Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Geekbench Results Visualize Possible Link Between iPhone Slowdowns and Degraded Batteries
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
And yet still not how actual proofs work. But I see we are quickly down the path of ad hominem arguments, so sounds like there really wasn't much to it all to begin with.
[doublepost=1513804862][/doublepost]
What's with blocking now?
My point was not to attack, but rather to go based on the assumption that it is true, in light of the new discovery. If you have experienced this issue in the past, and er on the side of "things not quite adding up."
If you want my personal opinion, the discovery of CPU throttling makes perfect business sense. Not strictly from a financial aspect, but also from an technical aspect. Your phone isn't any less powerful then it used to be, it's just that over time when the battery degrades (which all batteries do), that your CPU can't reach the same speeds that it could previously (possibly under certain conditions). This could lead to a lack of responsiveness, feeling of sluggishness, overall poor performance. What comes to my mind is, I need a new phone (but that's just me). The thing that is somewhat shady about this operation though is that the battery condition should not be directly tied to the performance of the CPU, at least to any aspect that leads performance to degrade overtime on a more permanent basis (I understand if the phone is very cold, or very hot, throttling is necessary). It's just a relatively convenient situation, is all I'm saying.
Anandtech just put a nice short tid bit on what's going on.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12184/apple-confirms-cpu-limitation-in-ageing-devices
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12184/apple-confirms-cpu-limitation-in-ageing-devices
Re-read what I said. It means that they could tell you that this is for your benefit when really the device would have held up just fine without the throttling if it didn't have a defect. That we'd never know if that was the case. You can't rule that out entirely as there was an admitted recall for some 6s models.
A change of battery got me back to correct benchmarks. My iPhone 6 feels substantial faster!
Mine was already replaced by this program in the beginning of the year and I'm out of warranty.
Heres a fix Apple. Remember when phone and laptops had REMOVABLE BATTERIES? Sure you do. But you Said "Nah why would we want to sell a battery when we could screw over our entire customer base behind their backs and make them purchase new phones - all in the name of "thinness". I have news for you Timmy, I would sacrifice thinness for a phone that I could change the battery on anyday. But you know, this is "progress" people.
Last edited by a moderator:
I have told you mine after replacing the battery works great now.
No added RAM (guess you can't), No added SSD (64G is enough).
So nothing else besides the crippled CPU is wrong.
What do you want to say about that? The RAM fixed itself?
Others have perfect geekbench and new battery but still have lag. Maybe everyone doesn’t have the same problem.
I posted my load times on my 6 earlier, and it's pretty pathetic with a new battery once iOS 11 was installed. Went from 1-3 second load times on the first try with iOS 10.3.3 to 4-22 second load times with iOS 11.
When they finally get iMessages on the cloud I might set up as a new phone. It was supposed to be an iOS 11 feature, but they decided adding the throttling feature was more important.
Yeah these lag issues don’t seem to have anything to do with clock speed. My battery is over two years old, I’m often at 600MHz with no noticeable difference most of the time. Camera app opens in less than a second.
Another poster had your type of problem with a 6, his backup was fine if restored to a 5S or a 7, but whenever he restored it to his 6, he had the horrible lag problem. Brand new battery, top score on geekbench.
Yes, my backup restored to a 7+ or X is fine, just not on the 6, all on the same version of iOS 11.x.
@HeadphoneAddict for one. New battery but up to 22 seconds to load the camera app. The same backup restored to other phones is fine.
And if you go through the Reddit thread there were plenty of others who have many seconds of lag with top geekbench, both with original and replacement batteries.
You never answer my questions though.
1) How does dropping a CPU to 1/3 speed cause typing lag to go from none to 30 seconds for a word to pop up? If it were only due to CPU speed, it would still take 10 seconds at full speed instead of 30 seconds when downclocked to 1/3 speed. Right?
2) How does a CPU running at 1/3 speed cause opening the camera app to go from 1 second to 15 or 20 seconds? Full speed is only 3 times faster, not 15 or 20 times faster.
How do I know the answers to your questions? I'm just a user wanting to use my 3 year old iPhone. I'm not an Apple engineer. Go ask them.
As for others who have replaced batteries but did not get back the performance, there must be something wrong else with their phones: maybe too little storage left, maybe they needed a restore...
But that is not the key point.
The key point is so many people replace the battery and get back to normal.
And they get back to normal ONLY BY REPLACING THE BATTERY, WITHOU RESTORING OR WHATEVER OHTERS MAY NEED.
Isn't that enough for you two? What is your logic here? Just because my problem can't be identified means others are wrong?
The key point is not all problems of slow phones are due to downclocking of degraded batteries.
1) People with brand new batteries and perfect geekbench experience camera taking 22 seconds to open
2) Downclocking from 1800 to 600MHz can’t explain typing lag like ”words taking 30 seconds to pop up” vs. instant typing (no lag).
Maybe you finally understand?
You are unbelievable
[doublepost=1514503142][/doublepost]
Apple apologized and believed while you are still defending for Apple, or just for yourself.
Last edited:
Like I said, not all problems of slow phones are due to downclocking of degraded batteries.
Some are, some aren’t.
There are those who have new batteries and highest geekbench that still have slow phones.
Why is that so hard to understand?
Some are, some aren’t.
There are those who have new batteries and highest geekbench that still have slow phones.
Why is that so hard to understand?
Yeah, on iOS 10.3.3 this iPhone 6 was performing like new.Then iOS 11 killed it, despite a battery at 100% capacity and normal geek bench scores.
I've restored the iPhone 6 three times via iTunes with new firmware (using the backup from two different iPhones that have my entire iMessage history from 2009 on them), and the lag wasn't there on 10.3.3 but with the latest version of iOS 11.x each time it still has horrible lag when loading any of the built-in apps. No improvement after waiting several days for indexing to finish.
Here is what I posted previously in this thread or a similar thread, for those that missed it - click to expand:
IF THE BATTERY IS BAD ENOUGH TO THROTTLE THE CPU THEN IT'S BAD ENOUGH TO REPLACE UNDER APPLECARE. PERIOD.
But poor launch speed on older devices with newer iOS updates is another big issue that I brought up here (that's off topic in this thread), in addition to the throttling the CPU with defective batteries and refusing to replace them while still under warranty if they're over 80% capacity. Combine the poor launch speed with a worn battery that these older devices often have, and the problem is multiplied.
This spring my teenage son's iPhone 6 was at 82% capacity at the end of the 2 year AppleCare, and the Apple Genius and manager refused to do anything about it, even though said genius could watch the battery meter drop 1% every 3 minutes as I showed him the phone. n iOS 10.x.x it was also sluggish, and he told me to go home and restore the phone and set it up as new and see if the problem went away.
We did that, and it only helped very slightly. He'd unplug the phone at 7AM and have to charge it again by 2-3PM. My son lost all of his iMessage and call log history in the process. Not knowing about the throttling, my son broke down and went out and bought an iPhone 7 when his sister broke her phone the next month, and he gave his old 6 to me so that I could give my personal Phone 6 to her (I had a 7+ as well, so my spare phone could be slow with poor battery life).
After restoring my backup to his old 6 I thought it was awful and was ready to part it out. Instead I went to Batteries+Bulbs and got a new battery, and voila! his old 6 (now mine) ran like a new phone on iOS 10! I was quite happy with it on iOS 10.2.x through 10.3.3. The new battery still tests at 100% capacity.
Having fixed the iPhone 6 speed and battery life by simply installing a new battery, then came iOS 11. It ran so well on my iPhone 7+, and was certified for the 5s and up, so I did the update through my own dam fault, and the iPhone turned into a slug again. I have wiped and restored the phone many times, and run benchmarks that show it's CPU is "performing" as expected, and yet the software and GUI lags, and launch speed is so bad that the phone is still barely useable. It was so bad that I broke down and bought an iPhone X to replace it.
It did slightly improve with subsequent iTunes restores in DFU mode over the past month, but I'm only using it as a 128GB iPod in my via USB as it's not good for anything else. After rebooting the device, the first launch of a built-in iOS app takes ages, as follows, which is hard to believe that these times are better than before restoring the phone:
7 seconds to load Contacts
3 seconds to load Calendar
6 seconds to load or Maps
5 seconds to load for Photos
4 seconds to load for Settings
7 seconds to load for Notes
6 seconds to load Reminders
20 seconds to load TV and have it list my library upon opening
8 seconds to load Music and have it list my library upon loading
5 seconds for FaceTime to open and show my list of audio calls
3 seconds to load Camera
3 seconds to load Messages
3 seconds to load Mail
8 seconds to finish loading App Store
8 seconds to finish loading iTunes store
17 seconds for Safari to open and start to start loading Macrumors.com
22 seconds before Safari is done loading Macrumors.com
If I load these apps a second time in the same order, without quitting them after loading them as above, they are slightly faster to launch while already open - but the launch speed is still unacceptable for most apps at 2-7 seconds for most of them (and three at 9-11 seconds). Most of those apps loaded in 1-2 seconds on iOS 10.3.3 and now this is what I get, and I can't get it to go any faster:
3 seconds to load Contacts (4 sec faster)
2 seconds to load Calendar (1 sec faster)
6 seconds to load or Maps (same)
3 seconds to load for Photos (2 sec faster)
5 seconds to load for Settings (1 sec faster)
5 seconds to load for Notes (2 sec faster)
4 seconds to load Reminders (2 sec faster)
11 seconds to load TV and have it list my library upon opening (9 sec faster)
6 seconds to load Music and have it list my library upon loading (2 sec faster)
2 seconds for FaceTime to open and show my list of audio calls (3 sec faster)
2 seconds to load Camera (1 sec faster)
2 seconds to load Messages (1 sec faster)
2 seconds to load Mail (1 sec faster)
2 seconds to finish loading App Store (6 sec faster)
7 seconds to finish loading iTunes store (1 sec faster)
9 seconds for Safari to open and start to start loading Macrumors.com (8 sec faster)
11 seconds before Safari is done loading Macrumors.com (11sec faster)
APPLE - IF YOU PUSH UPDATES TO AN OLDER DEVICE YOU DAM WELL BETTER MAKE SURE IT CAN AT LEAST LAUNCH APPS AS QUICK AS BEFORE AND REMAIN RESPONSIVE AND USEFUL.
As confirmed by the Geekbench Scores, the iPhone 6 will sort, compile, or calculate just as fast as before iOS 11, but it's responsiveness in tasks of daily life is abysmal when you aren't using just one app but have to jump back and forth between apps to do things.
After I ran Benchmarks the load times on many of the apps loaded more slowly, having been pushed out of RAM. It didn't get as slow as when launching the first time, but the more you use the device, a less used app's load speed will continue to slow down.
4 seconds to load Contacts (1 sec slower)
2 seconds to load Calendar (same)
6 seconds to load or Maps (same)
4 seconds to load for Photos (1 sec slower)
5 seconds to load for Settings (same)
6 seconds to load for Notes (1 sec slower)
3 seconds to load Reminders (1 sec faster)
15 seconds to load TV and have it list my library upon opening (4 sec slower)
6 seconds to load Music and have it list my library upon loading (same)
3 seconds for FaceTime to open and show my list of audio calls (1 sec slower)
2 seconds to load Camera (same)
3 seconds to load Messages (1 sec slower)
1 seconds to load Mail (1 sec faster)
5 seconds to finish loading App Store (3 sec slower)
6 seconds to finish loading iTunes store (1 sec faster)
10 seconds for Safari to open and start to start loading Macrumors.com (1 sec slower)
12 seconds before Safari is done loading Macrumors.com (1 sec slower)
Please stop trying so hard to prove your point.
Your self-congratulatory calculation doesn’t stand.
Apple said CPU and GPU are not the only components being managed (read throttled).
Now you should understand.
You’re the one who’s trying so hard to prove your point.
There are those who have new batteries and highest geekbench that still have slow phones.
So their problem isn’t isn’t downclocking or any other part of Apple’s battery management strategy, is it?
If you think Apple's battery management is the cause of every slow phone, you’re just wrong.
Last edited:
That is ridiculous.
Apple has admitted that degraded battery contributes to every slow iPhone, yet you are still saying the opposite.
Everybody knows there are other reasons that may impact performance. But how can that deny the fact that "Apple's battery management is the cause of every slow phone (with degraded battery, to be exact, because that's the scope of the discussion)"?
Slow phones was the scope of our discussion. Over and over again, I said the battery issue wasn’t the cause of every slow iPhone, because some had batteries replaced and had perfect geekbench but were still slow.
It sounds like you can finally accept that as true, awesome.
The logic you showed is incredible.
Just because there are other causes doesn’t mean the degraded battery is never a cause itself.
New batteries fix the throttlng problem but not the others, so it means throttling is not a problem? Are you listening to yourself?
Either you don’t understand this simple thing at all or you might be the best Apple apologist ever, even better than John Gruber & Rene Ritchie. Either way, I’ll ignore you and save my time.