When using threaded video on a smartphone do the threads of retroarch have an affinity for the highest performing cores or do they jump around randomly possibly to weaker cores especially when charging or running on battery. I’ll have smooth scrolling in one session of retroarch but when I relaunch retroarch all of a sudden it stutters.
RetroArch doesn’t exert any control over where the threads go. It’s up to the operating system’s scheduler to handle that.
Yep, that’s why it’s paramount to test a phone before buying. Some phones use battery oriented governors by default (Samsung), while others performance oriented (OnePlus).
Of course, rooting may solve governor issues, but not always.