Page 1 of 1

Pi 3 and Overclocking

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 8:07 pm
by lunorian
Will the Pi 3 ever have officially supported overclocking?

Re: Pi 3 and Overclocking

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 8:14 pm
by DougieLawson
Unlikely as it's running close to the design limit for the silicon already (the RPi3 gets very hot if you drive it very hard).
If you need something faster, you may want to look at other SBCs.

Or live with it until Eben and his excellent team of engineers come up with the next astonishing piece of amazing hardware.

Re: Pi 3 and Overclocking

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 8:27 pm
by HawaiianPi
lunorian wrote:
Sat Dec 30, 2017 8:07 pm
Will the Pi 3 ever have officially supported overclocking?
Unlikely, because the Pi3 needs extra cooling for overclocking, and does not include any cooling solution by default. Overclocking is still possible by editing config.txt, but you will need to provide your own cooling solution for the SoC or it will end up throttling down when you run it hard (which would negate the overclock).

The common tiny heatsinks with double-sided cellophane tape (instead of thermal interface material) that are sold everywhere are pretty much useless. A fan alone would probably cool better. A fan and proper heatsink with thermally conductive adhesive would be even better. However, fans are noisy and collect dust, so my recommendation would be to put your Pi3 in a Flirc case, which is an aluminum case that acts as a huge heatsink.

And it looks good too!
Image
Click picture for Amazon USA link.

There is a newer Gen2 version that is specifically made for the Pi3, and an older version for the B+/Pi2, but you can use the B+/Pi2 in the Gen2 case as well, you just won't be able to see the LEDs. I don't recommend a Pi3 in the older case because the SD card is hard to access.