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Samsung caught gaming benchmarks with Galaxy S4

59 points by yapcguy 13y ago

dyinglobster 13y ago
In somewhat related news. Google caught using misleading report to claim Nexus 7 outsold iPad in Japan http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/30/google-caught-using-misleading-report-to-claim-nexus-7-outsold-ipad-in-japan http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/30/google-caught-usin...
overgard 13y ago
I can't say I feel a great sense of outrage. GPU makers have been doing way worse for longer (intentionally degrading image quality during benchmarks, for instance). The point of the benchmark is that it shows what the device can do at its peak potential, and what they're doing... is running the device at its peak potential. Yeah; I know: it doesn't normally run that fast, but at least it /could/ run that fast if you don't care about battery life and heat dissipation and other things the benchmark doesn't measure.
- 0x0 13y ago
  But could it? Does any other app have these frequencies available?
  - diroussel 13y ago
    No they don't, so it doesn't show anything more than theoretical potential. Potential that is not available to customers. So it's a form a fraud really.
0x0 13y ago
More active discussion on the same: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6131136 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6131136
bstar77 13y ago
This reminds me of a conversation I had with my Dad as a kid... Why would someone, who is already quite wealthy, risk everything and partake in something illegal to get even richer? I'm wondering the same thing now... why would Samsung risk tarnishing their name when the GS4 is already considered the fastest mobile device in existence? The only thing I can think of is that they could care less about their integrity or corporate image... they simply need to focus on catering to a tech-obsessed population with the fastest, highest resolution beast of a handset, everything else be damned. What's wrong with a few "hardware optimized" apps to ensure that crown sits atop a Samsung device a bit longer?
- lnanek2 13y ago
  They were caught posting fake negative user reviews on competing devices before. So they don't really have much in the way of integrity already...
  - Volpe 13y ago
    Yeah because apple only gives away all your privacy to the NSA, they have heaps more integrity. Oh that's right, Apple are American, not Korean... americans are never evil, and always full of integrity. .... But those Koreans! Why don't we just stop pretending any of these companies have 'integrity' and admit they are just cold businesses competing for money... they are not people with moral codes. They are capitalist entities looking for $$$.
bparsons 13y ago
This indicates not a problem with Samsung, but a problem with the benchmarks. Want better devices? Build better benchmarks.
- click170 13y ago
  This isn't a better-benchmarks problem because the problem isn't that they're optimizing specific instructions that only the benchmarks use, instead they're looking at the name of the application and cranking up the speed if the name matches a known benchmarking application to make it look like non-benchmark apps can run faster than they really can. This is fraud IMO, regardless of if the GPU industry has been doing it for years. Being well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society is no measure of health.
JohnTHaller 13y ago
Here's the actual source of the story as opposed to the linked blog site: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7187/looking-at-cpugpu-benchmark-optimizations-galaxy-s-4 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7187/looking-at-cpugpu-benchma...
rpgmaker 13y ago
Am I the only one getting "Resource not found" on the arstechnica site?

59 points by yapcguy 13y ago

In somewhat related news. Google caught using misleading report to claim Nexus 7 outsold iPad in Japan http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/30/google-caught-using-misleading-report-to-claim-nexus-7-outsold-ipad-in-japan http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/07/30/google-caught-usin...

overgard 13y ago

I can't say I feel a great sense of outrage. GPU makers have been doing way worse for longer (intentionally degrading image quality during benchmarks, for instance). The point of the benchmark is that it shows what the device can do at its peak potential, and what they're doing... is running the device at its peak potential. Yeah; I know: it doesn't normally run that fast, but at least it /could/ run that fast if you don't care about battery life and heat dissipation and other things the benchmark doesn't measure.

0x0 13y ago
But could it? Does any other app have these frequencies available?
- diroussel 13y ago
  No they don't, so it doesn't show anything more than theoretical potential. Potential that is not available to customers. So it's a form a fraud really.

0x0 13y ago

More active discussion on the same: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6131136 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6131136

bstar77 13y ago

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my Dad as a kid... Why would someone, who is already quite wealthy, risk everything and partake in something illegal to get even richer? I'm wondering the same thing now... why would Samsung risk tarnishing their name when the GS4 is already considered the fastest mobile device in existence? The only thing I can think of is that they could care less about their integrity or corporate image... they simply need to focus on catering to a tech-obsessed population with the fastest, highest resolution beast of a handset, everything else be damned. What's wrong with a few "hardware optimized" apps to ensure that crown sits atop a Samsung device a bit longer?

lnanek2 13y ago
They were caught posting fake negative user reviews on competing devices before. So they don't really have much in the way of integrity already...
- Volpe 13y ago
  Yeah because apple only gives away all your privacy to the NSA, they have heaps more integrity. Oh that's right, Apple are American, not Korean... americans are never evil, and always full of integrity. .... But those Koreans! Why don't we just stop pretending any of these companies have 'integrity' and admit they are just cold businesses competing for money... they are not people with moral codes. They are capitalist entities looking for $$$.

bparsons 13y ago

This indicates not a problem with Samsung, but a problem with the benchmarks. Want better devices? Build better benchmarks.

click170 13y ago
This isn't a better-benchmarks problem because the problem isn't that they're optimizing specific instructions that only the benchmarks use, instead they're looking at the name of the application and cranking up the speed if the name matches a known benchmarking application to make it look like non-benchmark apps can run faster than they really can. This is fraud IMO, regardless of if the GPU industry has been doing it for years. Being well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society is no measure of health.

JohnTHaller 13y ago

Here's the actual source of the story as opposed to the linked blog site: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7187/looking-at-cpugpu-benchmark-optimizations-galaxy-s-4 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7187/looking-at-cpugpu-benchma...

rpgmaker 13y ago

Am I the only one getting "Resource not found" on the arstechnica site?