Overclocking, Harmful?

[extremegamer]

Is over-clocking safe?

Not really. A few lucky GP32 units can withstand a speed higher than 132Mhz, but all units are only tested as far as 132. Go up to 166 or even 180 Mhz, and you're gambling with your £200 machine. It's simply not worth it. The only prog that lets you overclock easily is GPengine, which runs fine at 132Mhz. Oh, and SCUMM but that now has a 132 Mhz version as well, albeit with stuttered sound. Having your GP32 overclocked for a bit will most probably wreck the LCD, darkening it, maybe even rendering it useless. You can also crash the GP32 more often from overheating.

Atrkid notes: "that's not true!" [re: some units can withstand > 132] Well many people have told me they've run GPEngine or ScummVM for months without problems at an increased rate. It's still strongly discouraged, and who knows if it will cause permanent damage eventually.


OK, now, i've been overclocking my GP to 156 for OPENSNES and 166 for FGEN, now, that I thought i was over my Overclocking fear, here it is again, its true that nobody has fried their GP32 from overclocking right???!!!???? So is there something thats not being told as to why people still think its dangerous?

 

[zenocha]

well craigix tested a set f gps non stop for a long time a while back and nothing happened them, plus i oc mine to 166 regularly, with voltage mod and have not experienced any adverese effects, so as far as im concerned ots safe.

 

[vemon388]

i dosn't do any thing to the gp32

 

[Mighty_Max]

I've OC'd mine to 166 regularly for a while, but I got scared when I read that it might darken the screen. My screen is already rather dark, but I'm not sure if that's because I OC'd or if it's just naturally dark. :unsure:

 

[Axeman]

To be honest, this can be amended now - There are lots of people who regularly o/c to 166Mhz with no harm.

I'll amend the faq!

 

[Vimacs]

i can overclock to 180 mhz and do it when its possible and my gp runs like the first day

 

[jlebrech]

We need a cpu mod

 

[zenocha]

there is a cpu mod, robbrowns voltage mod, increases the core voltage of the cpu to allow better oc'n you can find it here at cobbleware

 

[Squidge]

Overclocking beyond 133 and voltage mods can decrease the life of the ARM processor inside the GP32, but it's normally not noticed within the lifetime of the machine, unless the voltage increase (not overclock) is well outside of specifications.

I'm talking here about the processor lasting for say, 5 years, instead of 10-15, but I doub't many people will be using GP32's then anyway, so why worry?

[Disclaimer: The above is my opinion only, and not to be taken as gospel. If your machine fries from overclocking within a week, month, year, whatever, it's not my fault - you had a choice - you took it.]

 

[jlebrech]

I meant changing the class of cpu to the higher frequency used by gp32, i saw a chart once and theres 2 arm9 cpus faster than this one.

 

[Vimacs]

the gp32 cpu is specifid to 200mhz

 

[zenocha]

i set my voltage to 1.92V which is within the recommended limit of 1.95V

 

[Axeman]

I meant changing the class of cpu to the higher frequency used by gp32, i saw a chart once and theres 2 arm9 cpus faster than this one.

AFAIK, the speed issue is not with the cpu, but with the ram quality - see the faq.

 

[Compyfox]

My core question is: "why even overclocking"?

Actually I think it's just like so that the programmers can relate on a higher CPU for emulation than optimising the program routines to eat less recources. Isn't it just a cheap excuse then? I'm no programmer, so I can't tell for sure. And this is no threat. But this really eludes me. I'm not saying "overclocking is a bad thing", but I don't understand why doing it? I don't overclock my home PCs, because I don't need it. And I'm sure the GP32 doesn't need it either. It's just another barrier that someone sees and want to be broken (well, IMHO).

Three reason why I don't want to overclock my GP32 and the one from my friend:
- Battery Lifetime (from 10-12hours down to 2,5 - even with 1800mA AA? Come on!)
- Too much effort for overclocking (it's not worth for what you get IMO)
- I trust in the capabilities of the CPU (if a emu doesn't work or stutters, I'm sure someone finds the right code to fix that - just a matter of time)

Not to mention that the hardware lives a little bit longer. Even though some might say "who uses a GP32 in 5 years anyway", but believe it or not, I still have a Sega GameGear here that's up and running sometime. Even though emulators are already out there. Loading times? well... then it takes 5 seconds longer to boot the "FreeLoader". Remember the times of the C64 where a disk needed a couple of minutes (hours for DAT tape) to load a program. Or early PCs (like DX2-66MHz CPUs) with brand new Windows95. We've seen worse, didn't we?


Just my humble opinion to this case.
I hope it isn't a crime for not "overclocking" the hardware and I won't get killed for that.

 

[TandeM]

"Actually I think it's just like so that the programmers can relate on a higher CPU for emulation than optimising the program routines to eat less recources."

Consider the 80/20 rule (80% of dev time getting the last 20% of speed). Overclocking can provide that last 20% (or more) on the spot.

"- Battery Lifetime (from 10-12hours down to 2,5 - even with 1800mA AA? Come on!)"

Surely that's a bit of an exaggeration - you're comparing a max-OCed (166MHz) unit to an idling 40 or 66MHz CPU. The more accurate comparison is roughly 6 hours @ 133MHz versus 4 or so at 166MHz.

And using a PSU won't cost you any batteries at all!

"- Too much effort for overclocking (it's not worth for what you get IMO)"

Just booting up an OCed FXE or changing the clock from within an application's GUI is too much effort?! Overclocking doesn't take any messing with the GP32's internals (sans voltage modding, but hardly anyone does that).

"- I trust in the capabilities of the CPU (if a emu doesn't work or stutters, I'm sure someone finds the right code to fix that - just a matter of time"

We can be an impatient community. Overclocking is a quick way to give everyone their speed fix.

"I hope it isn't a crime for not "overclocking" the hardware and I won't get killed for that."

It's not.

 

[Compyfox]

I still believe 133MHz is more than enough.

We'll see how good the coders for emus are. But if they relate too much on overclocking... then the effort wasn't worth. At least IMO, but we'll see. Most of the emus aren't V1.0 and over yet.

So... definitely no need for overclocking. =)

 

[Talyz]

I overclocked my GP32 to 156MHz in GPDoom and saw no difference... :angry:

 

[Axeman]

In most things, it does make a difference. It's the difference between 15 and 24fps in GPcinema, the difference between sound and no sound in Opensnes9xGP, and the difference between playable and non-playable in FGen...

Need I go on?