supposed to allow the same results.

So here we go, try it and tell the rest if this helped or your minix were blown up in fire

Excuse my newbieness, but can you explain the benefit of this?

Thanks.

[tltester]

To make a long story short, the overclocked kernel from phjanderson enforces 1200mhz lower cap so CPU never goes below 1200 regardless the system load while in stock kernel CPU can go as low as 300mhz to save power and reduce heat when no CPU power required, while scaling to higher speeds on demand when more power-hungry task is running. Phjanderson did this as capping the lower bound is the (currently) only way to ensure we got enough CPU power when watching cpu-demanding videos, as if there is a sudden jump in movie's decoding complexity system doesn't detects it in time and when CPU is finally scaling to higher speed it's already too late and we see a slight delay/jump disturbing the watcher's experience.

I wanted to preserve this fix but also to prevent the cpu from running 1200mhz when just sitting idle with screen off, and my solution solved this for me, as I enforce the scaling only in movies apps and not enforcing it in other cases so my cpu can rest.

Hope this explains it