# Configure CPU, GPU, and memory

It's essential to configure your device’s basic settings before analyzing system performance. The settings play a significant role in the performance of the device. You can configure the CPU, GPU, and memory settings.

Caution

Any configuration changes can impact the power and the performance of the device. Ensure that you verify the impact across all relevant use cases before any modifications.

## Configure CPU

You can check and modify the CPU configurations using the commands specified in the following table:

Note

The commands specified in the following table should be run on
the device. The unit of the output value for these commands is in KHz.

Note

The commands containing `policy7` aren't supported on QCS5430 FP1.

To configure a CPU for Qualcomm Dragonwing^™^ IQ-9075, Qualcomm Dragonwing^™^ IQ-8275, and Qualcomm Dragonwing^™^ IQ-615, see the corresponding addendum.

- [Qualcomm Linux Performance Guide - Addendum for Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-9075](https://docs.qualcomm.com/bundle/resource/topics/80-70030-10A/overview.html)
- [Qualcomm Linux Performance Guide - Addendum for Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-8275](https://docs.qualcomm.com/bundle/resource/topics/80-70030-10B/overview.html)
- [Qualcomm Linux Performance Guide - Addendum for Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ-615](https://docs.qualcomm.com/bundle/resource/topics/80-70030-10C/overview.html)

Table : Commands to configure the CPU

| Command | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/online<br>    Copy to clipboard | Checks the online CPU cores. |
| echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuX/online<br>    Copy to clipboard | Turns on a CPU core.<br><br><br><br>> <br>> <br>> In cpuX, X represents the number of cores, which ranges from<br>0 to 7. |
| echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuX/online<br>    Copy to clipboard | Turns off a CPU core.<br>In cpuX, X represents the number of cores, which ranges from<br>0 to 7. |
| cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_cur_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy4/scaling_cur_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy7/scaling_cur_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the current CPU frequency. |
| cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_available_frequencies<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy4/scaling_available_frequencies<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy7/scaling_available_frequencies<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the supported CPU frequencies. |
| cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy4/scaling_min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy7/scaling_min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the minimum CPU frequency. |
| echo <cpu freq in KHz> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>echo <cpu freq in KHz> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy4/scaling_min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>echo <cpu freq in KHz> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy7/scaling_min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Sets the minimum CPU frequency. Replace<br>`<cpu freq in KHz>` with the required frequency and run<br>the commands. |
| cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy4/scaling_max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy7/scaling_max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the maximum CPU frequency. |
| echo <cpu freq in KHz> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>echo <cpu freq in KHz> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy4/scaling_max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>echo <cpu freq in KHz> > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy7/scaling_max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Sets the maximum CPU frequency. Replace<br>`<cpu freq in KHz>` with the required frequency and run<br>the commands. |
| cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/stats/trans_table<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy4/stats/trans_table<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy7/stats/trans_table<br>    Copy to clipboard | Checks the CPU residency. |
| For example, to set the CPU frequency of the Silver core<br>at 1.5 GHz, run the following commands:<br><br><br>echo 1516800 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>echo 1516800 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Sets the CPU frequency. Set `scaling_min_freq` and `scaling_max_freq` to the same frequency to keep the CPU frequency at the required level. |

## Configure GPU

You can check and modify the GPU configurations on the device using the
commands specified in the following table:

Note

The commands specified in the following table should be run on the device. The unit of the output value for these commands is in Hz.

Table : Commands to configure the GPU

| Command | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| cat /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/gpuclk<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the current GPU frequency. |
| cat /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/gpu_available_frequencies<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the supported GPU frequencies. |
| cat /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/devfreq/min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the minimum GPU frequency. |
| echo <GPU freq in Hz> > /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/devfreq/min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Sets the minimum GPU frequency. Replace `<GPU freq in Hz>` with the required frequency in Hz and run the command. |
| cat /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/devfreq/max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the maximum GPU frequency. |
| echo <GPU freq in Hz> /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/devfreq/max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Sets the maximum GPU frequency. Replace `<GPU freq in Hz>` with the required frequency in Hz and run the command. |
| cat /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/gpu_busy_percentage<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the GPU percentage usage. |
| For example, to set the GPU frequency at 600000000 Hz, run<br>the following commands:<br><br><br>echo 600000000 > /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/devfreq/min_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>echo 600000000 > /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/devfreq/max_freq<br>    Copy to clipboard | Sets the GPU frequency at a required level, both `min_freq`<br>and `max_freq` should be set to the same frequency level. |
| cat /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/max_pwrlevel<br>    Copy to clipboard<br><br><br>cat /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/min_pwrlevel<br>    Copy to clipboard | Reads the GPU power levels.<br><br><br><br>> <br>> <br>> Power level 0 corresponds to the maximum GPU clock frequency. As the power level value increases, the GPU clock frequency decreases. |
| echo 0 > /sys/class/kgsl/kgsl-3d0/min_pwrlevel<br>    Copy to clipboard | Sets the GPU frequency to maximum frequency. |

## Configure memory

Memory configuration is crucial to conserve memory, make space
available for processes, and balance the existing data in RAM when the
physical memory reaches its limits.

### Set ZRAM disk size

ZRAM is a RAM partition to swap memory space. It stores the
inactive anonymous pages in a compressed form in RAM to conserve memory.

The ZRAM disk size indicates the maximum amount of memory that can be
swapped from RAM to ZRAM. It's recommended to set the ZRAM disk size to half the size of RAM.

For example, to configure the ZRAM disk size to 1 GB for a RAM size of
2 GB, run the following commands on the device:

swapoff /dev/zram0
    Copy to clipboard

echo 1 > /sys/block/zram0/reset
    Copy to clipboard

echo 1073741824 > /sys/block/zram0/disksize
    Copy to clipboard

mkswap /dev/zram0
    Copy to clipboard

swapon /dev/zram0
    Copy to clipboard

cat /proc/meminfo | grep -i "swap"
    Copy to clipboard

The following is the command output:

SwapCached: 0 kB

SwapTotal: 1048572 kB

SwapFree: 1048572 kB

You can configure the ZRAM disk size at compile time by modifying the `-s` argument value in the `zram-swap-init-update` bash script in the source code in the following path:

`layers/meta-qcom-hwe/dynamic-layers/openembedded-layer/recipes-extended/zram/zram`

To change the size in the script, update the `<size>` parameter:

zramctl -a ${ZRAM_ALGORITHM} -s <size> $device
    Copy to clipboard

The following example shows the ZRAM size set to 1 GB:

zramctl -a ${ZRAM_ALGORITHM} -s 1048576KB $device
    Copy to clipboard

### Enable/disable proactive compaction

Compaction is a process that collects all the free memory spaces in the
form of fragments into a large memory block. Proactive compaction determines the level of aggressiveness with which memory compaction happens in the background. It
accepts a value between 0 and 100, with the default value set to 20.

When the fragmentation score of the node exceeds a high threshold, the
corresponding kcompactd thread initiates the proactive compaction
process.

The compaction process remains active until the score of the node falls
below the low threshold.

The thresholds for proactive compaction are as follows:

- Low = 100 - proactiveness
- High = low + 10%

For instance, if the low threshold is 80, the high threshold would be 90.

To enable proactive compaction, run the following command on the device:

echo 20 > /proc/sys/vm/compaction_proactiveness
    Copy to clipboard

To disable proactive compaction, which also turns off the periodic
kcompactd wake-ups, run the following command on the device:

echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/compaction_proactiveness
    Copy to clipboard

For more information, see [Proactive compaction for the
kernel](https://lwn.net/Articles/817905/).

### Swappiness

Swap space is a secondary storage that functions similar to the main
memory or RAM. The primary parameter of swap space is swappiness.

- This parameter determines how aggressively the kernel swap daemon
(kswapd) swaps out [anonymous
memory](https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/mm/concepts.html#anonymous-memory)
relative to the system page cache.
- This parameter can take a value between 0 and 200. Increasing the
value augments the amount of anonymous swapping. The configured value
is 100, indicating that both anonymous and cache memories are
reclaimed equally.

To adjust the swappiness value, run the following command on the device:

echo 100 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
    Copy to clipboard

For more information about memory parameters, see [Documentation for /proc/sys/vm/](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst).

## Next steps

- [Customize for performance tuning](https://docs.qualcomm.com/doc/80-70030-10/topic/18-customize.html#customize)

Last Published: Jul 20, 2026

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