2 Android Boxes, Different Speeds ? Why ?

[YorkshireTyke]

Over a year ago I bought a X96 Max Android Box which performs fine.

Yesterday I bought a X88 Pro to use in the bedroom.

 

Both work on wi-fi 5 GHZ

Both are 4GB RAM

X96 is Android 8.1, X88 is Android 9

 

I set the X88 up alongside the X96 alongside the router to install update apps. I did a speedtest and the older X96 returns 150 KB, the newer X88 only around 50 KBS

 

Why ?  What else affects the speed so dramatically ?

[robblok]

To know that you need to know the specs of each android box. Could be the processor could be the memory. Who knows.

 

I got a fire TV and a nvidia shield tv android box. Guess what the more expensive one is faster.

[eisfeld]

What kind of connection is this? Those speeds (assuming you mean kilobyte/s) seem suspiciously slow. Not enough to stream video in any kind of acceptable quality.

Edited September 23, 2020 by eisfeld

[Peterw42]

I presume you mean Mb/s ?

is the slower box maybe connecting to 2.4Ghz wifi, presuming both are running on your router.

[sandyf]

8 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

What kind of connection is this? Those speeds (assuming you mean kilobyte/s) seem suspiciously slow. Not enough to stream video in any kind of acceptable quality.

Never pays to assume, he could mean kilobits/s, big difference between bytes/s and bits/s. Internet speed normally quoted in Megabits/s.

[eisfeld]

12 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Never pays to assume, he could mean kilobits/s, big difference between bytes/s and bits/s. Internet speed normally quoted in Megabits/s.

If it's bits then it would be even worse and pretty unusable. It should be Megabits/s but you never know. Better to establish a correct baseline to look what's going on.

[userabcd]

I had the same on one of my cheap android boxes and changed the router frequency on 5ghz from 80mhz to 40mhz and that improved the wifi speed. But it may affect your other tv box. You could give it a try.

[nemo38]

Throttling due to poor heat management will slow a processor down compared to an identically spec'ed box with better heat sinks. Not saying this is the case, just another reason why one might be slower than another.

 

Update the bios in case this problem has already been noted and fixed.

[YorkshireTyke]

Speed is Mbps using Okla Speed Test app.

 

The old box (today 139 Mbps) streams live football and UK TV via HDprime perfectly. Not tried the new box yet as I only got it yesterday.

 

Both connected to 5 Ghz and only running one at a time at the moment whilst updating the X88.

[YorkshireTyke]

Both boxes have Quad Core A53 Cortex Gpu Mali 450.

 

The only real difference in spec I can see is the older one is 4 GB and DDR 4, whereas the newer one has 4 Gb but DDR3, would that really make so much difference in speed ?

[userabcd]

13 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Both boxes have Quad Core A53 Cortex Gpu Mali 450.

 

The only real difference in spec I can see is the older one is 4 GB and DDR 4, whereas the newer one has 4 Gb but DDR3, would that really make so much difference in speed ?

 

13 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

 

No, it os not the ram speed.

 

It is something to do with the wifi card, the wifi antenna or how the wifi is configured in the firmware.

Edited September 23, 2020 by userabcd

[RichCor]

3 hours ago, userabcd said:

I had the same on one of my cheap android boxes and changed the router frequency on 5ghz from 80mhz to 40mhz and that improved the wifi speed. But it may affect your other tv box. You could give it a try.

Um, that wouldn't be a router frequency, but instead a reference to the channel bandwidth ...with 40 being half of 80 so you'd be halving the potential top speed of your wireless network. 

 

Doing it probably worked in your favor because the Router and Android box need expend fewer system resource and processor clock time to manage the smaller data stream. And, when it comes to these set top boxes, whatever works means it works.

[YorkshireTyke]

3 minutes ago, userabcd said:

 

No it is not the ram speed.

 

It is something to do with the wifi card, the wifi antenna or how the wifi is configured in the firmware.

Is that a wifi card and antenna in the android box itself ?

 

This is the hardware spec from the website:

Chipset RK3318 Quad Core 64 bit Cortex A53

GPU Penta Core Mali 450

 

[RichCor]

7 minutes ago, userabcd said:

No, it os not the ram speed.

 

It is something to do with the wifi card, the wifi antenna or how the wifi is configured in the firmware.

Yea, I agree. I'd want to see if something was 'off' with the box by doing speedtests while both are connected up via Ethernet wired connections and see how the software/firmware/hardware combo performed.

 

Probably a weird driver quirk.

[stouricks]

Does it really matter what speed as long as you get the telly you want?

[YorkshireTyke]

2 minutes ago, stouricks said:

Does it really matter what speed as long as you get the telly you want?

Yes of course it does, I tried a X96 mini yesterday which only gave 30 download speed in the living room next to the router, when I moved it to the bedroom it wouldn't stream the TV programmes so I'm not getting the telly I want hence this thread.

 

Rich, I will try both with ethernet now and report back.

[userabcd]

38 minutes ago, RichCor said:

Um, that wouldn't be a router frequency, but instead a reference to the channel bandwidth ...with 40 being half of 80 so you'd be halving the potential top speed of your wireless network. 

 

Doing it probably worked in your favor because the Router and Android box need expend fewer system resource and processor clock time to manage the smaller data stream. And, when it comes to these set top boxes, whatever works means it works.

Yes, the channel bandwidth.

 

Don't really know the reason why and did not do a full analysis or investigation. I was just trying to improve the android box wifi dl/ul speed on 5ghz bandwidth which was hovering at 5Mbps and so changed the channel bandwidth, rebooted the router and it worked, the speed went up to the normal 50 down, 20 up for my internet connection.

 

Only have one android device at a time on the router and when I connect my mibox s or or firetv sticks or other android boxes on the 5ghz, they all worked efficiently on the channel bandwidth 80mhz without changing anything in the router settings.

Edited September 23, 2020 by userabcd

[userabcd]

Which variant of the x88 pro android box do you have (it looks like there are 2 different models)...a black/grey one and the square black/purple pattern box?

Edited September 23, 2020 by userabcd

[sandyf]

5 hours ago, eisfeld said:

Better to establish a correct baseline to look what's going on.

Exactly, as said never make assumptions.

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Yes of course it does, I tried a X96 mini yesterday which only gave 30 download speed in the living room next to the router, when I moved it to the bedroom it wouldn't stream the TV programmes so I'm not getting the telly I want hence this thread.

 

Rich, I will try both with ethernet now and report back.

If you see an improvement on ethernet, have a look at powerline adapters. I changed from wifi to those some time ago and work quite well without messy cables.

I could probably have improved the wifi by changing channels but didn't want to mess with the router.

[YorkshireTyke]

User, It's a grey and black box. Variant 4/32 Ggb.

 

Ethernet shows nothing conclusive, 41, 37 and 38 download with 58 upload all the time.

The wifi this morning was 51, 40, 61 with uploads 37, 17, 33. All on the new box.

 

The old box wouldn't connect/recognise the ethernet even though I used the same cable and port from the router.

[RichCor]

8 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Ethernet shows nothing conclusive, 41, 37 and 38 download with 58 upload all the time.

The wifi this morning was 51, 40, 61 with uploads 37, 17, 33. All on the new box.

 

The old box wouldn't connect/recognise the ethernet even though I used the same cable and port from the router.

Interesting that the old box wouldn't recognize the Ethernet connection. Most Ethernet ports are MDI-x AutoSense and don't require special cross-over wiring so turning off WiFi and enabling Ethernet *should* have worked.

 

Interesting that you're getting such different speedtest numbers on the new box, wired GEthernet vs 5GHz WiFi within a meter distance of the router. I wonder *what else* is running in the background on that box?   

[xofswen]

The X88 Pro has a 100Mb Ethernet card, A96X has a gigabit card FYI.

And I'm fairly certain the cpu in the A96X is a Quad /S905 compared to a Quad /RK3318 in the X88 which may account for the performance dip. Both units have Mali GPU's

[Susco]

6 minutes ago, xofswen said:

The X88 Pro has a 100Mb Ethernet card, A96X has a gigabit card FYI.

And I'm fairly certain the cpu in the A96X is a Quad /S905 compared to a Quad /RK3318 in the X88 which may account for the performance dip. Both units have Mali GPU's

 

The OP didn't mention A96X, he said he had X96, and Ethernet adapter has nothing to do with WI FI, neither does the GPU.

[xofswen]

19 minutes ago, Susco said:

 

The OP didn't mention A96X, he said he had X96, and Ethernet adapter has nothing to do with WI FI, neither does the GPU.

Ok, THE X96, but somewhere in back post it was mentioned by someone they have the same CPU, they do not! Thats the point I driving..ok with you?

The GPU's however are mali's. And since they are comparing ethernet speeds as well in this topic I mentioned the 88Pro has a 100Mb ethernet, the X96 has a gigabit. If you need help understanding all this, go do some research.

[Susco]

1 minute ago, xofswen said:

Ok, THE X96, but somewhere in back post it was mentioned by someone they have the same CPU, they do not! Thats the point I driving..ok with you?

The GPU's however are mali's. And since they are comparing ethernet speeds as well in this topic I mentioned the 88Pro has a 100Mb ethernet, the X96 has a gigabit. If you need help understanding all this, go do some research.

 

You better get that foot out of your mouth.

 

The OP has mentioned all the time that he is connected by WI-FI, so Ethernet has nothing to do with it

[RichCor]

5 hours ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Ethernet shows nothing conclusive, 41, 37 and 38 download with 58 upload all the time.

The wifi this morning was 51, 40, 61 with uploads 37, 17, 33. All on the new box.

 

3 hours ago, Susco said:

4 hours ago, xofswen said:

Ok, THE X96, but somewhere in back post it was mentioned by someone they have the same CPU, they do not! Thats the point I driving..ok with you?

The GPU's however are mali's. And since they are comparing ethernet speeds as well in this topic I mentioned the 88Pro has a 100Mb ethernet, the X96 has a gigabit. If you need help understanding all this, go do some research.

You better get that foot out of your mouth.

The OP has mentioned all the time that he is connected by WI-FI, so Ethernet has nothing to do with it

Hmm... I'd say Ethernet was mentioned, and even compared, by the OP.

 

Not sure why there has to be so much arguing and spite in these threads. I mean, it's not like the OP has offered to buy with a working solution a beer or an iTunes gift card. Nothing.

[YorkshireTyke]

13 hours ago, xofswen said:

And I'm fairly certain the cpu in the A96X is a Quad /S905 compared to a Quad /RK3318 in the X88 which may account for the performance dip. Both units have Mali GPU's

So this CPU, despite both being 'Quad' is inferior and probably causing the slower speed ?

 

Richcor, I did a factory reset on the new box as first I did an update but some things weren't working, no additional settings screen and other glitches so I did a factory reset and I haven't updated anything since, just added a few apps I wanted.

[userabcd]

17 hours ago, YorkshireTyke said:

The old box wouldn't connect/recognise the ethernet even though I used the same cable and port from the router.

Try rebooting (power off/power on) the isp router and android box to get the ethernet working on your old box.

 

What is your isp internet speed?

[YorkshireTyke]

15 minutes ago, userabcd said:

Try rebooting (power off/power on) the isp router and android box to get the ethernet working on your old box.

 

What is your isp internet speed?

I will try that although I don't need ethernet for my older box as wifi churns out 140+

 

How do I test isp internet speed ?