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

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?

dankcushions

@2stick only the central die on the top of the board is worth cooling. that's the CPU + GPU. the chip on the back is the ram and might be worth cooling but ram can normally cope with quite high temps so ...

2stick

@dankcushions Awesome, thanks for the quick reply.

Twitch0815

@2stick
I cool em all in a pack of 3 I just use one of the smaller chips on the big core on the bottom and its fine since I overclock to 588 on ram
I actually pull some larger heatsinks from scrapped gamecubes and use those on the main cpu so I have a big chip left over for the bottom core.
But its overkill in terms of cooling as long as you have a big chip on the main cpu and active cooling you are good. Additionally I recommend getting Thermal Epoxy especially for the under chip you dont have to worry about any chips falling off. Don't use the default sticky adhesive that comes with them they provide virtually zero heat transfer capabilities.

@loganmc10
over_voltage 6 just has not provided any problem and given better performance wether its next to the warranty bit or not it does not set it. running with 4 and 1400 has given me the rainbow square .

I set the temp_limit under just to be cautious since I am being a little aggressive on the overclock

You can do gpu_freq but prefer setting each individually it just tells me exactly what I am doing and if I change something its easy to do it per variale.

gpu_mem may not do anything in what you are doing but it has given better rendering on high texture packs

And the ram overclock definitely does make a difference on n64, PSP, Dreamcast been testing it over a month

Twitch0815

Small update

I wired up a laptop power supply 5.2volts 8000 ma
Definitely solves all the power problems

Overclocking gains I have gotten to stably are
arm _freq 1425
v3d_freq 525
core_freq 550

But anything past that and it goes unstable, sometimes I can ssh in sometimes I cannot
yet heat does not seem to be the issue. Going to have to keep messing with over_voltage but until some of the extreme overclockers get to it, like the guys who got pi 2's up to 2ghz think its hitting the soft ceiling.

Prindle19

Asking this again since it got buried:

How do you get the hotkeys working in mupen64plus without running the libreto / retroarch config'ed version?

(For exit, save, load state, etc.?)

Riverstorm

@Prindle19 said in How to use Overclock and Mupen Core Options to significantly increase 64 game playability, quality, and stability:

Asking this again since it got buried:

How do you get the hotkeys working in mupen64plus without running the libreto / retroarch config'ed version?

(For exit, save, load state, etc.?)

Take a look at this file:

/opt/retropie/configs/n64/mupen64plus.cfg

To exit it would be something like this

# Joystick event string for stopping the emulator
Joy Mapping Stop = "J0B8,J1B8"

The J0 is the joystick and the B8 is the button. It also indicates joystick 1 button 8 may be used to exit the emulator.

Check here for more information on syntax. I don't know if you can do them all I haven't looked through everything in mupen64plus.cfg.

http://mupen64plus.org/wiki/index.php?title=Mupen64Plus_Core_Parameters

After doing a quick scan through the page you can do most of them via joystick and keyboard.

Riverstorm

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

Don't use the default sticky adhesive that comes with them they provide virtually zero heat >transfer capabilities.

I don't know if that's completely true maybe they are not quite as good as a thermal epoxy. I've used the thermal tape (ordered a thermal sheet off eBay for a few dollars) with no issues. I use a MM sized ruler for the straight edge and razor to cut perfect sized squares for my heatsinks.

The main heatsink is definitely hot (official finger test ;) and with a fan I level off around 50C with all the overclock settings in place. Without anything I level off roughly around 70 to 72C. If the heatsinks come with thermal tape in place I have no issue using it.

By the way thanks for the link on the case it works really well and the extra room under the board that allows for a heatsink on the memory chip is a bonus.

I know some argue against using any heatsinks (especially the 1 and 2) but regardless of the merits I look the look and it really doesn't hurt anything. :)

I don't think these tape numbers where to bad but never as good as thermal grease. Grease just beats tape hands down. Also long term the tape is going to break down too. Tape is good for extreme high heat for short periods of time (hours-days) and low to moderate heat (weeks-months). I think usage per day would also be a factor. I have never had to replace the tape though. My typical usage completely outlasts the Pi life. As it looks like the Pi cycle is going to be yearly or so?

I guess for a full size desktop I would never think of using tape but for the Pi it just seems like a good fit.

Thermal Conductivity             0.60 W/m-K‎
Thermal Impedance‎	         0.48 (Degree C)-in²/W‎
Thermal Impedance (metric)‎	 3.1 (Degree C)-cm²/W‎

2stick

^ Imo thermal epoxy is a bit overkill. I used Arctic MX-4 thermal paste for mine (what you used is fine also). Very easy to clean/remove if needed. With thermal epoxy they're "glued" together forever. And the temperature differences are negligible between epoxy and pastes/tape.

As far as the original adhesive on the heatsinks, it most definitely doesn't offer any heat transfer (on the Addicore 3-pack that most people seem to use, at least). So it's definitely in your best interest to strip it off and use some real thermal interface material.