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I'm developing face detection app using OpenCL for heterogeneous devices with CPU-GPU. My app uses CPU - GPU simultaneously, so I want to measure app power consumption, comparing only GPU version which most calculations are executed in GPU kernel.

I found PowerTutor app. It measures power consumption of each app. The PowerTutor app measures about utility of CPU, LCD, 3G, WiFi respectively and weighted average of power consumption.

Can PowerTutor app measures exact whole power consumption of devices which uses GPU?

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  • I haven't tested the app, but I doubt it will count GPU too. The utility of CPU, screen, cellular network and WiFi seems to be logged by Android OS, and any apps (including PowerTutor) can use & display it, but I never see GPU utility on any battery logger apps. I might be wrong though.
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented May 14, 2015 at 8:14

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As already mentioned, Power Tutor doesn’t display power for the GPU. Power Tutor is a very cool app, but it's based on research that was done in 2011. It uses modelling to estimate power consumption. No actual power is displayed. Power Tutor is surprisingly accurate when it is run on the phone that was used to create the model, but that phone (the HTC Dream) was released back in 2008. According to Google Play, the Power Tutor app hasn't been updated since April of 2013.

On my Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Power Tutor only reports LCD and CPU power and both are very inaccurate. The actual power consumption of my device when idle is 528 mW. Power Tutor says it's 623mW to 818mW. That's an error of up to 55%. The per-rail estimates are off even more. On my device it shows the GPS uses up to 400mW. That's an order of magnitude off. It shows my audio power usage is around 350mW, which is also way too high. Power Tutor shows my screen uses a little under 600mW. That's too high. It shows the processor uses around 0-150mW. That's too low. On my device the per-rail WiFi doesn't work.

It's true that Android has power profiles, but those don’t appear to be accurate either. I can provide more details if anyone cares.

A better way to measure total system power is an app called Trepn Profiler. It doesn't estimate power. It reads the actual current and voltage from the power management IC and converts that to into power. Because it runs on target, that does make readings a little higher than they should be, but it’s a very useful tool for this who are lucky enough to have a device that reports accurate battery power.

If you have money to burn and you want to measure accurate per rail power of the CPU (Cores 0-3), CPU (Cores 4-7), Graphics (GPU), LCD Backlight, Front Camera, Rear Camera, System Memory (RAM), Internal Memory/SD Card, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, Sensors and USB, you could get a Snapdragon MDP tablet from Intrinsyc. I don’t want to provide more details here because I know this isn’t a commercial forum. In the unlikely event that you are willing to share both versions of your app with me, I’d be happy to let you know what the power consumption is of each. You could also get a Monsoon Power Monitor and measure this for yourself.

Disclosure: I’m part of the team who produced Trepn Profiler. Trepn is free in Google Play. We’re working on a new app that will be released later this year that will also show modelled system power on the most popular mobile processors. Sorry for the blatant plug. I only mention this in case some of you would like to Beta test this app.

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  • I have been tested my app on Galaxy S5 with Snapdragon. and I research CPU - GPU co-processing using OpenCL. thus, I need to exactly profile utility of resource and power consumption. So I want to ask more. Could you leave your email address?
    – youngwan lee
    Commented May 28, 2015 at 8:48
  • You can contact me at [email protected]. If you found my comment to be useful, please upvote it. I'm a new user here that would help my standing. Thanks.
    – Mobile Power
    Commented May 28, 2015 at 21:12
  • Welcome, and thanks for a splendid first answer! You may want to add our power tag to your favorite-tags list, so that you'll more often see questions which are interesting to you.
    – unforgettableidSupportsMonica
    Commented Sep 2, 2015 at 0:13
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    Note that, if you indeed are a Trepn product manager as you write here, you have a strong conflict of interest. You are welcome to talk about Trepn on our websites. However, in every post in which you do so, you must always add that you work on the Trepn product team -- just as you have done in this post.
    – unforgettableidSupportsMonica
    Commented Sep 2, 2015 at 0:16
  • +1. Read this now, after seeing your other answer today. Thanks. Is the app ready? Would volunteer to beta test- I have Moto X Play
    – beeshyams
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 17:53
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I know this is an old post, but if you are developing for APi level 21 and above you can use Google Batterystats and Battery Historian.

Look at the Android developer documentation

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