Smartphone throttling on Android: what is it, how to check and fix it

Have you noticed that after 20-30 minutes of active use, the phone runs slower? If you have a 90 Hz screen refresh rate enabled, then it can be forced to drop to 60 Hz, and a game that, after launching, gave out honest 60 fps, starts to slow down so much after just a few minutes that you want to close it and never open it again. This happens due to processor throttling . Let’s see what it is, is it dangerous for a mobile device, and is it possible to disable throttling on a smartphone.

Why does the phone slow down

In general, throttling is only one of the many reasons for the slow operation of a smartphone . We talked about all the factors that affect the performance drop in a separate article, so today the problem will not be considered in a complex. Let us dwell only on throttling, which is the process of forcibly slowing down the device. But why is it needed?

The fact is that the chipset (processor and video accelerator) of the smartphone has temperature limitations. That is, if during its operation the temperature exceeds the permissible values ​​(for example, 70 ° C), the chipset is in danger and may simply fail. To protect the processor and video accelerator, you need to somehow lower their temperature. On PCs and laptops, coolers (fans) help to remove heat. But on a smartphone, you can limit yourself to throttling – a forced decrease in the frequency of the processor.

Thus, smartphone throttling is an indispensable algorithm that literally saves a mobile device. At the same time, it negatively affects the performance of the gadget, and therefore it is worth highlighting three main reasons for throttling :

• high ambient temperature;
• operation of resource-intensive programs;
• wear of the passive cooling system (thermal paste).

As a rule, throttling turns on after a few minutes of active operation of the smartphone. For example, when you play new 3D titles. Therefore, even a phone with a powerful processor is not always a performance benchmark.

Throttling test Android

To understand how quickly the phone loses performance and starts to work more slowly, you need to conduct a throttling test . Special applications will help you with this, and today I propose to consider two of the most popular programs. The first one is CPU Trottling Test . It detects throttling of the central processor responsible for computing operations. To check the performance of a smartphone, you will need:

1. Run CPU Trotting Test.
2. Accept user agreement.
3. Go to the “Options” tab to configure the test parameters (change the duration or number of threads).
4. Press the “Start Test” button to start testing.

After that, the test will begin, during which you cannot close the CPU Trottling Test application or perform other tasks. By default, the duration of the operation is 15 minutes, so in just a quarter of an hour you will receive the results.

The main result of the test is a graph with which you can understand how the processor reduces its power over time. The measurement used here is the GIPS value – the number of operations performed per second. 1 GIPS is 1 billion operations. If the graph does not go into the red zone, throttling can be called mild, and the smartphone performs resource-intensive tasks without a significant loss in performance. However, much depends on the test parameters, because it is one thing to load the device for 15 minutes, and another for 1-2 hours.

Be that as it may, the CPU Trottling Test only analyzes CPU throttling, which is not enough to understand whether a smartphone is suitable for gaming. Therefore, I recommend turning to the help of another 3Dmark application and its Wildlife Stress Test test . It emulates the gameplay and allows you to understand how quickly the frame rate will start to sag in your favorite game:

1. Launch 3dmark.
2. Go to the “Wild Life Stress Test” section.
3. Download the test distribution.
4. Click the test start button.

As in the case of the CPU Trottling Test, the results of the test will give you a graph that helps you analyze the stability of the smartphone during gaming. Moreover, the final result may differ in comparison with the previous application, since not only the computing, but also the graphical capabilities of the device are involved here.

How to disable throttling

Throttling is an important process without which the phone will be endangered. Therefore, I do not recommend trying to turn it off in any way. However, you can make the effect of throttling less pronounced. For example, by activating the high performance mode in the smartphone settings:

1. Open device settings.
2. Go to the Power & Performance section.
3. Activate performance mode.

Also on the phones of many manufacturers there is a game utility. For example, Xiaomi uses Game Turbo , available through the Game Boost section in the Security app. If you add a game or program to Game Turbo, the smartphone will try to minimize throttling when it is running, closing unnecessary processes or lowering the brightness. And all this can significantly affect the stability of the processor. As an example, see how the Honor 50 Lite behaves differently in standard and high performance modes.

Finally, if you want to minimize throttling, try not to use your smartphone while charging or at high ambient temperatures, do not forget to turn off unnecessary background processes and change the thermal paste at the service center every year. Then you will be able to squeeze the maximum out of the processor of your smartphone.