Is excessive gaming bad for smartphone?

codesplice · Dec 23, 2014

Welcome to the forums @jacobyjason

You are correct that the biggest concern when gaming (or performing any other intensive task) on Android (or any computer, for that matter) is heat. And the most heat-critical component is usually the battery. Elevated temperatures will definitely take a toll on a battery over time, causing it to not hold a charge as well or drain more quickly. In extreme cases, increased battery temperatures could even cause the battery to swell, deforming the phone's case or even worse.

Fortunately, as you mention, the kernel will automatically underclock the processor (and even take cores offline!) to avoid exceeding established temperature limits. If that doesn't work, it can also force the phone to shut down until it cools off - again, to avoid damage. These safeguards mean that you don't generally need to be that concerned about gaming causing your device to melt down or otherwise destroy itself - but do use some common sense and let your device cool if it starts getting uncomfortably hot. :thumbsupdroid:

jacobyjason · Dec 23, 2014

Yea I know and I don't use my phone to play games android ios is not really meant to be playing games

codesplice · Dec 23, 2014

jacobyjason said:
I don't use my phone to play games

You're missing out!

Up until I finally got a new laptop a week or so ago, probably 98% of my gaming in the past three years has been on my phone or tablet. Generally 3 solid hours a night, both on and off the charger, plus 5-10 minute spurts throughout the day to pass the time. I've never had a device damaged by my gaming habits.

jacobyjason · Dec 23, 2014

You probably haven't heated
up your device

codesplice · Dec 23, 2014

My Nexus 4 has gotten plenty ~~warm~~ hot from time to time, and has in fact forcibly shut down once or twice due to heat. No lingering problems though.

jacobyjason · Dec 23, 2014

Not all smartphone are the same
Some can last longer depending on how they are built like the coolpad only lasted me like 2 month due to heat and now I have another phone named Samsung galaxy exhibit I seen it force shut down many time I had it for 2 years and it still works but it's a little laggy and the coolpsd just won't respond

freakshow85 · Dec 24, 2014

It's only "bad" on the battery. Electronics are designed with heat in mind. You can game on your phone for five years and it will have identical gaming performance as when new. They don't get worn out and perform less as stated earlier.

EarlyMon · Dec 24, 2014

Semiconductors absolutely degrade when constantly operated above their ideal temperature range.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-carrier_injection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative-bias_temperature_instability

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromigration

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en-US&q=plasma+damage+semiconductor

http://www.rohm.com/image/image_gal...98-672e9708c3c0&groupId=11437&t=1416210314970

Not only does performance degrade, so does reliability and lifetime.

There's an entire metrology industry devoted to the phenomenon.

freakshow85 · Dec 25, 2014

Gate oxide breakdown slowly changes transistor performance. So does the hot electron effect. What this means is your cpu that used to overclock to 3.4 ghz at one particular voltage may not run on that voltage over time and need more voltage. It does not, however, mean you lose performance instruction for instruction at the same clock speeds.
Game away. If your phone pulls 30 fps in a game today, it will do it tomorrow, next week, and five years away until it does wear out and doesn't work. You have to keep things in perspective.
As for your storage, HDD and SSD can lose actual performance output over time, but takes much use and isn't noticeable.

EarlyMon · Dec 25, 2014

Wrong.

http://www.academia.edu/4625920/Rev...ay_Characteristics_in_Nanometer_CMOS_Circuits

Have you done this for a living? I have.

Sorry - you can't escape physical law.

Despite the collective anecdotal information being misquoted at gaming sites everywhere, higher temperatures degrade gate transition performance and excessively high temperatures lead to device lifetime degradation.

Because mobile devices are not all created equally with respect to parts, many are indeed far more vulnerable to early heat-induced death than others.

freakshow85 · Dec 25, 2014

I know mechanics who have worked on cars for a living and still aren't good. So does your "living" involve gaming on an android phone and calculating performance loss? I didn't think so. You are posting textbook definitions while I am applying them to real life and putting them into perspective for him. 30 fps today on a phone = 30 fps next year and the year after on the same game. You want to start throwing up defective phones? That's not the question. He asked if excessive gaming is bad. The answer is only for the battery. EVERYTHING wears, no one is denying that. I can't even tell what you think is wrong since you don't point that it and you've yet to use an example with the hardware in question.
Again, excessive gaming. Let's not pretend everyone games under the worst circumstance aka no shade the middle of Death Valley. And that he has a normal phone, not your example of a lemon that wasn't "created equal" and "far more vulnerable".

EarlyMon · Dec 25, 2014

Far from your mechanic analogy.

I've been a long-term member of the reliability metrology industry and I'm known by the R&D directors of most of the world's semiconductor manufacturers and more than a few QA directors because they use my solutions to solve manufacturing issues.

I've quoted textbook and Wikipedia articles because I thought that they would more accessible for you as a layman. If you have a doctorate in physics or electrical engineering I'll be glad to discuss the phenomena in terms that you can understand.

Meanwhile, here's a really simple factoid.

These forums are filled with posts from people who have experienced early device failure directly resulting from overheating.

While you're talking about fps and being all down home about what you've observed and trying to say that I'm a mechanic that belongs in the back of the bus (when I've observed more than you have imagined), I'm handing out the truth that might save someone from unnecessarily burning out their phone.

I'll let the readers decide. I'm no more willing to debate this than I am that the sun rises in the east.

Nice chatting with you, happy holidays!

freakshow85 · Dec 25, 2014

Diversion tactics much? You've yet to address the topic making it more than obvious you aren't willing to debate, yet use all debate tactics trying to undermine my points because your job supposedly covers everything talked about. You should try sticking to the subject and using valid points. Not in here, nor in the RAM thread, did you post an example to anything. You blow things out of perspective. It's obvious to me in your wording and chosen responses. You pick and choose to try and make a point sound correct while not staying in perspective. It's called diversion and I see you are qualified at it.
Have a super day!

EarlyMon · Dec 25, 2014

EarlyMon said:
Semiconductors absolutely degrade when constantly operated above their ideal temperature range.

(etc etc)

That's the point. The whole deal. The truth.

Said how, why, how I know and cited the forums for examples of proof.

One example is reported in this thread and you simply dismissed it because it doesn't fit your opinion. And that's when I stepped in.

They can and do degrade to the point of catastrophic failure.

All I've done is debunk the nonsensical bad advice you gave.

Sorry if that offends you, sorry if you need an example to bicker about further, sorry, you were wrong.

Sorry if you think that dismissing factual events reported by others and talking over them as if they didn't count would fly unchecked around here.

You're entitled to your feelings and emotions and you're entitled to attack me personally because that's in my charter so long as I'm a mod.

You're not entitled to marginalize others here.

Perhaps you can be polite and save that for your games.

codesplice · Dec 25, 2014

Good info, EM. I hope that we can all agree that heat is of course a Bad Thing for semiconductors and other electronic components.

I was operating under the assumption that the steps taken by manufacturers and developers to avoid heat damage were generally sufficient under normal usage, including gaming. Is that assumption incorrect?

EarlyMon · Dec 25, 2014

codesplice said:
Good info, EM. I hope that we can all agree that heat is of course a Bad Thing for semiconductors and other electronic components.

I was operating under the assumption that the steps taken by manufacturers and developers to avoid heat damage were generally sufficient under normal usage, including gaming. Is that assumption incorrect?

Usually yes.

But I've seen bad software design force high speed multicore processors to max out and stay that way regardless of the game play or a demanding app put on insufficient hardware and so forth. Or kernel issues forcing the system to that state under game play.

The danger sign is evident in your fingers.

A phone is a handset. If yours gets too hot for comfort, back out of what you're doing, let it cool down naturally (not the freezer, a popular trick but wrong) and then assess the problem.

freakshow85 · Dec 25, 2014

EM, you are a hypocrite. A bad one at that. Captain obvious.
Codesplice is absolutely correct in his thinking. One example is when the battery hits 120F, charging stops. The CPU and GPU will also throttle BEFORE any imminent damage from temperature can occur.
Unless you still want to talk defects, EM.

Wow I was being sarcastic, didn't see your post. You actually DID base your answer on the extreme side using a defect as an example.

EarlyMon · Dec 25, 2014

I'd advise you to drop the name calling. It's a rules violation and besides, it's untrue.

Sorry you don't understand failure modes.

I can't help you with that. I've tried, you're not having any.

You said that electronics are made for heat and that's not a problem.

You're simply misinformed, that's not true, they're ok warm, and calling names and ranting is not going to help you be right when you're not.

Much more than throttling occurs.

Gate junction degradation from heat can and does lead to ram susceptible to single event latch-up that in turn leads to apps force closing. It can degrade flash storage so that the software itself is no longer what it started out as.

None of which is open to debate, that's all known failure phenomena along with probably another hundred failure modes I could cite.

If you want to persist with your name calling and ranting of untruths, drop me a line, my door is always open.

But take the time first to reconsider everything I've said in this thread.

I'm trying to arm people with knowledge to get the best enjoyment by getting the best lifetime out of their phones.

Not ranting, bickering and over generalizating to just be right.

So that's enough.

Shocky · Dec 26, 2014

freakshow85 said:
What this means is your cpu that used to overclock to 3.4 ghz at one particular voltage may not run on that voltage over time and need more voltage. It does not, however, mean you lose performance instruction for instruction at the same clock speeds.
Game away. If your phone pulls 30 fps in a game today, it will do it tomorrow, next week, and five years away until it does wear out and doesn't work. You have to keep things in perspective.
As for your storage, HDD and SSD can lose actual performance output over time, but takes much use and isn't noticeable.

Agreed, many overclockers will have experienced CPU's that require more voltage over time to run a the same clockspeeds, but these are extreme circumstances as we are accelerating the degradation process. This is not something users should ever experience with default settings over the normal life of a product. Also, agreed performance will be the same, it can either run at set clockspeeds or it can't.

NAND flash storage of course will degrade over time and excessive use will accelerate the process, so users may or may not notice this depending on their usage.

However does gaming have a noticeable affect on life of a product over non-gaming use? I doubt it and not something users should be concerned with.

The biggest issue for gamers on smartphones is going to be battery life and in the case of some devices using OLED displays burn-in.

wayne4 · May 22, 2015

HD gaming is one of the cool feature of smartphones.most people buy smartphone for gaming.developers improving features day by day increasing ram and processors to aim the selling so gaming is not bad it just increase the battery usage and do not play while charging

Maikk_ · May 30, 2015

why dont we think on other parameters?
if you play with your phone it means you are using it, the single fact of using "something" will end up breaking it. so the answer could be obvious. not using something because you dont want to break it then you better dont buy it.

on the other side, if you are thinking "will gaming break my phone?" well, that depends on how they designed the device. its not new to hear about battery cellphone explotions, it s something that should bemanufacturer's problem, not to yours.

about the posts made from earlymoon, let me know something. the answer from the semiconductors depends more from the external conditions that the internal ones (i mean, the rest of the circuit). the phone should manage 80ºC or something like that (maybe more).

this reminds of the ring of death from the firsts xbox.

EarlyMon · May 30, 2015

Maikk_ said:
about the posts made from earlymoon, let me know something. the answer from the semiconductors depends more from the external conditions that the internal ones (i mean, the rest of the circuit). the phone should manage 80ºC or something like that (maybe more).

I'm not sure what you're asking but the phone should not manage 80°C or better.

You can expect screen damage if prolonged and your fingers are going to hurt.

autonomous1 · Jun 10, 2015

Excessive gaming is potentially more damaging to you than it is to a smartphone. Gaming can reduce the perception of pain resulting in injuries such as tendon rupture.

Sent with Forum Fiend 2

freakshow85 · Jun 10, 2015

autonomous1 said:
Excessive gaming is potentially more damaging to you than it is to a smartphone. Gaming can reduce the perception of pain resulting in injuries such as tendon rupture.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Forum Fiend 2 v1.3.8.

If by "gaming", you mean "drugs", then sure.

irfmedia · Jun 12, 2015

It is bad for the device because it over heats which puts more strain on the device. This way the battery is probably going to blow up. Plus excessive gaming puts major strain on your eyes.

Is excessive gaming bad for smartphone?

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