How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability

mrbwa1

@dankcushions Thanks for the update. I double-checked mt setup on the RPi2 and indeed gpu_mem_1024=256 is present, so my 128MB tweak wasn't even being used.

I may try settng gpu_mem_1024=128 at some point, but I really don't think it's going to make a big difference performance wise. The bottleneck isn't really RAM; It's the processing power (especially with N64 emulation).

Since the default GPU split n Raspbian is 64MB, I can see why people were bumping UP to 128MB on older builds.

Riverstorm

@dankcushions said

i've added a note to the wiki to this effect: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Memory-Split

Thanks Dank, I added this my RetroPie build bookmarks.

@mrbwa1
You'll have to let us know if you run across any issues at 128.

@Twitch0815
I was a bit distraught to see Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits and Namco Museum 64 crashed in the spreadsheet. I tried them both to the same effect.

Predator04

So sorry for noob question but wanted to know where we put all the config info:
#Overclock Settings
arm_freq=1400
#(Try 1350 if 1400 does not work)
over_voltage=6
temp_limit=80
core_freq=500

etc etc at? What file do we edit? Thanks!

Riverstorm

@Predator04 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

So sorry for noob question but wanted to know where we put all the config info:
#Overclock Settings
arm_freq=1400
#(Try 1350 if 1400 does not work)
over_voltage=6
temp_limit=80
core_freq=500

etc etc at? What file do we edit? Thanks!

You can append it to the end of the /boot/config.txt file, reboot and you should be good to go. Hold down left shift if it won't boot to bypass the overclock settings and make tweaks.

Predator04

@riverstorm

Thanks.. So normally to get to the pi I use..
\10.90.xx.xx
hot do I get to the boot folder? Thanks :P

Riverstorm

@Predator04 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@riverstorm

Thanks.. So normally to get to the pi I use..
\10.90.xx.xx
hot do I get to the boot folder? Thanks :P

I think there's more than one to do it but I usually boot my Pi, exit Emulationstation and

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Make changes
Press 'ctrl-x' to exit
Press 'y' to save changes
Press 'enter' to accept

Predator04

@Riverstorm
yea i can do it that way. Thanks again!!

Predator04

@Riverstorm
error Permission Denied

Riverstorm

@Predator04 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@Riverstorm
error Permission Denied

Hmmm...did you use 'sudo' in front of the editor, if not it will not work.

Predator04

@Riverstorm
crap I might not have. My bad... lol

Rion

@Twitch0815 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

I also truly believe that the pi 3 can hold to a better overclock then 1400 and I mean I think it can be pushed to 2000 but I need to get a 5.1 v 3000 or 3500 ma power supply and the only ones I have found are in china and shipping is going to take 2-3 weeks till I have one in my hand unless I try to build one from scratch. Heat just has not been a problem with proper heatsinks applied properly and active fan cooling.

Why not just go for something like this instead?

5V 10A switching power supply
MicroUSB to 5.5/2.1mm DC Barrel Jack Adapter

Twitch0815

@Rion
Absolutely worth a try

Think just a normal laptop power supply would work with the 1.95 adapter sure if it was 5v switching it would probably work.
Awesome man thanks I appreciate it giving me somewhere to go with the power problem.

mrbwa1

Laptop power supply bricks can be a bit finicky. I have a 12V 5A one for my Lipo battery charger and it gets hot when charging 32 batteries at the 2-2.5 amp settings.

I would be tempted to go for this design for heat dissipation reasons:

http://www.amazon.com/uxcell-AC110-Switching-Supply-Adapter/dp/B0076UJZX0

Might have to cut and strip an old usb cord to get the power to the Pi

Zigurana

@mrbwa1

I have something very similar to that one (5A version) and it works like a charm. The adjustable voltage is nice, as the pi likes to get a bit more than 5.0V, (mine is at 5.2V).
It puts out no noticable heat.

dankcushions

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

@Riverstorm said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

Ok, thanks guys. I am going to leave it at the default. Funny thing is when I changed it through the raspi-config tool it did nothing as the default entries where overriding it to 256.

yeah, the default in raspian is for these gpu_mem_X overrides to not be set (see https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md) so the raspi-config tool would normally work fine.

however, i think retropie has these defaults to create a sensible split for the different pi models. see https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/490

fixed! https://github.com/RPi-Distro/raspi-config/issues/24
not sure if an apt-get update would grab this but i guess it'll find its way into the next Retropie release, at which point we should update the wiki again to get rid of my warning

mrbwa1

@dankcushions said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

fixed! https://github.com/RPi-Distro/raspi-config/issues/24
not sure if an apt-get update would grab this but i guess it'll find its way into the next Retropie release, at which point we should update the wiki again to get rid of my warning

I rad an update and dist-upgrade, but no change yet. Also did an update on raspi-config.

I'm thinking it will take a few days or another release before this is completely live.

Riverstorm

@dankcushions said

fixed! https://github.com/RPi-Distro/raspi-config/issues/24
not sure if an apt-get update would grab this but i guess it'll find its way into the next Retropie release, at which point we should update the wiki again to get rid of my warning

Nice Dank, showing them the error of their ways! ;) That will be one less thing to check when doing a new setup from scratch.

loganmc10

This seems like overkill/overthinking to me, this would provide pretty much the same results, but much simpler:

arm_freq=1350 (or 1400 if you like)
over_voltage=4
gpu_freq=500

There is no need to set "temp_limit" to 80, the default is 85.

over_voltage=6 is "right next" to voiding your warranty, a value of 4 seems to work ok.

core_freq=500
h264_freq=333
avoid_pwm_pll=1
v3d_freq=500

^^This can all be replaced with "gpu_freq=500" for the same result

We've already determined that "gpu_mem=450" does nothing.

I guess I'm not sure if RAM overclock makes much of a difference since I haven't tested it much, but I doubt it would.

Riverstorm

@loganmc10 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

This seems like overkill/overthinking to me, this would provide pretty much the same results, but much simpler:

arm_freq=1350 (or 1400 if you like)
over_voltage=4
gpu_freq=500

Ok I am going to give it go and see how it holds up. I didn't do well on the Pi lottery and I can't any of mine to boot above 1350 anyway.

2stick

Semi OT here, but hoping someone can help me out since this seems to be the most active thread devoted to overclocking. ---

In preparation of OC'ing, I'm using the same case that Twitch linked earlier in the thread, and I bought the Addicore heatsinks from Amazon. However I didn't realize that they were designed for an older model of the Pi (I have the Pi3) so either of the "big" chips won't have a heatsink on them if I use them. Since they're only 5 bucks, am I better off just ordering another set to get one more "big" heatsink so I can have all three chips covered? Or will having two of the chips 'sinked suffice? Obviously having all of the chips covered is optimal. I'm just wondering if it's actually necessary.

Also, I'm gonna apply the heatsinks using MX-4 Thermal Compound. Will the heatsink on the underside of the Pi stick enough with the MX-4, or am I better off using the sticker that it comes with?