I've found myself basing which roms/kernels/themes I go with according to 1) How buggy they are or aren't 2) Quadrant scores and 3)aesthetics....but my question is, how does quadrant work and how important are the scores really. I just hit 1700 with my current setup and I got all excited, but I don't know if it even matters....thoughts anyone?

honestly from my experience it doesn't much matter what the quadrant score, or linpack for that matter, is. I ran BBv.4 (quadrant 1400+) since it came out and was getting some amazing numbers but the stability was less than desirable, launcher lag was horrible after a while, and I had to reboot the phone a couple times a day to make it speed up (thought about going back to 2.1 stock even). Not to dis the Beast because i've had about the same experience on all custom froyo roms i've tried. I flashed pete's virgin frf84b yesterday morning, running at stock 600MHz and with a quadrant of 800 and it has been flying! battery life is much better (from 7 to 13 hours with about the same usage) and my signal seems to be more stable.


NOTE: I use the odexed version because it seems much faster. I don't have the desire to theme so this works for me. Just a note.

One more thing I have to add. Just to see what would happen, I tested quadrant with some of the different launchers and some different tweaks and the numbers changed drastically.

launcherpro had by far the highest score with all else equal. Also, if you go into spare parts and make the window and transition elements fast instead of normal, that makes a huge difference too.

btw If you don't have an aftermarket launcher (pro or adw) installed you need to do that asap, sluggish response will be a thing of the past

The new stock launcher that moto tweaked in the lastest build actually works really well and gives me the same results as launcherpro and it actually "feels" better to my surprise.

I'm an android purist though so I like everything to be as stock as it can get visually. I'd even give up some performance just to have the froyo launcher look stock (Launcher Pro and adw are both customizable and i used to be able to use the pngs from launcher2 to make launcherPro look exactly like stock but it doesn't work anymore and launcherPro still force closes on you every so often.)

I hear you on that...Pretty much the main reason I like launcher pro over the others is the dock. I really like having 15 dock spots to put my phone, sms, gmail, email, camera, music, etc...that frees up a lot of homescreen space for other things. I can recognize a pretty big difference in speed between the stock launcher and launcher pro too. Also, the 3d app drawer is really cool looking!

It's testing your hardware, so I wouldn't say it should make or break any ROM you are trying. If the ROM is based on 2.2 and your using kernels at the same speed, most scores are going to be pretty close.

Thanks Jhank, but why such a big difference between launchers?...I mean it was petty dramatic. Low 1400's with stock, then one minute later 1700 with launcher pro

Stock Launcher2 (pre FRF84B) uses on average 50MB of ram with al 5 screens full, moderate number of widgets, LauncherPro uses around 30 with the same setup and 3D enabled, thats an extra 20MB that the benchmark can use without having to shut anything down. Ultimately that allows the benchmark to run with less interruption and on more ram making up for the difference in the scores. If you could shut down every non-essential process on the phone without having it restart (like most do) then you might even see scores in the 2000 range. The processor is the most important aspect of the score but memory plays a large role in that too.

Great answer! Kind of what I figured....I really appreciate you shedding light on that for me.

im running jrummy's 1.1 themed rom. no bugs or other issues what so ever for me. im sure its scores arent all that great but who cares. im clocked at 800mhz with launcher pro - memory settings at low - and with the 50mb ram hack. in comparison to an incredible, and even the latest droid x (both same launcher setup and apps) and i still like my droid

at the end of the day, its a portable device. i have programs that i run frequently throughout the day and others i leave open most all the time. for me, the phone has to be about as fast & smooth as my 3gs, and cant lag too much to make me want to switch to a newer phone without a physical keyboard.

i LOVE the x - but i miss my keyboard when typing long winded texts & emails (and yes, i am used to swype)

i highly advised those themers out there check out jrummy's set of roms, cant say ive been more pleased with a rom link

Well I can tell you that quadrant will tell you nothing about stability... But quadrant scores and rom responsiveness have been closely related for me.

PS my latest score with UD eXtreme 2.5 and Chevy-lv-1250mhz kernel:

I say it has nothing to do with much of anything.. I switched back to a 2.1 rom I was using after using 2.2 for a while and even thou my score was 2xs better with 2.2, the 2.1 was smoother and faster about everything. I only went back because I missed flash. I use it way more than I thought I would.

Wow. Running UD 3.0 now and getting around 15000. ROM is running smooth with no FC or reboots (haven't had one of either since going to UD 2.0)

Thinking that the number of widgets and which individual ones you are running might have something to do with the score.

Running UD 3.0
LauncherProB 6.5.1

Home Screen Widgets
BW Smaller Home
SwitchPro

Screen 2
Pure Grid Calender Widget

Screen 3
Weather Bug Elite Radar Widget

on a side note....got rid of the Battery Left widget and my battery life has almost doubled.