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Topic: Open Source

Raspberry Pi gets turbo-charged with overclocking update

Summary: A firmware upgrade to the Raspberry Pi will now support overclocking of the processor, gaining a 50-percent performance boost, the Raspberry Pi Foudation has said.

Jon Yeomans

By |

Owners of the Raspberry Pi mini-computer are now able to get a roughly 50 percent performance improvement  by overclocking the processor, the creator of the device announced on Wednesday.

Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi Image: Raspberry Pi

A firmware upgrade to the popular Debian Linux-based device means that users can now choose one of five overclock presets in the system's configuration, without voiding their warranty. Previously, such tinkering was possible but invalidated the Raspberry Pi's warranty over fears it might decrease the lifetime of the BCM2835 chip.

"We are happy that the combination of only applying turbo when busy, and limiting turbo when the BCM2835′s internal temperature reaches 85°C, means there will be no measurable reduction in the lifetime of your Raspberry Pi," Eben Upton, the Raspberry Pi's designer, wrote in a blog post.

According to Upton, running the Pi with 1GHz turbo enabled results in 52 percent faster performance on integer, 64 percent faster on floating point and 55 percent faster on memory.

Other new features in the firmware upgrade include a widget to tell users how close their device is getting to 85°C, Wi-Fi support out of the box, and improved analogue audio.

The new features were given thumbs up by Raspberry Pi fans. "This is really awesome news. So much stuff to test and report back on!" said forum member Steve.

The Raspberry Pi has caught computing fans' imaginations since its launch in February. Recent creations based on the £25 device include a supercomputer-like cluster and a voice-controlled robot arm.

Topics: Open Source, Linux

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3 comments
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  • Never ceases to amaze me......

    How something new comes out and the first thing everyone wants is to overclock it. I can only imagine the Pi just grunting, huffing and puffing trying to keep up! Pretty soon, overclocking won't be fast enough. I'll be a dollar that pretty soon, an upgrade will be released, faster still.
    Charles_B
    Reply Vote

    • Simple overclock benchmark of Raspberry Pi turbo mode

      Well the good thing about this is that you can now overclock on the same board without voiding the warranty, and considering that the board isn't exactly over powered anything extra you can get out of it is of great use.

      You can get an idea of the additional increase from the simple update here:

      http://www.rootusers.com/raspberry-pi-turbo-mode-for-increased-performance/
      jardeath
      Reply Vote

    • Once upon a time

      Only geeks knew that processor manufacturers actually throttle back their hardware, and knew how to tinker it.

      I believe there was a bit of a furore about them selling faulty ones that wouldnt run at full speed this way, so they are sold as a guaranteed minimum speed now, and everyone knows they are capable of more, and with luck, a lot more.

      'Overclock Level' has been an option in most BIOS firmwares for PC for a long long time now, which puts it into a comfortable zone for the average power user at least.
      SiO2
      Reply Vote
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