How Do You Overclock?

[legaleye3000]

I saw someone said they overclocked their phone... Are there any disadvantages?

How do you do it? Thanks

[simms22]

there are apps on the market for that .... but you need to be rooted . open overclocker is free and works great !
advantages ? ---- its awesome , my phone runs much smoother , a lot more responsive .....
disadvantage ? havent found one yet . i assumed it would affect battery life , but it really hasnt .
hope that helps some

[simms22]

from what i hear , its technically not "overclocking" . its changing the frequency of the processer . its set at 384mhz high and 248 low . i set mine to 528mhz high and 248 low . htc rated the processer at 528mhz .

[extorian]

Yes - there is a real risk of you damaging your phone. Please see my, and other people's comments on page 3 of this thread which already discusses this issue: http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f...19/index3.html

In short, while he PROCESSOR is designed to run at higher clock speeds, it's designed to do so in a completely different environment (such as in a metal box, with a heatsink and fan). As the G1 has zero cooling (no heatsinks, no fans, just a nice insulating plastic body to keep it warm) there is a real risk of heat damage.

To overclock your phone, you need a rooted phone (i.e. root access), then you can either edit a specific file yourself that dictated the clock speed, or there's an app on the market to do it for you.

Aside from the risks of damage to your phone, the gain is mostly in people's heads. The phone is RARELY CPU locked, and is usually IO locked. What this means is that most lag or slowness in the phone is called by reading or writing data to/from memory, graphics, or SD card, and NOT by the processor being slow or maxed out.

This can be seen in benchmarks people have performed before and after overclocking. People who run computational benchmarks get an increase in peformance that almost matches the increase in clock speed (i.e. a 30% increase in clock speed gives a near 30% increase in the benchmarks), but people performing benchmarks that involve graphics, read/writing, or large amounts of memory (as is much more typical of Android apps), only show around a 10th of the overall increase. It's really not worth it.

[legaleye3000]

If you do a "wipe", do you need to redo the overclock or no? Thanks

[DaYuMu6ft7]

It's also an app called "SetCPU & Overclock" for $.99

[navyredman]

Well the overclocking may damage your phone but if you set the phone to underclock while sleeping it increases battery life SIGNIFICANTLY. My phone stayed charged for 48 hours with light use. I drop my frequency to 128 during sleep mode

[legaleye3000]

I just downloaded SetCPU. I put max to 528 and min to 128. Is that the best way to go? Thanks. Since I JUST got the phone yesterday, I can't really tell about batt life, but performance seems to be the same so far...

[louie875]

In short, while he PROCESSOR is designed to run at higher clock speeds, it's designed to do so in a completely different environment (such as in a metal box, with a heatsink and fan). As the G1 has zero cooling (no heatsinks, no fans, just a nice insulating plastic body to keep it warm) there is a real risk of heat damage.

not intending to undermine you, but this processor is designed for phones........ hence it doesn't need a fan or heat sync......

[extorian]

Well, two points I'd like to make in response to that...

Firstly, the processor is designed for wireless communications use, data connectivity, and graphics, but these features are not also useful in things like small notebooks, for example. Some iPaqs use this processor.

Secondly, the processor produces more heat, and requires more power, then running at the higher clock speed. The battery usage is a moot point because while it does use more power, it performs faster so takes less time to do whatever it's trying to do, so it's using more power for less time, if that makes sense. Now, remember that HTC decided to reduce the clock speed for a reason. If they could run the processor at full speed, given that battery life is not really an issue, they would.

So why didn't they? Well, the additional heat and power is important for two reasons:

1) The power is supplied through VERY thin tracks on the board.

2) The CPU already produces a LOT of heat when loaded.

Ok, so I didn't design the phone, nor work on its development, so I am just speculating. But think - why WOULD they reduce the clock speed (given battery life is not the reason) unless there was some reason for it? Perhaps the power lines were burning out? Perhaps the heat disipation isn't enough and the CPU is burning out. Perhaps it's damaging the battery or other components that don't like heat. Perhaps phones were heating up so much they could cause injury.

For an average performance increase that isn't actually noticable in the majority of situations, is it really worth assuming you (not you specifically, but "you" as in anyone who wants to overclock their G1) know more about the phones design limits than HTC who obviously slowed down the CPU for a reason? Do you really want to risk breaking your phone or injuring yourself?