Stresstest a fanless overclocked Pi 3 B (no +)?

[thelostsoul]

I added thermal paste and it is 20 degrees lower now? is this real? Or does the settings I slightly changed does this big difference? In comparison to my first post. I will test this with Quake 3 too, but wanted to share my experience at this place with the previously used stresstest, as I saw a very big difference in temperature to my previous testing.

Quake 3 test did last around 25 minutes (not sure the exact time it freezed) with my old setup, so I decided to add some thermal paste and optimize settings and retest again. First, this short little stresstest.

Stresstest

while true; do vcgencmd measure_clock arm; vcgencmd measure_temp; sleep 10; done& stress -c 4 -t 900s

• New setup
  temp after 4 minutes: 45°C
  temp after 15 minutes: 55°C
  with thermal paste
  arm_freq=1300
  core_freq=500
  sdram_freq=500
  sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
  sdram_over_voltage=2
  over_voltage=2

• Old setup (first posting)
  temp after 4 minutes: 70°C
  temp after 15 minutes: 75°C
  without thermal paste
  arm_freq=1300
  core_freq=500
  sdram_freq=500
  over_voltage=2

[thelostsoul]

@thelostsoul
Ok, the settings from my last posting aren't stable on Quake 3, so I had to dial them down. Currently I run Quake 3 test for 1h (still running here) and case got hot, but no sign of over heating. Can't read the temps, as I have a problem connecting with SSH, but thats another story. Here my settings, which I may leave as it is now. I am shocked how much difference themal paste do.

• Newer setup (1h success on Quake 3 test)
  arm_freq=1250
  core_freq=450
  sdram_freq=450
  sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
  sdram_over_voltage=2
  over_voltage=2

I am not into high overclocking, just want take advantage of better cooling and play psx and only some of the n64 with better experience and this helps me. But I am not sure about the sdram. Quake 3 don't test this right? And is sdram worth it, if I just play games? Yes, loading times of cd games (cd music) from sdcard would be improved I guess. Other than that, does this have an impact somewhere else? How can I be sure its not corrupting my data? Would you suggest dialing it back?

• Most newest setup (2h success on Quake 3 test)
  arm_freq=1275
  core_freq=475
  sdram_freq=475
  sdram_schmoo=0x02000020
  sdram_over_voltage=2
  over_voltage=2

5 seconds after closing Quake 3, I can read 52°C for the last 2h test. So this is a huge success here I guess. So, I have not to worry about playing anything for long period of time.

[quicksilver]

@thelostsoul you could also try increasing your over voltage setting to 3 or 4. This would potentially allow you to increase your overclock a little more and be stable.

[thelostsoul]

@quicksilver I am not sure what the trade off for voltage is. I know it makes more stable and increase heat. Currently, I am really happy to get this what I have now and I consider to do higher settings. But I don't want fry my board, so I am careful about voltage. It does not use any fan. Now after I am a little more in to this overclocking things, I will have a closer look into the other thread.

[quicksilver]

@thelostsoul your pi isn't at risk of becoming fried, your pi will throttle itself if it becomes too hot. Even this seems unlikely as you are using a good case for cooling. You can safely increase overvolt to a value of 6 without voiding your warranty. As you stated the only drawback of overvolting (up to 6) is increased heat and potentially shortening your Pi's overall lifespan, though you are much more likely to replace your pi with a newer model before that happens. But if your pi is stable at settings that you are satisfied with then maybe it would be best to leave your settings as they are now.

[thelostsoul]

@quicksilver I am currently not determined. Didn't know that this would go that good, so I may change my initial mind. In fact, its not about the warranty, but about data loss or about suddenly stop playing any game and wait for a new model to arrive. If there is still room, I will sure do more on this. I mean, why not, I payed for this and if it can handle higher clocks, then I will do it.

Thank you for your patience! It helped me a lot and about Quake 3 test, I understand it now. It is something like "if it works under Quake 3, then you don't have to worry" test. So I will use this in future, alongside Perfect Dark intro and first level test. Would this cover all those 2D platforms too? If these works, then I don't need to test say, snes games right? They have to work good in this case.

[quicksilver]

@thelostsoul yea, you got it now. If it passes the quake 3 test you can be pretty confident that it will handle anything. You don't need to test using NES, SNES etc. because these systems don't work your pi very hard.

[thelostsoul]

@quicksilver Sorry if I ask again something. :|
And what about these systems, if I use shaders? I use shaders and some of them slows down extremely. Off course, i don't use the slow ones, but can this be used as a test too? Does this cover anything, Quake 3 don't?

[quicksilver]

@thelostsoul as I understand it shaders utilize your CPU, so as long as you have done stability testing for your CPU you are fine. Quake 3 pushes your CPU, GPU, and RAM pretty hard so I think you are fine.

[thelostsoul]

@quicksilver Thanks, got it now. :-)