What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

There are some known performance tweaks (registry edits for file system caches, disabling some unnecessary services, etc.). These tweaks can be made to a stock ROM as well. So my question is this: What about a custom ROM makes it faster than a stock ROM?

One item I can think of is increasing the amount of free program memory so that the above-referenced cache sizes can also be increased, however increasing cache sizes reaches a point of diminishing returns.

Other things I can think of - using a newer build of WM (assuming the newer build is faster), using newer drivers for certain hardware components (again assuming the newer drivers are faster).

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

Mostly what makes a custom rom is exactly what you have stated. Tweaks to enhance battery life, speed and other quirks. Usually by removing removing some of the "extras" and a page or two of RGU registry tweaks will speed up the stock rom. At least all of my custom roms I build are based off the stock release. IMO the SYS by itself will not make a device go that much faster, Usually a new SYS is void of all the carriers "additions" and that is what makes it seem to run faster. The craze for a higher numbered sys...I'm just not gonna follow that crowd myself. :)

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

Those are primary factors, as well as removing carrier-specific gunk, or Windows Mobile functions that people just plain don't use (Welcome Center for instance). Beyond that there are some chefs who go above and beyond that, with further tweaks I don't know a damn thing about. But for the most part it's all about newer builds, new drivers if they can find them, and stripping out performance-sapping gunk. Then some, like no2chem, have been known to pack in additional tools that extend the functionality or give you options to choose trade-offs to improve performance more (like on the Mogul, a high-mem mode that disabled the camera and gave you an extra 10MB of RAM).

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

When I had my Titan's this mod was absolute heaven. The camera sucked anyway & being able to disable it & gain an extra 8 MB of RAM turned it into a whole new device.

I must have flashed the one Titan 50 times for various reasons, when I got to nueROM3 I stopped (I don't think I ever got an out of memory error again at that point). At that point, the thing ran so well there was virtually nothing to be gained by further flashing. From then on, I loved that phone & still keep it as a BU to my Sprint/flashed to Verizon TouchPro.

~John

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

don't foget about pagepool, this can be changed on custom roms as well, and add alot of perfomance

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

whats some quick reg hacks that can be done on default carrier roms to try and get rid of the sluggishness... ? not in correspondence with tf3d.. i dont use that

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

It seems like you answered your own question for the most part. Removing bloatware and installing tweaks and useful apps is what they do.

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

I'm playing around with a host of tweaks on the stock VZW ROM. This link here http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...9&postcount=86 contains my current settings. I'm leaning towards a bigger filter cache and smaller disk cache (the difference between the two being what sort of read-ahead and write cache is being performed). Once I've got some more hours under various configurations I'll post them. But this will make quite an improvement in the responsiveness of the device. The biggest problem with the VZW device is the gimped RAM and the bloated HTC dialer (WTF - why does the dialer require 10M???) - but it is much nicer than the stock WM dialer IMHO, and it supports/recognizes the VZW CDMA ##xxxx programming codes where the stock dialer does not. Less RAM leaves less room for bigger caches. Verizon just makes me scratch my head sometimes - but that's a different thread.

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

Anyone know the default pagepool size (on the VZW stock if it varies by carrier)? I assume that the change being made is to reduce the pagepool size in turn freeing more RAM for the system?

Or is the performance gain from going to a larger pagepool to allow more ROM programs to be copied to RAM at boot vs. having to be loaded on-demand? (on demand would result in lower performance). I'm not sure exactly how Windows Mobile works here.

Re: What makes a custom ROM faster?
 

I'm not sure what the default is, but in most cases a larger page pool gives you a snappier device. Smaller page pool will give you more usable RAM.

An indepth explanation on the page pool can be found below:

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=18995

-s