ART vs Dalvik

[HiDEF]

Is it worth switching from Dalvik to ART? I know I'll lose Xposed with ART and some apps are still adapting but I've read some mixed reviews; some recommend it over Dalvik and some don't.

Would like to hear what some of you have to say about this or personal experiences.

 

[MRU]

I switched. Took a hit on battery life it seemed at first, but after removing a couple of apps that were seemingly hitting battery and I wasn't using them - battery has if anything gotten better over Dalvik (not by a big margin however).

To be honest - there isn't a huge difference between the two - but I decided if all the apps I am using support the new kernel then I'll use it for 'future sake' rather than for any 'immediate' benefit.

Memory usage day in day out seems about the same and app responsiveness isn't that much different either. You could argue the toss over a millisecond difference in apps ABC to art over dalvik and apps DEF to dalvik over art etc...

Basically it seems to me ART is likely androids future .... and where going forward we will see optimisations.

HOWEVER at the moment Dalvik is very optimised even Qualcom have optimised their chips for the dalvik kernel, more so than ART so as I say there isn't a huge tangible benefit right now. But going forward ... we shall see.

 

[HiDEF]

I switched. Took a hit on battery life it seemed at first, but after removing a couple of apps that were seemingly hitting battery and I wasn't using them - battery has if anything gotten better over Dalvik (not by a big margin however).

To be honest - there isn't a huge difference between the two - but I decided if all the apps I am using support the new kernel then I'll use it for 'future sake' rather than for any 'immediate' benefit.

Memory usage day in day out seems about the same and app responsiveness isn't that much different either. You could argue the toss over a millisecond difference in apps ABC to art over dalvik and apps DEF to dalvik over art etc...

Basically it seems to me ART is likely androids future .... and where going forward we will see optimisations.

HOWEVER at the moment Dalvik is very optimised even Qualcom have optimised their chips for the dalvik kernel, more so than ART so as I say there isn't a huge tangible benefit right now. But going forward ... we shall see.

Good stuff, Mac. Thanks for the input.

 

[Dr McKay]

I'm on Cyanogenmod 11 and would love to try it but I get this warning every time I select it.

 

[TechGod]

Is it worth switching from Dalvik to ART? I know I'll lose Xposed with ART and some apps are still adapting but I've read some mixed reviews; some recommend it over Dalvik and some don't.

Would like to hear what some of you have to say about this or personal experiences.

My Nexus 4 performance has increased by a noticeable margin. I get roughly an hour extra with ART as well. Maybe the effect of ART only shows on slightly older hardware?

 

[MRU]

My Nexus 4 performance has increased by a noticeable margin. I get roughly an hour extra with ART as well. Maybe the effect of ART only shows on slightly older hardware?

They did say kitkat in general does much more for older hardware performance benefit wise. Sadly very few older devices will see kitkat and even lesser will have the ability to run ART.

 

[TechGod]

They did say kitkat in general does much more for older hardware performance benefit wise. Sadly very few older devices will see kitkat and even lesser will have the ability to run ART.

I compared ART and dalvik. ART won every time:/

 

[MRU]

I compared ART and dalvik. ART won every time:/

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm agreeing with you

I'm just saying kitkat in general gives older hardware more tangible and perceivable performance boost than it does on newer hardware. This is regardless of Art v Dalvik, but then the additional benefit of Art where apps are pre-compiled means it should give a benefit to that older hardware by making apps load quicker and less stress on CPU at launch.

The second point I was making is that despite googles efforts to make kitkat more beneficial to older hardware, very few older machines/devices will ever see 4.4 which is a shame.

Indeed just looking at my own google developer account stats, it seems majority of apps I have developed are running on much older android hardware (android 2.2.3) than 4.2, 4.3 & 4.4 combined ...

 

[TechGod]

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm agreeing with you

I'm just saying kitkat in general gives older hardware more tangible and perceivable performance boost than it does on newer hardware. This is regardless of Art v Dalvik, but then the additional benefit of Art where apps are pre-compiled means it should give a benefit to that older hardware by making apps load quicker and less stress on CPU at launch.

The second point I was making is that despite googles efforts to make kitkat more beneficial to older hardware, very few older machines/devices will ever see 4.4 which is a shame.

Indeed just looking at my own google developer account stats, it seems majority of apps I have developed are running on much older android hardware (android 2.2.3) than 4.2, 4.3 & 4.4 combined ...

Right now I understand. I'm on a two year upgrade not because I'm on a contract though. Parents getting in the way of my addiction and all

That's certainly true KitKat boosted my Nexus 4 battery and performance so its amazing!

 

[TacticalDesire]

There is a slight performance increase with my Moto X but I have experienced at least one app not working because of it. Hopefully Google and developers do more with it.

 

[MRU]

1 app causing me issues with ART


Facebook.....

Seems to get stuck quite often and then consumes a lot of resources or will crash out.

When it works its blindingly fast, when it acts the maggot it's a nightmare.

 

[HiDEF]

I've been on ART for the last 48hrs and I don't see a difference except maybe my battery life which has taken a slight hit--could be that the Kernel hasn't settled but I'm not sure.

Just might go back to DALVIK and get all my xposed modules back.

 

[gotluck]

I turned ART on day one and have never switched back. IMO scrolling is improved, but I suppose it could all be in my head.

 

[HiDEF]

I turned ART on day one and have never switched back. IMO scrolling is improved, but I suppose it could all be in my head.

I read somewhere about the scrolling as well but I don't see a difference.

Are you talking about scrolling with a particular app or just in general?

 

[gotluck]

I read somewhere about the scrolling as well but I don't see a difference.

Are you talking about scrolling with a particular app or just in general?

just in general, feels smoother particularly when scrolling super fast on long web pages.

I believe it was androidpolice that did a writeup on how any performance gains are minimal or in some criteria nonexistant

Im still drinking the ART koolaid though

 

[TechGod]

I read somewhere about the scrolling as well but I don't see a difference.

Are you talking about scrolling with a particular app or just in general?

It is smoother. It takes some time to settle in though. first two days my Nexus 4 battery life was horrible but then I got a massive boost.

 

[kokhean]

ART completely eliminated the micro lags on my Nexus 7, it's no placebo.

 

[three]

ART completely eliminated the micro lags on my Nexus 7, it's no placebo.

I've felt the same exact thing with my Nexus 7. It felt smoother with ART enabled.