Overclocking The Gp2x Hope The Dev Don't Consider

[geniv]

it's great that the gp2x can be overclocked to 266 or 300 or what ever speed it can.

but from my knowledge overclocking. (based on the PC)

- cause excessive wear so your unit won't last as long
- heats up more
- drains power/battery faster.

it might have all these or even any of these adverse affect on the gp2x.

but the point I'm trying to get to is that I hope game/emu dev don't take OCing into consideration when programming their apps.

I mean let say the emu dev. just assume that most people is running their units OCed to 266. and he programs the emu and it runs full speed at 266mhz and then left it at that. without trying to optimzed it to fun full speed at the default 200mhz.

I woulld hate to have the emu not run full speed at 200mhz. as I don't OC and dont like the idea of OCing.

 

[Willei]

- cause excessive wear so your unit won't last as long
- heats up more
- drains power/battery faster.

​

I've never been too sure about the excessive wear bit. I remember years and years ago, Intel were trying to tell people vastly exaggerated stories about a phenomenon called Electron Migration in a bid to stop them from overclocking their new Pentiums - since they all ran the same core, you could easilly end up with a P100 that could clock up to 166 and be perfectly stable. I believe that it exists, but is so minor that any effects would be far beyond the useful life of a handheld console.

As for heat, I don't think that's an issue. The GP2X will usually crash nearly instantly if you push it too far, and mine doesn't feel hot after a good hour of playing at 275Mhz. Power isn't a big deal either for me since I mostly use it on 45 minute bus journeys.

Basically, I'm happy to clock it up the the maximum until such a point where it isn't necessary for the software I'm using. If it breaks, it breaks, but at the end of the day it's only a little £130 handheld, I could replace it without too many problems if it came down to it.

 

[gp32animefreak]

I hope thts not the case with the gp2x, but i have had my gp32 since 2002 and OCing is the only way to really enjoy it and its perfectly fine no problems.

 

[skeezix]

Theres a long history in gp32 o/c'ing so don't sweat it; ie: Most apps that have clocking options tend to allow _under_clocking through to normal through to overclocking. ie: So the user can decide what he wants to do .. performance versus battery life, etc.

And of course devs will do what they need to do; if they need to o/c, they'll do it.

The only thing that matters is that devs note what clocking options are default, if they're o/c'ing, in case you're worried; typically, o/c'ing isn't really harmful, just chews up batteries fast.. ut the important thing is for folks to know so they can decide.

But thats okay.. thats been the norm for years

jeff

 

[geniv]

I just don't want to OC because of battery life.

sure I can understand the NEED to overclock if you are emulating say a PSX or N64.

but for some stuff like SNES or GBA. I wish the DEV will try to squeeze full speed emu out of the 200mhz speed instead of just giving up and tell people "hey u want full speed? OC to 266mhz"

 

[mysql101]

you're not going to like me then, because my answer is to overclock it to 280mhz.

 

[DaveC]

I just don't want to OC because of battery life.

sure I can understand the NEED to overclock if you are emulating say a PSX or N64.

but for some stuff like SNES or GBA. I wish the DEV will try to squeeze full speed emu out of the 200mhz speed instead of just giving up and tell people "hey u want full speed? OC to 266mhz"

​

Yeah my battery life is shit now using it normal. If I had to overclock so much my batteries will last like 10 minutes

 

[pea]

*sigh* not another overclocking thread. I guess it's just natural that history is going to repeat all over again for the gp2x...

I guess we can't just say 'search the forums and replace [gp32] with [gp2x]' ?

 

[Minkoff]

266MHz isn't overclocking. For some reason GPH just underclocks the processors by default (probably for batteries). Anything over 266 is overclocking, but they tend to crash (at least for me).

 

[Mr Doctor]

I just don't want to OC because of battery life.

sure I can understand the NEED to overclock if you are emulating say a PSX or N64.

but for some stuff like SNES or GBA. I wish the DEV will try to squeeze full speed emu out of the 200mhz speed instead of just giving up and tell people "hey u want full speed? OC to 266mhz"

​

They could say "Hey, you want full speed? Make your own emulator!" -_-

 

[Squidge]

Yeah my battery life is shit now using it normal. If I had to overclock so much my batteries will last like 10 minutes

​

That's only because you have shit batteries

 

[LHC]

I just don't want to OC because of battery life.

sure I can understand the NEED to overclock if you are emulating say a PSX or N64.

but for some stuff like SNES or GBA.  I wish the DEV will try to squeeze full speed emu out of the 200mhz speed instead of just giving up and tell people "hey u want full speed? OC to 266mhz"

​

It seems pretty selfish to expect a developer to potentially spend months finding a solution to get that extra 1fps, when 2 lines of code or whatever it takes will get an extra 5-10fps. With this attitude, I hope you donate an awful lot to developers.

edit: By the way, has anybody dared try the pencil mod yet?

 

[digitaljez]

If these were commercial developments I could understand your concern. Since the devs are doing this for fun not profit I would imagine achieving the best speed has to be the main challenge. If it can be done at 200MHz they will make it happen.

 

[Sonic-NKT]

some apps just wont run without overclocking at fullspeed with FS 0 or so,
and i can understand a Dev if he doesnt want to put weeks of work in a project to get it fullspeed at 200 if it runs perfekt at 266 (and 266 seems to work on every gp2x).

 

[nik166]

it's great that the gp2x can be overclocked to 266 or 300 or what ever speed it can.

but from my knowledge overclocking. (based on the PC)

- cause excessive wear so your unit won't last as long
- heats up more
- drains power/battery faster.

​

first, 266 is the NOMINAL value for the cpu, so it's NOT an overcklocking,
second, we do NOT touch the voltage of the CPU,
3/ your unit "won't last long" , it's true, it may possibly last 28 years instead of 30 (25 if you raise the voltage )

it's true for the heat, but in winter it's a good thing the only real thing is the battery, but the goal of an app is running at the lowest speed possible, not the highest possible!

but the point I'm trying to get to is that I hope game/emu dev don't take OCing into consideration when programming their apps.

if it runs fine at 266 or more, there's no reason why devs should not use it, you're free to overcklock or not, devs do their best to optimize and make their thing running at lower speeds for the battery, but if it can't, what do you want? do you want the PSX emu to be canceled? <_<

 

[Mr Doctor]

If these were commercial developments I could understand your concern. Since the devs are doing this for fun not profit I would imagine achieving the best speed has to be the main challenge. If it can be done at 200MHz they will make it happen.

​

So... commercial devs that are getting paid for it should be allowed to release software that only runs properly when you overclock the system its made for? Erm.... are you mental?

 

[woogal]

first, 266 is the NOMINAL value for the cpu, so it's NOT an overcklocking,

266mhz isn't stable for some people, so yes it is overclocking.
I've not heard of anyone who can't reach 250mhz though.

 

[LHC]

If these were commercial developments I could understand your concern.  Since the devs are doing this for fun not profit I would imagine achieving the best speed has to be the main challenge.  If it can be done at 200MHz they will make it happen.

​

So... commercial devs that are getting paid for it should be allowed to release software that only runs properly when you overclock the system its made for? Erm.... are you mental?

​

That's the opposite of what he said.

 

[shrubberyrobbery]

If these were commercial developments I could understand your concern. Since the devs are doing this for fun not profit I would imagine achieving the best speed has to be the main challenge. If it can be done at 200MHz they will make it happen.

​

So... commercial devs that are getting paid for it should be allowed to release software that only runs properly when you overclock the system its made for? Erm.... are you mental?

​

yeah. thats what happens. if it's a commercial concern: its released the absolute second that its about halfway functional, just enough to sell and make money from. and that's it. no more money spent on it, until it fails disastrously and you have to hack it back into some kind of patched-up working order, because you weren't allowed to finish it properly first time around

I know - i'm a commercial developer, and it continually p*sses me off when stuff I have about 2 thirds written, that I'm not yet satisfied with is taken away from me :angry: , to be sold, and I am moved onto something else, against my own will.

if its homebrew, where someone's doing it cos they want to, then the natural challenge to make it as good as possible is far more important than 'development budget', so its FAR more likely to be continually tweaked, until the programmer themself is happy with it as a 'creation to be proud of'.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

first, 266 is the NOMINAL value for the cpu, so it's NOT an overcklocking,

266mhz isn't stable for some people, so yes it is overclocking.
I've not heard of anyone who can't reach 250mhz though.

​

266 and 280 run perfectly stable for me, afaik the Arm9 200mhz was certified to work at 266 w/o any problems. I heard of the magic eye board in the gp2x being capable of that. However I never go over 266 if not neccesary(Most of the time I underclock to 166 or 133 to play some megadrive(not all games need 266mhz there ) or view movies at full speed

And my ogs(they run really nice, great ogg support there!), I play them @80mhz with the screen off, I haven't tested the battery life with that settings yet, however it should run a big amount longer than with the 200mhz standard setting.