RetroPie Overclocking - superjamie/lazyweb GitHub Wiki

Aim

Improve and possibly combine these:

Status

Work in Progress

Defaults

config.txt Pi 1 B Pi 2 Pi 3 Zero
arm_freq 700 900 1200 1000
core_freq 250 250 400 400
gpu_freq ? ? 300 300
sdram_freq 400 450 450 450

Expected Useful Overclocks

core_freq=500
gpu_freq=500
sdram_freq=500

Warranty Voids

force_turbo=1
# disables frequency scaling so cores always run at max speed
# enables h264 isp and v3d individual overclock (also requires avoid_pwm_pll=1 i think?)

temp_limit=
# anything greater than 85

over_voltage=
# anything greater than 6
# counted in steps of 0.025 V
# minimum setting -16 = 0.8 V
# default setting   0 = 1.2 V
# maximum setting   8 = 1.4 V

current_limit_override=0x5A000020
# disables over-current protection, not recommended
# http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6201&start=325#p170793

Overclock Stability Test

There's a script of yes and dd loops at http://elinux.org/RPiconfig#Overclocking but I'm not sure that's so useful, it just causes bash to spin in simple task switching instructions and doesn't test the GPU at all.

I'm going to calculate prime numbers on all cores to max the CPU while running Conker's Bad Fur Day on N64 to max the GPU.

sysbench --num-threads=$(nproc --all) --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=10000000 run

Monitoring

  • Process CPU Usage
    htop
  • Temperature
    vcgencmd measure_temp
  • Config settings
    vcgencmd get_config int | egrep "(arm|core|gpu|sdram)_freq|over_volt"
  • Current runtime speeds
    for src in arm core h264 isp v3d pixel; do echo -e "$src:\t$(vcgencmd measure_clock $src)"; done
  • VRAM usage in MiB
    sudo vcdbg reloc | awk -F '[ ,]*' '/^\[/ {sum += $12} END { print sum / 1024 / 1024 }'

Games Which Benefit From Overclocks

Pi 3

  • NARC (arcade) narc.zip added 0.34b7 emma
    Works fine in RetroPie 4.0 with no overclock
  • Ultimate MK3 (arcade) umk3.zip added 0.37b5 emma
    Works fine in RetroPie 4.0 with no overclock
  • NBA Jam TE (arcade) nbajamte.zip added 0.36r2 emma
    Works fine in RetroPie 4.0 with no overclock
  • Super Mario 64 (N64) slight sound glitches - confirmed
    OK after overclock (core/gpu/sdram to 500)
  • GoldenEye (N64) large sound glitches and slowdown - confirmed
    Few parts OK after overclock but still very annoying, wouldn't consider playable
  • Star Fox 64 (N64) slight sound glitches and slowdown - confirmed
    Much improved after overclock but not 100% resolved, still very playable
  • Yoshi's Island (SNES)
  • Star Fox (SNES) ?

N64 at GlideN64 at 320x240 for all tests. Overclock is Core/GPU/SDRam to 500.

Pi 1/Zero

  • F-Zero (SNES) confirmed
    Does not run at full speed on default Pi 1 or Zero, but does after a 900/400/400/2 overclock.

Other Messy Notes