iQOO 13 Benchmark Cheating - Explained | iQOO 13 Monster Mode Limiting Performance unless it's AnTuTu

Hi, I am the creator of the video, that some of you may have watched (Link in first comment). I do not make sponsored content, I always purchase devices to make any review content and I have no brand preference.

Testing:

When comparing gaming performance, particularly the GPU, my preferred choice is running Grid Legends in graphics preset but moding the config to DISABLE dynamic resolution and fix the resolution to 1843x838 (default on iQOO 13/OP13 and some others) for apples to apples comparison and raising the FPS cap to 60 fps. This is easily the most GPU heavy game on Android.

Observation:

When comparing performance I noticed how the OP13 would be 'significantly' faster to 'overall' faster than the iQOO 13 during the first 15 mins of the race (I customized a long 28 mins race) noticed that the OP 13 would sustain higher temps and power than the iQOO 13 despite both being in max performance mode (Pro Gamer Mode for OP and Monster Mode for iQOO). OP would also eventually throttle but towards the later part of the race after around 15 mins when it would maintain similar performance as iQOO. But regardless this surprised me as I expected the iQOO to at least be on par with OP. You know iQOO is typically marketed as a performance oriented phone, right?

iQOO 13 limiting performance in MONSTER Mode

Investigation:

This sent me to a rabbit hole. Previously I had observed the iQOO 13 would always consistently match or outperform the OP 13 in AnTuTu but it would be significantly behind in 3DMark (which is purely a GPU benchmark).

iQOO 13 consistently performs well in AnTuTu!

So I decided to run AnTuTu and observe the GPU clocks in the first GPU rendering scene and I saw that the iQOO 13 would push and stay at 1100Mhz which is the max clock speed for the vanilla 8 Elite and it stayed that way for almost the entire GPU section in AnTuTu.

So next I ran the 3DMark WL Extreme benchmark which is a 4K benchmark (the phone was absolutely cooled before running it) and I observed that just after 18 secs, the GPU clock would plunge down to under 750Mhz and so did power draw. The thing to pay attention to is that the phone was still much much cooler than AnTuTu.

I then tested the bench again but with a thermoelectric cooler and it did help to elongate the boost period to 30 secs but once again it plunged down to under 750Mhz.

GPU Clocks in AnTuTu vs 3DMark

This immediately raised suspicion. Basically in AnTuTu, the iQOO 13 would raise throttling point to around 45-46C and have longer boosting period but other wise it would be barely over 40°C and aggressively throttle to maintain under 40°C temp.

Benchmark Cheating Proof:

I then spoofed the 3DMark application by changing it's package name to be the same as AnTuTu and booom! Now the iQOO 13 would maintain 1100Mhz for the entire duration of the 3DM WL Extreme benchmark and sustain high temps and power, resulting in significantly higher performance numbers!

Spoofing 3DM as AnTuTu and Voila! We get full performance!

I tested it further by running the 20 mins 3DM WL Extreme stress test and it was exactly the same! The iQOO 13 would maintain significantly higher performance for the first 10 mins of the benchmark, before throttling down in the 11th loop and still maintaining slightly higher performance. Whereas in the vanilla 3DM app, the phone would throttle immediately in the first minute itself!

Once again even in a stress test, iQOO 13 performs much better with the spoofed 3DM

This is the reason the iQOO 13 is not performing as per my expectations in a very GPU heavy game like Grid Legends.

What iQOO should do!

iQOO should rename the current MONSTER Mode as 'Performance' Mode.

Introduce a real MONSTER Mode which actually provides the full performance of the 8 Elite. Basically push the same performance that it does for AnTuTu but now for all games and apps.

Conclusion:

iQOO is advertising it's AnTuTu performance for many of it's phones but it's limiting the performance in real world games even in MONSTER Mode. This in my opinion is misleading marketing.

I remember a decade ago, Samsung rightfully paid over 13m USD for inflated performance with it's Exynos chips in benchmarks. This experience was like a deja vu to me.

Alternative:

I am not sure if this will work, but to get the full performance in certain games or emulation where you are struggling, you may try to install a dummy app that does nothing and spoof install it as AnTuTu and run it in the background. This may trigger the full performance characteristics of Monster Mode.