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Octacoreprocessors:Realadvantageormarketingmyth?|NDTVGadgets

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Octa-core processors: Real advantage

or marketing myth?
byJamshedAvari,March20,2014

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JustasprocessorclockspeedswereonceconsideredthesolemeasureofaPC's
performanceinthe90s,corecountisbecomingtoday'sdefaultindicatorof
smartphonepower.Whiledual-coredeviceswerealltheragejustashortwhileago,
customersarenowdemandingquad-coreattheveryleast,andmanufacturersare
racingtoone-upthecompetitionbypushingoutphoneswhichhaveocta-core
processorsinthem.
EnablingthisphenomenonisMediaTek,amanufacturerofARM-basedprocessors
which,untiltherecentspateoflow-budgetAndroiddevices,hadmanagedto
maintainaprettylowprofile.MediaTek'sprocessorsarebasedontheindustrystandardARMarchitecture,butaregenerallynotaspowerfulorasintegratedasthose
frommorewell-knowncompetitorssuchasQualcomm.
MediaTekoffersavarietyofmodels,mostofthemaimedatthelowerendofthe
smartphonemarket.However,they'vebeenquicktosensethegrowinginterestin
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boastingaboutcorecount,andhavedevelopedanocta-corechip,theMT6592.Sofar,
threephoneshavelaunchedinIndiawiththisprocessor:theIntexAquaOcta,the
WickedleakWammyPassionX,andtheMicromaxCanvasKnight.Karbonnhasalso
recentlyannouncedtheTitaniumOctaneandTitaniumOctanePlusmodels,which
willjointhisexclusiveclub.

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MOBILES
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5-Megapixel Front Camera Launched
at Rs. 9,199

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andManualSyncButtonBugs
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IndiaWithin2Years:Barra

Iseightbetterthanfour?
VariousARMlicenseeshavebeenofferingeight-coreconfigurationsforawhilenow,
buttheirapproachistohaveoneclusteroffourhigh-poweredcoreswhichdon't
prioritiseenergyefficiency,andanotheroffourlow-poweredcoreswhicharemuch
easieronthebattery.Dependingontheamountofworktheprocessoriscalledupon
todoatanypoint,itcanrapidlyswitchbetweenthetwoclusters.
ARMcallsthisarrangementbig.LITTLE,andclaimsthatitcanbeusedtoachievefar
bettercontroloverpowerefficiencythanispossiblewithclockspeedscalingalone.
Thehigh-poweredandlow-poweredcoresdonotgenerallyoperateatthesametime,
althoughthisispossibleincertainimplementationsandisknownasheterogenous
multiprocessing.
MediaTek,ontheotherhand,isproudtoboastthatitsMT6592isa"trueocta-core"
chip,inwhicheightcoresofthesamedesigncanoperatesimultaneously.Whileeight
simultaneouscoreswouldobviouslybeabletodeliversuperiorperformancetofour,
Mediatek'sbuildingblocksthemselvesaren'tthemostpowerful.Thearchitectureis
alsoheavilydependentonthewaytheOSandapplicationsarewritten.
Ideally,havingmoreprocessorcoresshouldallowadevicetobemoreresponsive,
whichmeansmultitaskingshouldfeelsnappier.Applicationsshouldn'thavetowait
aslongfortheprocessortoallocateresourcestothem,andcoresnotinuseshouldbe
abletoshutdowncompletelyinordertominimisetheirimpactonbatterylife.
Thequestionthatremainsiswhetherhavingeightcoresisoverkill.Evenifthere's
minimalimpactonbatterylife,willhalformoreofthemsimplyremainidlemostof
thetime?Is"octa-core"moreofamarketinglinethananactualtechnological
advantage?

InPerspective:WhatApple's$700Billion
MarketCapCouldBuy
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Korea;GlobalRolloutAwaited
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PHOTOS

11IMAGES

NokiaLumia
730DualSIM

YotaDevices
Yotaphone
11IMAGES

Inseveralcases,theanswerseemstobeyes.Manufacturersarenowtryingto
rationalisecorecountswhilestillappearingtobeaheadofthecompetition,andhexacoredesignsthatditchtwoofthehigherpoweredcores.Samsung'sExynos5260
processorisbasedonheterogenousbig.LITTLEMP.Withallsixcoresabletorun
togetherorindependently,there'snoneedtohaveanevennumberofcoresforloads
tobebalanced.
Therearealsootherfactorstobeconsideredwhencomparingoneprocessorto
another.Beyondjustthenumberofcoresandtheirspeed,thecorearchitectureitself
isobviouslyimportant.Improvementsinmanufacturingprocessesovertheyears
alsocontributetopowerefficiency,heatdissipation,size,costandoverall
performance.
Today'smobileprocessorsareintegratedSystems-on-a-chip(SoCs),andhave
absorbedmanyofthefeaturesandfunctionsthatusedtorequirededicatedchips,
includingmobilevoiceanddataconnectivity,Bluetooth,FM,USB,cameracontroller,
sensorcontrollers,GPS,multimediaencode/decodeacceleration,andofcourse
graphics.DuetothepresenceofmultipleARMprocessorvendors,capabilitiesvary
wildlybetweenchips.
Graphicscapabilitiesareespeciallyimportantwhenitcomestotoday'svisual-heavy
OSinterfaces,games,HDmoviesandcontent-richwebsites.Mosthigher-endand
evenmid-rangephonescomewithfull-HDscreens,andprocessorshavetokeepup
withtheincreasedvisualandrawprocessingworkload.Evenifaprocessorboastsof
eightCPUcores,weakintegratedgraphicswillseverelyimpacttheusability
experience.

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HTCDesire
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SwipeSense
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Finally,there'sthequestionofsoftwaresupport.Processorvendorshavetoensure
thatAndroidcanrunontheirhardware,whichmeansnotonlycreatingdriversand
othersupportingtoolsatthetimeofeachproductrelease,butalsorepeatingthat
processforeachAndroidupdate.That'soneofthereasonslower-enddevicesremain
stuckonolderAndroidversionswithnohopeofbeingupdated.
Therealstory
WetestedthreeofthefirstphonesinIndiatobebasedonMediaTek'sMT6592,and
comparedtheirresults.Here'saquickrundownofthefeaturesandspecificationsof
thedevicesinquestion.Forthesakeofcomparison,we'veincludeddetailsandtest
resultsofacomparablypricedphonebasedonaQualcommSnapdragon400;the
SamsungGalaxyGrand2.
IntexAquaOcta

Wickedleak

MicromaxCanvas

WammyPassionX Knight

SamsungGalaxy
Grand2

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StreetPrice

Rs.18,999

Rs.16,999

Rs.19,999

Rs.20,999

Warranty(years)

2300

2500

2350

2600

RemovableBattery

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

DualSIM

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SIMtype

Regular+Micro

Regular+Micro

Micro

Micro+Micro

NetworkSupport

850/900/

850/900/

850/900/

850/900/

1800/1900MHz

1800/1900MHz

1800/1900MHz

1800/1900MHz

CDMAbands

NA

NA

NA

NA

3G/3.5G

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

4G/LTE

No

No

No

No

Screen

Size(inches)

Resolution

1280x720

1920x1080

1920x1080

1280x720

Corehardware

SoC/CPU

MediaTekMT6592

MediaTekMT6592

Speed(GHz)

1.7

1.7

1.2

Corecount

GPUname

Mali450MP

Mali450MP

Mali450MP

Adreno305

RAM(GB)

1.5

Storage

Onboard(GB)

16

16

32

32

64

No

64

Software

Platform/OS

Android4.2.2

Android4.2

Android4.2.2

Camera

13

13

16

BatteryCapacity
(mAh)

GSMbands

Expandable
additional(GB)

Resolution
(megapixels)

MediaTek
MT6592T

Snapdragon400

Android4.3

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Flash

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Videoresolution

1080p

1080p

1080p

720p

Connectivity

Bluetooth

2.1

WiFig

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

WiFin

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Infrared

No

No

No

No

GPS

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

NFC

No

No

No

No

Miscellaneous

Accelerometer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Proximitysensor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Ambientlightsensor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Gyroscope

Yes

Yes

No

No

Torch

No

No

No

No

FMradio

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Fingerprintreader

No

No

No

No

Asyoucansee,thereareafewvariableseventhoughthecorefeaturesetremainsthe
same.Thus,whenitcomestoperformance,thereisroomfordifferencestocreepin.
Ourtestsincludeavarietyofsyntheticbenchmarks,whichmightnotreflectexact
real-worldusagesituations,butdoservetoprovidecomparablenumbersbetween
devices,basedonidenticalworkloadsandtestconditions.
WeputallthreephonesthroughasetofteststhatstressedtheirCPUs,GPUsand
batteries.CPU-boundtestssuchasSunSpider,KrakenandAnTuTuexhibitedminimal
variationbetweendevices,butGFXbench,3DMarkandQuadrant's2D/3Dtestsclearly
pointtoadifferenceingraphicscapabilities.

IntexAquaOcta

Sunspider1.0.2
(lowerisbetter)
MozillaKraken1.1
(lowerisbetter)
Browsermark2.0
(points)

Wickedleak

MicromaxCanvas

SamsungGalaxy

WammyPassionX Knight

Grand2

1025.2

1064.5

945

1063

14974.9

14171.7

14903

20586

1474

1479

2102

2662

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AnTuTu

27691

26290

30223

17030

Quadrant(Overall)

12289

14375

16061

8427

Quadrant(CPU)

48729

59257

66744

31932

Quadrant(Memory)

4028

4633

4967

2194

Quadrant(I/O)

5764

5750

5699

4662

Quadrant(2D)

509

269

254

347

Quadrant(3D)

2416

1965

2639

2278

GFXbench(fps)

13

9.3

9.4

11

4697

4624

4171

2798

3DMarkIceStorm
Extreme720p

Andsoitappearsthattheocta-coreMediaTekprocessorsactuallydohavea
performanceadvantageoverthequad-coreQualcommchip.Ofcourseyoudon'tget
doubletheperformance,andthereareinstancesinwhichtheGalaxyGrand2edges
outitscompetition.
It'salsoeasytoseetheeffectofothervariables,suchasafull-HD1080pscreenvsa
comparativelygrainier720pscreen.TheIntexAquaOctadoesn'thavetopushas
manypixelsastheotherphoneswiththesameprocessor,resultinginamarked
increaseinperformanceingraphics-heavytests.Unfortunately,whenmanufacturers
trytocramtoomanybuzzword-worthyspecificationsintoaproductwithoutseeing
howtheyallbalanceout,theendusersuffersapoorerexperience.
Ultimately,wecanseethat"octa-core"isn'tjustamarketingterm.Thereareclear
advantagestohavingthespareprocessingpower,andMediaTekseemstohave
foundawaytoimplementaneight-coreSoCwithinabudget,andwithoutkilling
batterylife.WhileQualcommmightnothavehadmuchtoworryaboutbefore,italso
seemsasthougheightweakercorescanholdtheirownagainstfourstrongerones;a
factwhichisalreadyleadingtosomeinterestingmarketdynamicsinthesub-Rs.
20,000pricerange.
Sowhat'snext?WillMediaTekrefineitsproductsandprocessesenoughtotakeon
thehigh-endSnapdragon600andflagship-classSnapdragon800series?WillIndian
brandsrideonMediaTek'scoattailsandstartpushingintothepremiumspaceand
createpricingheadachesformultinationalbrands?WillQualcommloseitsposition
asthebestvendorfortop-tiersmartphoneandtabletprocessors?Wecan'twaitto
findout.
Tags: Android, ARM, eight-core, Intex, Karbonn, Mediatek, MediatekMT6592, Micromax, octacore, processors, Qualcomm, Samsung, Wickedleak

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Showing 1-7 out of 7 comments

Kris

SortbyLatestFirst

2 weeks ago

Octa-core is just a marketing term! Why this article failed to test how many cores does one app use? And
why didn't they test with only a single core to see comparison of a single core of mediatek with qualcomm
one. I call bullshit. Octa-core phone are just marketing shit term, because most of the application we run
are single threaded ones.
Reply | Permalink | Share | Report Abuse | Like | Unlike (1)

nicky

5 months ago

why are you comparing octacores with higher clock speed to a quad core with a lower clock speed and
saying they're better... way to go captain obvious.
Reply | Permalink | Share | Report Abuse | Like(2) | Unlike

Anonymous

7 months ago

GPS? so does the GPS really work with these octacores or are there still problems as with the previous
MediaTec processors?
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Gagan Preet Singh

8 months ago

canvas knight n garnd 2 spec r interchanged I guess

Reply | Permalink | Share | Report Abuse | Like | Unlike (1)

Yash

8 months ago

Reminds me of, 'Ek Chidiya, Anek Chidiyan...'

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Anonymous

8 months ago

Posted via NDTV iPhone App

So thats why apple iPhones with dual-core processors offer better performance than samsung phones
quad-core processors. Good info. Want every smartphone consumer to see this.
Reply | Permalink | Share | Report Abuse | Like(5) | Unlike (9)

Akash

9 months ago

True Benefit of having a Even number Processor is only when Smart Phone App(Software Code) is written
to support Multi-threaded AND Programming Language/OS(Android, C#, iOS) supports Multi-Threading;
Otherwise it adds no advantage for End User. Other extra core will remain Idle, failing the whole purpose of
having a Quad/Octa Core processor SmartPhone!
Reply | Permalink | Share | Report Abuse | Like(1) | Unlike

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