Overclocking Raspberry Pi 3

[bljardkungen]

Hi,

I just bought the Raspberry Pi 3 and I can't overclock it from the raspi-config tool anymore.
Anyone else with the same problem and maybe a answer?
Is the overclocking hardware locked or something on RPI3?

I am using Raspbian:
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="8"
VERSION="8 (jessie)"

Kernel version:
4.1.18-v7+

overclock.png

overclock2.png

[sarossell]

If I've read the article correctly, according to Gordon over at RTB (https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi-v3/), overclocking is not yet implemented on the Pi 3. :@(

[jackenhack]

I've successfully overclocked the Raspberry Pi 3. Two in fact. I've written about it on my blog.

http://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/

[jackenhack]

I've overclocked two Raspberry Pi 3 so far. One without a problem up to 1.5 GHz, the other one, not so much. I've written it up on my blog. http://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/

[XD3l]

Using these settings on a Pi 3 with no heat sinks (currently) I can boot into my Dreamcast games and see that they now run pretty right on and without the extreme stuttering I noticed before, but alas...

...the system becomes unstable, the emulator crashes and I wind up back at Emustation or a black screen.

arm_freq=1400
over_voltage=5
temp_limit=80
gpu_mem=128


Adding sdram_freq=500 keeps it stable for a bit longer, but not much longer.

Chips never really heat up...

[Higgs]

I pick up a RPi3 to play with and among the 1st things I noticed too - no overclock. After running the update/upgrades I tried some of my overclocked RPi2 settings but my wifi became unstable with the over_voltage or some other settings, so I pared-out almost every addition and only left a modest arm_freq=1200 in there.

[raymate]

Any good setting we can try, not tried to overclock the Pi3 yet, not completely sure what setting I should adjust.

[JimmyN]

I've overclocked my RPi3B to 1372MHz, and it's running great. Every RPi is different you may not be able to get that high, or you may be able to go higher, you'll just have to experiment and see. I also changed my "up_threshold" for the governor so it doesn't kick the speed up until CPU utilization gets above 75%

Code: Select all

jimmy@rpi5:~ $ cpufreq-info -s -m;
600 MHz:98.98%, 1.37 GHz:1.02%  (39)

Add the overclock settings to config.txt

Code: Select all

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

This should work, add it to the bottom of config.txt

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1300
over_voltage=5
gpu_freq=500

# sdram overclock
sdram_freq=500
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4

If that works bump up a bit

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1350
over_voltage=5
gpu_freq=550

# sdram overclock
sdram_freq=550
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4

Mine is actually set using

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1372
over_voltage=5
gpu_freq=588

# sdram overclock
sdram_freq=588
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4

Just play with the three settings "arm_freq", "gpu_freq", and "sdram_freq".

The "gpu_freq" setting includes "core_freq", "v3d_freq", "h264_freq", and "isp_freq" all in one, so you only need to set the "gpu_freq" and it pulls them all up together.

Start with the lower values and if it's stable then start increasing only one setting at a time, so you'll know which one is causing a problem. You can increase overvolt to 6, and that may let you get a little higher on the "arm_freq". Mine wouldn't go above 1372 even with an overvolt of 6, and it worked OK at 1372 with an overvolt of 5 so that's where I left it. If you have a setting that is too high, and it won't boot, then hold down the shift key while you boot and it won't use the overclock settings. That will let you boot it up and edit config.txt.

Watch the temps, with the overclock and overvoltage it can get too hot and start throttling back, depending on what kind of stress test you're using to check stability. You may need a heatsink to even run at the lower overclock settings, depending on how much load you're putting on it. And when you're testing do watch the red power LED, if it blinks occasionally you need a better power supply or cable. What works OK at standard speeds may not be able to maintain the voltage when overclocking.

Overclocking is a time consuming process with a lot of testing, changing settings, reboot, test, change settings, reboot, etc. If you want the best overclock and a stable system it's not something you can get dialed in with just a few tries.

[raymate]

Thank you I shall try some settings you got me pointed in the right direction

I've overclocked my RPi3B to 1372MHz, and it's running great. Every RPi is different you may not be able to get that high, or you may be able to go higher, you'll just have to experiment and see. I also changed my "up_threshold" for the governor so it doesn't kick the speed up until CPU utilization gets above 75%

Code: Select all

jimmy@rpi5:~ $ cpufreq-info -s -m;
600 MHz:98.98%, 1.37 GHz:1.02%  (39)

Add the overclock settings to config.txt

Code: Select all

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

This should work, add it to the bottom of config.txt

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1300
over_voltage=5
gpu_freq=500

# sdram overclock
sdram_freq=500
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4

If that works bump up a bit

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1350
over_voltage=5
gpu_freq=550

# sdram overclock
sdram_freq=550
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4

Mine is actually set using

Code: Select all

arm_freq=1372
over_voltage=5
gpu_freq=588

# sdram overclock
sdram_freq=588
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4

Just play with the three settings "arm_freq", "gpu_freq", and "sdram_freq".

The "gpu_freq" setting includes "core_freq", "v3d_freq", "h264_freq", and "isp_freq" all in one, so you only need to set the "gpu_freq" and it pulls them all up together.

Start with the lower values and if it's stable then start increasing only one setting at a time, so you'll know which one is causing a problem. You can increase overvolt to 6, and that may let you get a little higher on the "arm_freq". Mine wouldn't go above 1372 even with an overvolt of 6, and it worked OK at 1372 with an overvolt of 5 so that's where I left it. If you have a setting that is too high, and it won't boot, then hold down the shift key while you boot and it won't use the overclock settings. That will let you boot it up and edit config.txt.

Watch the temps, with the overclock and overvoltage it can get too hot and start throttling back, depending on what kind of stress test you're using to check stability. You may need a heatsink to even run at the lower overclock settings, depending on how much load you're putting on it. And when you're testing do watch the red power LED, if it blinks occasionally you need a better power supply or cable. What works OK at standard speeds may not be able to maintain the voltage when overclocking.

Overclocking is a time consuming process with a lot of testing, changing settings, reboot, test, change settings, reboot, etc. If you want the best overclock and a stable system it's not something you can get dialed in with just a few tries.

[Nickcn]

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[Nickcn]

deleted

[Nickcn]

deleted

[raymate]

I ended up using this:

arm_freq=1350
sdram_freq=450
core_freq=525
over_voltage=4

Seems stable and runs Retropie much better

[Nickcn]

deleted

[raymate]

I ended up using this:

arm_freq=1350
sdram_freq=450
core_freq=525
over_voltage=4

Seems stable and runs Retropie much better

Did you test it with cpuburn and memtester, and verify the freq stays at 1350 MHz?

No, not yet need to work out how to do that

[Nickcn]

deleted

[raymate]

I ended up using this:

arm_freq=1350
sdram_freq=450
core_freq=525
over_voltage=4

Seems stable and runs Retropie much better

Did you test it with cpuburn and memtester, and verify the freq stays at 1350 MHz?

I'm running a fan all I did test was temp, it's not going above mid 50 with fan on and about mid 70 with fan off when running retropie

[Nickcn]

deleted

[KiloPIE]

I'm pretty new to this and don't really know what I'm doing, but after reading through some threads and checking out a couple of videos I've come up with some settings which seem to be pretty stable...

gpu_mem=400
arm_freq=1350
over_voltage=5
sdram_freq=500
core_freq=500
gpu_freq=450

I know It's not a huge overclock but I just wanted to come up with a general overclock setting that would run on most pi 3's

Opinions?

[mahjongg]

I know It's not a huge overclock but I just wanted to come up with a general overclock setting that would run on most pi 3's

Opinions?

Per definition no overclock is the "general overclock setting that would run on all pi 3's", and PI3's are not that much overclock-able. The production variance is now so little that the RPF can push up the clock speed right at the edge of what is possible.

[KiloPIE]

Does anybody know the default values for the settings?:

gpu_mem=
arm_freq=
over_voltage=
sdram_freq=
core_freq=
gpu_freq=

Because I'm not even sure how much of an overclock people are applying in their suggested setting :/

[rpdom]

Does anybody know the default values for the settings?

If you haven't changed them from the default by setting any values in config.txt, you can check the values with
vcgencmd get_config int
and that will show what they are set to.

[Rive]

Does anybody know the default values for the settings?:

gpu_mem=
arm_freq=
over_voltage=
sdram_freq=
core_freq=
gpu_freq=

Because I'm not even sure how much of an overclock people are applying in their suggested setting :/

Pi3 defaults (if I am not mistaken):


ARMv8 (Cortex-A53) CPU (1200 MHz/600 MHz);
DDR2-800 SDRAM (450 MHz) [overclocked from 400 MHz]
VideoCore IV CORE/GPU (300 MHz)
GPU Memory allocation 64 GB (of 1024 MB shared)

HC-1/UHS-1 Sdcard is roughly 8 MB/s write, and like 16-20 MB/s read

[ThePope]

Where is this in the file, I'm trying to figure out where I paste this.

"Find and delete last line ('gpu_mem='), and then in it's place, (copy/paste) add:"

dtparam=sd_overclock=100
arm_freq=1275
core_freq=500
over_voltage=4
sdram_freq=575
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4
v3d_freq=500
h264_freq=333
gpu_mem=256

# Memory (System/GPU configuration )
################################################################################

# default GPU memory split (do not change if you do not know what you are doing)
gpu_mem=128 (Is this the section that gets replaced)

# SDRAM size based GPU memory split, uncomment and setup to override 'gpu_mem'
gpu_mem_256=112
gpu_mem_512=160
gpu_mem_1024=256

################################################################################

[Rive]

Where is this in the file, I'm trying to figure out where I paste this

like this:

Pi3 Raspbian Jessie OS

/boot/config.txt

Code: Select all

# For more options and information see
# http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md
# Some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details

# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
#hdmi_safe=1

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
#disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
#overscan_left=16
#overscan_right=16
#overscan_top=16
#overscan_bottom=16

# uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
# overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=1

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display
#config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL
#sdtv_mode=2

# Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces
#dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2s=on
#dtparam=spi=on

# Uncomment this to enable the lirc-rpi module
#dtoverlay=lirc-rpi

# Additional overlays and parameters are documented /boot/overlays/README

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
dtparam=audio=on
dtparam=i2c_arm=off

# Uncomment to overclock ARMv8 (Cortex-A53) CPU (1200 MHz); DDR2-800 SDRAM (450 MHz);
# VideoCore IV  GPU (300 MHz); double read/write performance of UHS-1/HC-1 SD Card;
# and set memory allocation of 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM for VideoCore IV GPU
dtparam=sd_overclock=100
arm_freq=1300
core_freq=500
over_voltage=4
sdram_freq=575
sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
over_voltage_sdram_p=6
over_voltage_sdram_i=4
over_voltage_sdram_c=4
v3d_freq=500
h264_freq=333
gpu_mem=256