In today’s article, we’re going to look at why RAM Clockspeed and core counts are useless gaming specs.
Konami put out RAM size, Clockspeed and core counts as requirements for eFootball. It has backfired.
Tencent did the same for PUBG and Epic did the same for Fortnite. Needless to say that these “requirements are very inadequate”.
Many phone companies also use these specs. They will tell you that “Our phone has 2GB RAM, Octa core and 2.0GHz“, but they won’t tell you anything else.
This information is not only meaningless but it is very misleading. Very very misleading and harmful.
Why?
Because it doesn’t say anything about how a phone is truly going to perform. It’s just nice for the spec sheet. That’s all.
Many people do not know what an SoC is, but if you mentioned any of the following:
- RAM
- Clock speed or
- Core count
They’ll immediately come alive and partake in the discussion.
Many people around the world strongly believe that RAM size, clock speed and core counts are what determines a phones CPU performance.
This is because many smartphone companies over the years, have brainwashed people into thinking that only RAM, Clockspeed and core counts that matter. This is why we have a problem on our hands.
See: Introduction to Smartphones SoCs
Why RAM Clockspeed and core counts are useless gaming specs
RAM
Which is short for Random Access Memory is a type of high speed memory block that sits in between the SoC and the internal storage.
The RAM acts as a worktable, where the CPU keeps apps that it is processing.
The primary function of RAM is multitasking. That is providing the platform for the CPU to process several apps at the same time.
Think of it like tyres. The function of a tyre is to help a car move. The tyres plays a huge part in the movement of a car but it is not the tyre that generates the movement.
It is the engine that generates the movement. The tyres help to translate the movement from the engine into actual motion that we can see.
I have seen many people argue that it is the size of RAM that makes a phone powerful.
That is as stupid as arguing that it is the type of tyres on a car that makes it move.
I don’t know if you’re getting the point here.
Thankfully, no one makes that kind of stupid argument about car tyres and engines.
But sadly, they make that silly argument about RAM and SoCs.
It’s the SoC (CPU + GPU) that determines how much processing power that a phone has or can be able to generate for apps.
RAM has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Where RAM is important is that it provides the environment for the CPUs + GPU to do their job.
That’s all.
If you have an Gionee S11 (Snapdragon 430) for example with 4GB RAM VS a Redmi Note 7 (Snapdragon 660) with 3GB RAM.
Which one do you think would perform better?
The simple answer of course is the Redmi Note 7 with the Snapdragon 660.
The SD660 uses A73 CPUs while the SD430 uses A53s. There’s simply no contest there.
But many people are ignorant of the fact and will pick the device with the bigger RAM.
They would then start complaining, “I don’t understand, I have 4GB RAM and I cannot play xyz game while someone with 2 or 3GB RAM is playing it.”
The simple answer is the processor, the same way tyres won’t move without the force from an engine is the same way RAM is useless without a decent SoC.
So anyone that tries to talk to you about RAM size without telling about the underlying processor, is either very ignorant or is simply trying to fool you.
This is why talking about RAM alone without any kind of context is a pointless endeavor.
2. Clock speed
This is the speed at which an SoC can complete one clock cycle (fetch-decode-execute).
That is, the speed at which an SoC can fetch an app or task from storage, decode it, execute it and send the result to your screen is what we call clock speed.
Let’s use this simple analogy.
A 13 year old boy in many cases is faster than a 55 year old man.
But does it mean that he (the 13 year old) has more strength that the 55 year old? Absolutely not.
If you drop a load of 50kg and ask both individuals to carry it, the 55 year old man despite being the slower of the two will carry that load to the finish first before the boy can even think about reaching the halfway point.
A very good example of this is if we compare the Helio G35 (A53) with 2.3GHz speed against the Helio G90T (A76) with 2.0GHz speed.
People who do not know anything about processors will say that since the Helio G35 had the faster clockspeed, therefore it is better.
This is also another very stupid argument that people use till today and it greatly saddens me sometimes.
Especially due to the fact that many of them are stubborn and usually scream the loudest in a room only to go on and mislead others.
See: How to read smartphone SoCs
Core count
Core count simply means the number of CPUs on the SoC in a phone.
- An SoC with two CPUs, is called a Duo core SoC
- SoCs with four CPUs are Quad core SoCs
- If it has six CPUs we call it a Hexa core SoC
- If it has eight CPUs we call it Octa core SoC.
Quad core and Octa core for Android while iPhones use Hexa core.
Many companies will tell you that our phones have eight (Octa) CPU cores so it is more powerful than phones with 2 or 4 CPUs.
So they’ll mostly write something like this on their website…
What they will not tell you is the name of the so called eight CPUs that are there.
The term Octa core is not the name of a processor. There is no processor named Octa core. Zero.
I have never seen it in my life.
What Octa core refers to is the number of CPUs on the processor which is 8.
They do this because they’re trying to lie to you. The CPUs there could be eight A7, A9 or A53 CPUs, but they don’t want you to know that.
Take this away, it is not the number of CPUs that matter. It is the name/type of CPUs that matter.
A15 Bionic only has 6 cores but it is beating SD8 Gen1 with 8 cores on Geekbench.
The specs that actually matters
It is the name/type of CPU cores that truly matter, not some meaningless number.
If you wanted to carry a heavy load, would you rather have 2 men or 10 children?
Having learned all of this, I’m sure that you’re now starting to see that eFootball’s minimum specs such as
Octa core
1.5GHz
2GB RAM
Mean absolutely nothing.
It’s like talking about the fastest car and someone says that for a car to drive really fast, it must have
4 tyres
2 side mirrors
A boot (trunk) to keep stuff
So that’s it. It’s why these so-called minimum requirements are utter bullshit and Konami knows.
That’s why they put the neat little disclaimer at the bottom. Your device may not play the game even if it meets the requirements.
When RAM Clockspeed and core counts are useful
Now should you throw these specs away. No absolutely not.
Specs such as RAM, Clock speed or core count only make sense if you are describing an SoC or a phone.
For example, the SD720G and the Helio G90T both use A76 CPUs as their main CPUs.
So how do you tell them apart?
The SD720G runs at 2.2GHz which is faster than the Helio G90T which clocks out at 2.0GHz.
In this context, using clock speed makes a lot of sense to use.
So that’s why PES system requirements are trash. I am guessing they used it because it’s what smartphone companies are using as well.
Which by the way should be filed under false advertising.
With that, we’ve come to the end of this post on why RAM Clockspeed and core counts are useless gaming specs.
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