Cant Overclock?

[Daddacorn]

Hi, so have been having a issue trying to overclock my new rpi 4 and ive done all the steps ive normally done on my other rpi that is still currently overclock but no matter what i do on my new one the pi freezes upon boot until i remove the overclock txt from the config.txt then its back to normal. ive ran rpi-update and am aware of the risks, ive added the vl805 firmware but still i cant get it past its factory default speed. im hoping some one can guide me into fixing this i dont know if any of this information im posting from my pi helps but please i would appreciate the time to help me thank you.

BOOTLOADER: up-to-date
CURRENT: Mon 18 Nov 2019 11:06:55 AM UTC (1574075215)
LATEST: Mon 18 Nov 2019 11:06:55 AM UTC (1574075215)
VL805: up-to-date
CURRENT: 000137ab
LATEST: 000137ab

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -r
4.19.93-v8+

the vl805 firmware update i installed was from the rpi forum page and like i mentioned above i ran rpi-update and again once ive done both those things ive never had a problem overclocking before.

[rpdom]

There is nothing to stop you trying to overclock your Pi, but that doesn't mean it will work. Each individual Pi will have its own limits.

Also the official view is that firmware may get upgraded for important issues like reducing temperature. If that stops some overclocks from working it is not an issue as overclock is not officially supported.

[jamesh]

What settings are you trying?

[Daddacorn]

im trying to get is back to over_voltage=4 arm_freq=2000 gpu_freq=600 , i understand every pi is different but not being able to not overclock it at all not even a little bit shouldnt be an issue i feel like. feels like theres something more going on here then just it being not every pi is equal.

[jahboater]

im trying to get is back to over_voltage=4 arm_freq=2000 gpu_freq=600 , i understand every pi is different but not being able to not overclock it at all not even a little bit shouldnt be an issue i feel like. feels like theres something more going on here then just it being not every pi is equal.

Try a more modest overclock and slowly work upwards to your 2GHz target.

A simple 100MHz increase to arm_freq is bound to work for example.

[Daddacorn]

That's the thing is i have already. First i jumped straight to 2000 then once i realized it wasnt working and not even booting i went to 1750 then that also didnt work and then i started only bumping it up by 10 then 5 and nothing work i can only leave it on its default so far.

[jahboater]

That's the thing is i have already. First i jumped straight to 2000 then once i realized it wasnt working and not even booting i went to 1750 then that also didnt work and then i started only bumping it up by 10 then 5 and nothing work i can only leave it on its default so far.

Strange. You are saying that 1510 fails?
Mine has been running at 1600 since day one, carefully stress tested, and even used as my main desktop computer for a couple of months - never a problem.
All other settings are untouched. No overvoltage.
Furthermore that little 100MHz overclock doesn't raise the temperature at all.

[carbone]

I had the same problem after successful past over clocking. It is posted elsewhere that with the power saving firmware the GPU can't be overclocked but the ARM can. That proved to be the case for me.

[jamesh]

I had the same problem after successful past over clocking. It is posted elsewhere that with the power saving firmware the Gpu can't be overclocked but the Arm can. That proved to be the case for me.

Good point. Turn off the GPU overclocking and see if just overclocking the ARM works.

[Daddacorn]

ok so far turning off the gpu worked I got it to go over 2000mhz thats not where i wanna keep it but just for testing purposes so now im curious i have a good enough heatsink specifically the ice tower on it is there anyway to reverse the vl805 firmware cause im not really worried about the heat thats gonna be produced i wanted to use this pi for retro emulation so i wanna be able to crank that gpu up just a bit more than stock default. are there any suggestions what to do here currently the gpu wont go anything above default. and im curios does this mean that my other pi is gonna have this same issue cause currently i have in on stock setting running pi hole but if im gonna have issues not being able to crank up the gpu with the one im working with now am i gonna be able to swap the two or is that firmware gonna give me issues with both when ive never had a issue before with my other pi?

[carbone]

I don't think it is the VL805 firmware. That didn't break my overclocking but something else in the firnware installed by rpi-update.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... g#p1588023

There are posts on how to revert to earlier firmware if you search the forum.

[trejan]

i wanted to use this pi for retro emulation so i wanna be able to crank that gpu up just a bit more than stock default

Overclocking the GPU doesn't do very much and there is very little headroom anyway. If you're using it for retro game emulation then the ARM clock is far more important.

[Daddacorn]

ok i just read it and unfortunately thats a bummer. i just tested my other pi and overclocking works all around, so if i make a copy of my other sdcard in my other pi is that gonna be enough or is the firmware i installed imbeded in the pi that i need to downgrade to a certain release or grab a earlier raspbian image? im just trying to figure out how to go about this and learn at the same time. pretty much what can i do to have everything the same setting and firmware as my other pi im able to overclock?

[jamesh]

ok i just read it and unfortunately thats a bummer. i just tested my other pi and overclocking works all around, so if i make a copy of my other sdcard in my other pi is that gonna be enough or is the firmware i installed imbeded in the pi that i need to downgrade to a certain release or grab a earlier raspbian image? im just trying to figure out how to go about this and learn at the same time. pretty much what can i do to have everything the same setting and firmware as my other pi im able to overclock?

Are you sure that you need the overclocking on the GPU? Which particular feature do you expect to be faster?

[Daddacorn]

honestly i dont know i just automatically assumed having the gpu cranked up would perform better graphics wise just like adding a graphics card to a regular desktop would. but if say im good im gonna take your word for it as since your the pi moderator and expert cause you defitally know more then i do about these things. ill probably end up swapping pi's out anyways i suppose i dont need to worry about it all then i just didnt wanna have to go through the hasle and figure out why it wasnt letting me overclock. so a couple more question before i stop worrying about it more for my knowledge about theses. with the rpi-update and the vl805 firmware are these both the same things? im pretty sure they are not but id like to know forsure, and after ive done the firmware updates are they staying updated on my pi even if i reformat my sd card and start over with a new image. and from what ive read the latest rapbian image had the recent bootloader update already in it right?

[Imperf3kt]

I don't think it is the VL805 firmware. That didn't break my overclocking but something else in the firnware installed by rpi-update.

Why are you using rpi-update?

[carbone]

No reason just curiosity. I have also tried Gentoo64 for no particular reason.

[carbone]

My understanding is that the VL805 firmware is independent and you had to load the power saving version manually at first ( that is why I know it didn't break my overclock ) but you now get it by default with an apt update/upgrade. Rpi-update loads a firmware with dynamic voltage so the voltage is less than 1.2 when idle and increases with demand. Over_voltage=4 does not result in 1.3 volts but raises the upper limit. this explains why "vcgencmd measure_volts" wasn't returning the values I expected.

I may be wrong and am willing to be corrected.

[Daddacorn]

so is there the firmware gonna carry over if i make a new older image that i have and start over or do i need to downgrade and apply them in the correct order if its even possible to get it back going that way? but like jamesh said if im not even gonna see i difference in overclocking the gpu for emulation then i might now even bother and just grab my other pi 4 that is still good for being overclock but its been used for pihole.

[carbone]

Why not just swap the sdcard over and if it gives you what you want copy it.

[Daddacorn]

it doesnt i tried right now. dissapointing but its all good i guess. thanks anyways everyone.

[batoncoll]

My understanding is that the VL805 firmware is independent and you had to load the power saving version manually at first ( that is why I know it didn't break my overclock ) but you now get it by default with an apt update/upgrade. Rpi-update loads a firmware with dynamic voltage so the voltage is less than 1.2 when idle and increases with demand. Over_voltage=4 does not result in 1.3 volts but raises the upper limit. this explains why "vcgencmd measure_volts" wasn't returning the values I expected.

I may be wrong and am willing to be corrected.

Hello,
i did also an update w/ apt update/upgrade. In my config i had overclocking cpu 2000 and gpu 600, but after updating the raspbian buster did not boot and freeze.
I found out, the pi 4 do boot if i disable the gpu overclocking. Now the pi run very stable with cpu 2 GHz and the gpu run on 500 MHz only.

[midiman369]

Hello,
i did also an update w/ apt update/upgrade. In my config i had overclocking cpu 2000 and gpu 600, but after updating the raspbian buster did not boot and freeze.
I found out, the pi 4 do boot if i disable the gpu overclocking. Now the pi run very stable with cpu 2 GHz and the gpu run on 500 MHz only.

I too have experienced this same issue; Seems like the Pi4 just wont boot if there is a GPU overclock of any kind. The CPU overclock still works fine though.

[pica200]

There is a new firmware update in the pipeline which will fix the freeze on boot if core_freq is set too high (gpu_freq is an alias for multiple options) and it allows higher v3d_freq which is probably what you are after. Keep in mind overclocking the GPU is not helpful in most cases except when it is the bottleneck. With highest settings you only gain 10-15% more graphics power at the cost of stability (enough for some emulators which ran just under fullspeed).

[lanbrown]

First time poster, short term member.

I have three Raspberry 4B's and none of them seem to allow overclock; they still boot but the clock speed still shows 1500. It isn't a temp issue as one was at 42 celsius and still would stay at 1500.

vcgencmd get_config arm_freq
arm_freq=1500

uname -a
Linux 4.19.102-v7l+ #1295 SMP Thu Feb 6 15:49:36 GMT 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux

/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd version
Feb 12 2020 12:36:21
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version c3c8dbdf147686fb0c3f32aece709d0653368810 (clean) (release) (start)

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq
1500000

vcgencmd measure_volts
volt=0.9875V

vcgencmd get_throttled
throttled=0x0

In the /boot/config.txt I have the following:
[pi4]
# Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack
dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
max_framebuffers=2
over_voltage=2arm_freq=1750



Any ideas?