How Do You Achieve High Clock Speeds?


lancelott

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Dec 27, 2005
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The highest I've been able to successfully play a game for a while in MAME is 275MHz. 5MHz more and it will start hesitating to function correctly. How do some of you get 299MHz? Is there a trick to it, or does it vary between units?
 
Evry unit is different, you might get a slight bit higher with stronger batterys but not much, you realy have to be lucky.
Also 275 is quite good considering that 240 is the highest for some.
 
You won't get much better than those batteries. I use them and some 2600s (can't remember the brand) and the performance of the energizers really is very good.
 
I had a GP2X that couild oc to 305 MHz, but the screen flicckered and the headphone socket was crap.

Now i have one that does about 290MHz...

Its really a gamble.
 
Fishbong posted on May 10 2006 at 09:37 AM said:
I had a GP2X that couild oc to 305 MHz, but the screen flicckered and the headphone socket was crap.

Now i have one that does about 290MHz...

Its really a gamble.

How do y'all avoid baking your GPX2's innards?
 
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Vimacs posted on May 10 2006 at 11:15 AM said:
arm cpu's dont get hot at all, no heat problems there.

Awesomeness!

So ... should this concern me?
"There is also a rumor that the second editions do not contain thermal pads (heatsinks) if this is true it will reduce the overclockability of the second editions. Peace out."
Source: http://gp2xreview.blogspot.com/

Sorry I'm so stupid with questions.
 
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The First Editions had Heat Pads? :eek:

The CPU, if overclocked too high, will cause the gp2x to freeze-up, but since the processor is a low heat/voltage cpu your batteries will run out before you damage the device :)
 
I put a thermal pad from an iBook G3 on mine and it was able to go a bit higher, but it wasn't worth it really. It didn't make any difference.
 
David Beoulve posted on May 10 2006 at 08:30 AM said:
"There is also a rumor that the second editions do not contain thermal pads (heatsinks) if this is true it will reduce the overclockability of the second editions. Peace out."
Source: http://gp2xreview.blogspot.com/

Sorry I'm so stupid with questions.

Um, mine had thermal Insulating pads, I think that the second editions still have pads, just less and of a different kind because they were pressing on the back of the screen and making that funny LCD rainbow whenever you used the stick.

If anything just remove all of those and clean the chip with some rubbing alcohol for a start.

If you are going for a wicked overclock mod, use a peltier and a giant active copper heatsink or a compressor cooler (obviously only for bragging rights in 2xMark, it wouldn't be portable since the CPU is under the screen right now :)). Of course you would need to find a really high quality chip, so send back GP2X's until you get a monster overclock one to start with, or enlist the aid of a distributer and promise to pay him accordingly. I wonder how long until we get guaranteed overclock units like with the BLU+ :D .
I think the only way that would happen is if the PSX emu got to 60 FPS on Gran Turismo 2, 0 frameskip and it took 300mhz to do it. It shouldn't be too hard, GPH just runs off a specialty batch with A grade CPU's and then charges an extra $25-50, £12-25 (I know way too much).

I have been meaning to get another GP2X and use three Energizer 2500mah batteries in it to see if that will make it run smoother or overclock better.

The reason for that is the discussion a while back about the power supply circuit upconverting the voltage to 3.3 Volts anyway from the 2.4 we usually get with 2 NiMH batteries, I figure start with 3.6 volts and it should be much more efficient, thus lasting longer too. Although if it lasted about the same length of time at 300mhz that it does now at 100-200mhz I would be happy with making a battery cover that holds an extra AA cell.
 
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David Beoulve posted on May 10 2006 at 11:30 AM said:
Vimacs posted on May 10 2006 at 11:15 AM said:
arm cpu's dont get hot at all, no heat problems there.

Awesomeness!

So ... should this concern me?
"There is also a rumor that the second editions do not contain thermal pads (heatsinks) if this is true it will reduce the overclockability of the second editions. Peace out."
Source: http://gp2xreview.blogspot.com/

Sorry I'm so stupid with questions.

even so, the fact is that you can overclock safely. i remember someone saying that the processors are taken from a batch that are supposed to run at 266...i could be wrong but the principle is this: GPH's choice to make 200mhz the default (100mhz for menu) is based on stability & battery life, not longevity of the hardware. you can overclock as high as your gp2x will let you (any higher and you'll crash immediately or within a couple of minutes). but your batteries will go quicker. and as vimacs said, this is largely because ARM processors are low-power and run cool.
 
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nubie posted on May 10 2006 at 08:32 PM said:
I have been meaning to get another GP2X and use three Energizer 2500mah batteries in it to see if that will make it run smoother or overclock better.

The reason for that is the discussion a while back about the power supply circuit upconverting the voltage to 3.3 Volts anyway from the 2.4 we usually get with 2 NiMH batteries, I figure start with 3.6 volts and it should be much more efficient, thus lasting longer too. Although if it lasted about the same length of time at 300mhz that it does now at 100-200mhz I would be happy with making a battery cover that holds an extra AA cell.
I think it was squidge who found that the power drain at a slightly higher operating voltage was considerably less, so your idea should work pretty nicely.
 
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I took my dreamcast thermal pads out and stuck them in my unit (which had none) i got about 20-30 extra mhz ocing without it crashing.
 
Paradox posted on May 11 2006 at 08:36 AM said:
I took my dreamcast thermal pads out and stuck them in my unit (which had none) i got about 20-30 extra mhz ocing without it crashing.

Whoa, describe what those thermal pads look like / were made off and where / how you put them into your GPX2 please!

I can buy a used Dreamcast for $35 - but finding material would probably be much cheaper.
 
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The likelihood of a thermal pad improving your overclockability is rather low. ARM9s produce very little heat and the MMSP2 should not get that warm. Unless the difference in temp is something like 80C to 30C, stability increases are improbable. Now, if you want to rig up a TEC (thermoelectric cooler) onto the MMSP2 and chill it to <0F, that might work. But there'd be no room to mount a heatsink to cool it with the screen there. Maybe custom fit some heatpipes or a tiny waterblock and all-in one pump with a little bitty radiator on the back of the unit. OK, now I'm dreaming. :p
 
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