4430 or 4460? Update 2: Does NOT have a 4460

[rushmore]

Much with PCs, I'm suspecting the difference between a 4460 @ 1.2 and a 4460 @ 1.5 for anything but benchmarking will be blink vs blink.

I like the extra leg room to overclock if I want to, but also appreciate what running the 4460 at less than full throttle will do for the overall device longevity.

I also suspect there is a pretty darn good reason why these two new phones are clocked @ 1.2 and not 1.5 or some theoretical higher value. If Moto and Sammy could've done it, they would.

The key is efficiency. If convention holds true, the 4430 would take more power and create more heat to get to 1.2ghz than the 4460 would. 4460 should be similar heat and power needs at 1.2 as the 4430 is at 1.0. In a slim device with fixed battery- this is huge. It is all about the thresholds.

Also, faster gpu in the 4460 (FWIW).

 

[pm1066]

The key is efficiency. If convention holds true, the 4430 would take more power and create more heat to get to 1.2ghz than the 4460 would. 4460 should be similar heat and power needs at 1.2 as the 4430 is at 1.0. In a slim device with fixed battery- this is huge. It is all about thresholds.

That's kind of my point. We do the same thing in the jet engine business. Engines are rated for a certain thrust which equates to a turbine temperature. The engines can then be derated to a lower thrust, greatly increasing their life.

I'm also pretty excited about this smart power manager Moto is kicking out. It looks to essentially combine a bunch of apps (including root level cpu throttling) into one integrated solution. A phone that can run all day at 1.2 versus 8 hours at a higher frequency wins.

 

[rushmore]

Droid 3 has good power management.

Barring some reversal of fortune on the 4460 news, I will probably get the Razr once Lexington gets 4g (supposedly late November).

Nice wiggle room for others to test the device out

 

[pm1066]

I'm confused...I thought the 4430/4460 issue was your big hangup. Now the 4460 is confirmed, why the Nexus?

 

[rushmore]

I'm confused...I thought the 4430/4460 issue was your big hangup. Now the 4460 is confirmed, why the Nexus?

Oops, meant Razr. If the Nexus had a sd slot, still would be deciding.

 

[pm1066]

Roger that! Cloud nonsense aside (let me know how that cloud storage works when traveling or in a building without wifi), the lack of SD on the Nexus really has me sour on it. Moto will always be behind in the latest Android version, but if the Razr is anything like the DX, it won't be that far behind.

 

[rushmore]

All things constant, the easy access micro sd is too good to pass up for me.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Glad that 4460 is confirmed for Razr. It certainly looks like best Moto phone this year and possibly until Q2 next year. Much better than Bionic. Still I'm going with Nexus as I prefer HD screen, stock ICS from Google. If Razr had removable battery, this would be very hard to decide.

 

[Medion]

Isnt the gpu clocked a lil bit higher for the 4460? If so thats a lil bit more of an improvement from the 4430.

Yes and no. Their clocks are linked. Just like how you have to overclock your FSB to overclock your PC CPU, the GPU speed is dependent on the CPU speed for these SOCs.

So, a 4430 @ 1.2ghz and a 4460 @ 1.2ghz will have the same GPU clocked at the same speed. The 384mhz spec for the SGX540 only applies to the 4460 when clocked to 1.5ghz.

So, yes, the 4460 does have a faster GPU, in theory, but in this phone it does not. We already knew that the CPU was 1.2ghz. Going from 4430 to 4460 has no affect on the speed of the GPU....but it does give more headroom to overclock

 

[rushmore]

Key is heat and battery life. 1.2ghz is 1.2ghz for the 4400 series, but the temperature and power load to get there is the main issue. A 4430 has to be pushed more than a 4460 and this includes getting the gpu up as well.

The gpu in the Droid 3 is the slower version speed, but it plays all of my 3D games, video and Quake III super fine Gets hot with higher def Flash video content though....

Wonder when we will see Unreal Tounament 1999 on this? Well, a tablet would work, since more space to see stuff.

 

[Ytram]

They've updated their specs. It's a 4430.

http://developer.motorola.com/products/droid-razr-xt912/

 

[trophynuts]

DROID RAZR Pops Up on MotoDev Site with Full Specs, OMAP4460 Processor Confirmed (Updated: Or Not?) - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

lol may want to change the title again like homie above me said

 

[pm1066]

Well dang.

Update 2: Motorola just got back to us and confirmed that it is the 4430.

Back to the Nexus for a second look...

 

[rushmore]

Screw that folks, I am DONE and will stick with the Droid 3, since not an overclocked accident probably waiting to happen. At least Samsung had the common sense to use a chipset that will EFFICIENTLY get to 1.2ghz. Jeesh. Test a Droid 3 with Flash content as an example and imagine that running 20% faster- toast and a battery sucker.

Talk about a reversal of fortune. Lame and deceiving move, Motorola!

Good luck on that battery life. Will be intersting to see the stability and battery life- Plus the actual battery reliability. Best to wait folks and see what happens. To weeks should do it, to get past the glowing reviews and pixie dust from users during the first few days.

Moto should have named this ScrewZR. Selling the same chip in the Bionic and D3 that they call a 1ghz is lame.

 

[BlueBiker]

Not all 4430's are created the same. Something I haven't heard anybody mention is the stepping or revision of the chip.

It's not just binning that isolates better performing chips, it's that the chips themselves are slightly modified and improved over time as minor bugs are fixed and the weaknesses preventing higher clocks are addressed.

Looking through the manuals I think there have been about a half dozen 4430 steppings, so a model that ran hot at 1.0GHz may now run perfectly cool at 1.2GHz or even higher.

 

[Medion]

Don't panic. Between binning, and stepping as noted above, they're not going to use a 4430 chip unless it can reliably handle the desired speed. Don't rate the phone based on your preconceptions of the chip, rate it on the final product. Like I said, they did the same thing with the Droid 2 Global last year.

TIs mistake was in not renaming the chip. It should have been something between the 4430 and 4460, like 4445, or 4430A. They should not have kept the same name, because it causes confusion. But, as I stated, you're overreacting here (no offense). They can't sell it at 1.2ghz unless it can maintain 1.2ghz.

 

[pm1066]

It would be nice to know the phone can over clock, vs it is running at the chip max--even if the chip ruins cool and isn't a gas hog.

Still, I'll wait for hardware in hand. It's bad enough the hacker/dev community is pissed about the locked bootloader. Hopefully there will be enough interest to at least get root.

Both the Razr and Galaxy represent less than desirable compromises...

 

[huskerkate]

It would be nice to know the phone can over clock, vs it is running at the chip max--even if the chip ruins cool and isn't a gas hog.

Still, I'll wait for hardware in hand. It's bad enough the hacker/dev community is pissed about the locked bootloader. Hopefully there will be enough interest to at least get root.

Both the Razr and Galaxy represent less than desirable compromises...

P3Droid just tweeted today that the RAZR has already been rooted. so, we know that we can at least get rid of the bloat...

 

[Rrrracer]

Thank you all for the intelligent conversation on chip construction. Very intriguing and I learned a lot!

 

[Sandroidfan]

Don't panic. Between binning, and stepping as noted above, they're not going to use a 4430 chip unless it can reliably handle the desired speed. Don't rate the phone based on your preconceptions of the chip, rate it on the final product. Like I said, they did the same thing with the Droid 2 Global last year.

TIs mistake was in not renaming the chip. It should have been something between the 4430 and 4460, like 4445, or 4430A. They should not have kept the same name, because it causes confusion. But, as I stated, you're overreacting here (no offense). They can't sell it at 1.2ghz unless it can maintain 1.2ghz.

Hmm, yesterday I was turned off by 4430 news on Razr. But your explanation makes good sense to me. It's probably improved 4430A that can run stably at 1.2Ghz.

If so, I can consider getting Razr on my second line. I have two lines upgradable and will get Nexus on the first one for sure. I was going to hold out until mid next year for upgrading second line with hot new phone of that time. But if Razr looks good enough I might just get it as well as Nexus. But like rushmore pointed out, I will watch out how heat, fixed battery things pan out on Razr.