Overlocking Temps

Drdave79

I've read a lot of posts here and elsewhere and honestly can't seem to find a consistent answer on "safe" overlocking temperatures. I've got a Raspberry Pi 4 with a basic case with heatsink and fan. Nothing advanced.

I use sysbench --num-threads=8 --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run to test temp.

Before making any changes, idle runs around 50c. Running the test gets me to around 58c.

I changed the config file as follows:
over_voltage=6
arm_freq=1500
gpu_freq=750

After that, idle ran around 57c. And the test ran as high as 69c when the test ended.

Is 69c or so still safe to run consistently? Or do I really need to invest in a better cooled case? IF your answer is yes, I need a better case, I would like recommendations that aren't loud please.

Thank you all very much!

Darksavior

@Drdave79 The pi4 starts to throttle at 80C and then even more at the max of 85C so you're safe.

With a heatsink and a fan you can set the arm_freq to 2000. The latest pi4 models are underclocked. The Bullseye os will auto overclock those to 1800. Retropie is still on Buster so you'll have to wait for that feature.

I bought some ugly looking geeekpi case with a fan at amazon for $11. It went into my dead snes case so I won't see it. It has the largest fan I could find for the pi which was 40mm and that seems quiet to me.

retropieuser555

@Drdave79 for what it's worth I'm at:-

over_voltage=6
arm_freq=2000
gpu_freq=750

This is with passive cooling heatsinks only, no fan. I've found the temp doesn't increase too much, even n64 games that cause slowdowns on the system; they don't seem to increase the temp very much or run the pi at it's max CPU. I think it's where the gpu is the bottleneck. I can imagine there's other programs within RetroPie that help with an overclock but there doesn't seem to be many that'll push the temp too high. At least that's my experience so far

barbudreadmon

@retropieuser555 said in Overlocking Temps:

even n64 games that cause slowdowns on the system; they don't seem to increase the temp very much or run the pi at it's max CPU. I think it's where the gpu is the bottleneck

A pi2's cpu could probably handle n64 emulation if it wasn't for the gpu bottleneck.

If you want to test cpu stability/capability, you should probably use higher-end games on arcade emulators (cv1k, segas32, ...), or maybe one of the higher-end console emulator (mesen with texture packs, ...)

Drdave79

@Darksavior Very interesting. So the general consensus is under 80c and no risk to burning out the board? Like I said, I have a pretty basic case with a heatsink and fan. A lot of the ones I've seen look fancy but I think do the same thing for our purposes.

Drdave79

Is this ideal for a fully overclocked Pi4?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZV1LLWK/?coliid=I307Y8RD925SZE&colid=TB7A2E3H72IF&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

paired with

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085HFTMB1/?coliid=I3HZ9N5F177BET&colid=TB7A2E3H72IF&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Darksavior

@Drdave79 As I said, the pi will throttle itself to prevent damage.

Anything with a fan will be fine. If you care for noise and want it to look nicer, you can spend a bit more on an argon one v2 case. It's a heatsink case with a fan but you can set up the fan to turn on when it hits a certain temp. It comes with directions on how to set up the script.

Drdave79

@Darksavior Thanks Darksavior. Going to overclock it and try it out for a bit. I appreciate the insight!