Don't quite understand clocking


Gorillazero

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Joined
Oct 26, 2003
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Sup? I don't quite understand clocking? Is it the program that maximizes the mhz and then the battery life that helps it last longer. Or are you guys upping ur machine. Over at gp32emu.com they were talkin about how each machine my be different? Is that cuz there "moding" there Gp32's or just that difference serial #'s work better then others? Confusing? i Hope not.

-Matt

Thx in Advance (now this post will come up whenever someone is searching for GBA information ;) )
 
When Overclocking, you don't actually OC as if it was a computer. You OC it through programs like GPengine or NEOGP32. In these emulators there are clock settings, 133, 156, 166. When you select one the emu is then running at that speed. When you exit the emulator or turn off the GP32, the gp32 is running at normal speed. If you set the speed in an emulator to 166, only that emulator is running at that speed, and the other programs aren't. Some machines are able to overclock higher than others basically just based on luck. Some people can only overclock to 156 for a couple of seconds while others can go all the way up to 172. Mine can run at 156 without resetting but at 166 I can only run it at that speed for a couple of seconds before my GP32 freezes or restarts. I hope this answers your questions.
 
Most of the problems with overclocking comes from the RAM. Some people say they can't overclock beyond 133MHz. My old GP32 couldn't overclock beyond 133MHz, which is one of the reasons why I sold it. I don't know if these unfortunate people ever opened up their GP32s, but I think some units were shipped with a different or faulty RAM chip that becomes unstable beyond 133MHz. The RAM is only stable up to around 166MHz. Note that GP32s sold now should have no problem, and I have not heard of any problems. Especially FLU units, since they are newer then the non-FLU.

Overclocking itself is actually the same as it would be on a computer, yet we don't have your standard BIOS, so we need to tell the CPU directly when we want to overclock.

The default speed is 40 or 66MHz, and Gamepark assures proper functionality up to 133MHz.

The lower the speed, the longer the batteries will last. The CPU itself isn't the largest battery hog, but the slower it goes, the slower all of the devices will be polled and updated. I did an experiment a while back, and the lowest speed setting (20MHz) with the LCD turned off can last up to about 35 hours! 133MHz can last around 10 hours on rechargable batteries. The rule here is decrease the battery life by about 30 minutes for every 16MHz speed increase.
 
Hmm, I'm not sure that 172MHz is a legal value. I think the GP32 may round down to 166MHz, just like it rounds up anything below 20MHz.
 
Is it safe to overclock?

If so upto what level, i have noticed that somebody on gamefaqs is complaining that their screen flashes and unit turns off, and they think its to do with it being overclocked.
 
133 is 100% safe, everything else is probably 99% chance of being safe (not for each GP32, either every gp32 will or won't break cuz of it) And the person complining about the screen prolly hasn't checked his batteries for a while...
 
Why I'm wondering is because i want to buy a Gp32 (FluLit or not) for Gb/gbc/Snes/Sega "anything" and some of the commerical games.
I wanted to play like Zelda Dx, and other Color games. So, Over clocking is reasonable? If i bought a lik-sang 209$ Flu-Lit, do i have a better shot at a stable mhz? Thx again. Owe ya for the responses.

Thx

-Matt
 
Unfortunately it's pot-luck whether your unit is overclockable or not. All I can say is perhaps the newer ones are nicer with overclocking. My old unit did 156 MHz max (non-flu) from GBAx. My new FLU from lik-sang does 166 max. So perhaps you might get one of the same batch :)
 
Some advice: Don't buy fom Play-Asia. It seems that a lot of people who bought from there have an A button that is louder than normal and a little unresponsive. Buy from GBAX!
 
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