How do I overclock my RPi 4 safely, and does it void my warranty?

[HJAST101]

So I've heard from some places that overclocking does void your warranty, and I've heard from others that it doesn't as long as you don't do certain things (like editing the "force_turbo" setting in the config.txt file), so does it void my warranty or not? And how do I overclock it without voiding the warranty?

[dom]

The "warranty" bit was added as a way of pacifying suppliers who were nervous that allowing overclock may result in a large number of dead Pi's being returned. But since the first Pi was released we've never seen a Pi that appears to have died through overclocking.

We don't even set the bit on Pi 4, so feel free to experiment. Obviously too high an overclock may make a Pi unstable and crash.
Don't do it on a Pi with valuable data on it without a backup.

The benefits of overclocking newer Pi models is much less than on the original Pi 1, as the default speed is so much greater.

[jahboater]

Here are some stable settings from my Pi4's /boot/config.txt:

Code: Select all

#over_voltage=2
#arm_freq=1800

over_voltage=5
arm_freq=2000

#over_voltage=6
#arm_freq=2100

All three speeds work fine and are confirmed stable with stress tests, but I stick with the 500MHz overclock (the un-commented value) to leave a safety margin.

If the Pi boots but is unstable, just edit the config.txt file and try again.
If the Pi fails to boot, then you need another computer (probably the one you used to flash the SD card) to fix the config.txt file in the boot folder.

Stress test the overclocked Pi carefully before trusting it for critical work!

[dbrion06]

If a RPi gets too hot, it gets slower... I bet this mechanism works with overclocked Pis?
Only remaining risk is data corruption on the SD...
BTW: a RPI B4 is two times faster than my desktop PC (one core tasks were compared on both sides...)

[jahboater]

If a RPi gets too hot, it gets slower... I bet this mechanism works with overclocked Pis?

Yes it does. That's how the Pi protects itself.

Add a heatsink to maintain full speed by keeping it cool (below 80C).
These work well and are very cheap:
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/heatsinks/7500951/

Only remaining risk is data corruption on the SD...

Stress test the overclock carefully before use.
Once you are certain the Pi is completely stable, you have nothing to worry about (apart from shutting the Pi down cleanly of course - as usual).

BTW: a RPI B4 is two times faster than my desktop PC (one core tasks were compared on both sides...)

Try the same benchmark at 2100MHz

[Seeking Sooth]

If you worry enough to ask this question, I suggest you ignore overclocking. It won't make a big difference and you will have one less reason to worry.

The people who make the RPi know what they're doing. Trust them.

The benefits of overclocking newer Pi models is much less than on the original Pi 1, as the default speed is so much greater.

[jahboater]

It won't make a big difference.

Going from 1.5GHz to 2.1GHz (say) seems quite a big difference to me?

[HJAST101]

Sorry I'm late to replying, but I ran into a problem (viewtopic.php?f=28&t=283929&p=1719327#p1718900). I have an adequate cooling solution (Argon 1 case), so it seems I can overclock it. Thanks.

[Botspot]

The benefits of overclocking newer Pi models is much less than on the original Pi 1, as the default speed is so much greater.

I'd like more details on that please.

The more powerful a computer is, the more demanding of work will be placed on it. For example, you wouldn't expect a Pi1 to run Facebook very well, but you may expect that from a Pi4. And overclocking would certainly noticeable, wouldn't it?

From personal experience, I've seen a huge performance jump when I started overclocking my Pi4. Not so much when running commands in a terminal, but more in browsing (bloated) websites, using Libreoffice to draw graphs from 10,000+ data points, scratch programs, etc.

[HJAST101]

Okay, so I overclocked to these settings and I've seen a noticeable difference in heavy browser usage, and setting a higher gpu_mem really improves watching YouTube videos, especially with Chromium (Media Edition).

Code: Select all

over_voltage=6
arm_freq=2000
gpu_freq=650
gpu_mem=512

[jamesh]

512 is probably unnecessarily high - you probably get away with 256 on the Pi4 running FKMS with no loss of performance.

[HJAST101]

512 is probably unnecessarily high - you probably get away with 256 on the Pi4 running FKMS with no loss of performance.

You're right, but I don't use much RAM, so I was a bit generous with it. Also, what's FKMS?

[Botspot]

Also, what's FKMS?

FKMS is a graphics driver that allows for hardware acceleration. If it's disabled, Chromium has very bad video playback performance, and CPU usage stays around 100%.
It's supposed to be enabled by default on Buster, but to check, run this command:

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config

Navigate using the arrow keys and Enter: Advanced options -> GL Driver -> GL (Fake KMS) -> OK -> Finish.

You can also check for other graphics issues by opening Chromium and going to this site: chrome://gpu
It should look like this:

Graphics Feature Status
Canvas: Hardware accelerated
Flash: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D: Hardware accelerated
Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Hardware accelerated
Compositing: Hardware accelerated
Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Out-of-process Rasterization: Disabled
Hardware Protected Video Decode: Unavailable
Rasterization: Software only. Hardware acceleration disabled
Skia Renderer: Disabled
Video Decode: Unavailable
Viz Display Compositor: Enabled
Viz Hit-test Surface Layer: Disabled
WebGL: Hardware accelerated
WebGL2: Hardware accelerated

You will have very bad performance if Canvas, Compositing, WebGL, or WebGL2 are not green. (and yes, if FKMS is disabled those entries will turn red)

[HJAST101]

Thanks.

[luckyluca]

The "warranty" bit was added as a way of pacifying suppliers who were nervous that allowing overclock may result in a large number of dead Pi's being returned. But since the first Pi was released we've never seen a Pi that appears to have died through overclocking.

We don't even set the bit on Pi 4, so feel free to experiment. Obviously too high an overclock may make a Pi unstable and crash.
Don't do it on a Pi with valuable data on it without a backup.

The benefits of overclocking newer Pi models is much less than on the original Pi 1, as the default speed is so much greater.

First of all Merry Christmas.
I was wondering if the Warranty bit is also not set on the pi400. p.s. Revision currently shows c03130, so I suppose the bit is not set?

Thanks!