Overclocking Raspberry Pi 5 to 3.14 GHz on Pi Day

[@JeffGeerling]

Happy Pi Day! And 314 day, where I'm from ;) Has anyone else gotten a stable overclock past 3.14 GHz yet? I could run at 3.2, but couldn't finish a benchmark!

[@lance862]

God damn dude that is not how you put thermal paste on :). I've built many computers and I'll give you some tips though I recognize you wanted to keep your hands clean especially while shooting a video. You want the absolute minimum that it takes to cover the whole surface without any spilling over the sides when you install the heatsink so the best way to do it is to start out like you did with a drop but just get grounded and get dirty and use your finger to spread it across the heat spreader (there are tools but those tools don't have thousands of nerve endings in them). The goal is to fill out all the gaps at the microscopic layer the metal is basically a bunch of mountains and valleys and you want to fill in the valleys with paste but you don't want to bury the peaks. Take any excess off with your finger you just need a thin coating across the spreader then put a light brushing on the heatsink but not nearly as much since the thin coating on the heat spreader is nearly enough once they're pressed together (just filling in the deepest gaps but not quite to the peaks, I usually just try to use the excess still on my finger this should not be as much as is on the cpu). You want there to be just enough to fill out the valleys on both metal surfaces but not have any spill over the sides when you press them together (or at least only a tiny amount, a glob at the edge can trap heat). This is especially important with silver based thermal compounds that can short out pins on the sides of the chip (chip specific).

[@scarecrow5848]

@@lance862 thermal paste amount does not matter, as long as you have enough to cover the processor, no matter what kind of processor. it only matters if its liquid metal, which he did not use.

[@joaocordeiro198]

You can do: watch "command_one;command_two" for 2 commands or even: watch "command|grep 'l33t'"

[@jonathanbutler6635]

I got mine to 3.4 run at 3.4 and it was fairly stable. But I delidded the cpu (I would not recommend for most but if you want to risk it be careful) and used the water cooler to kick heat away as fast as possible to make sure I didn’t run into any problems while testing. But I had to test a few pi’s that I bought at various times and places to find one that could go past 3.1ghz.

[@JeffGeerling]

@@jonathanbutler6635 Have you been able to get a full Geekbench run (or any other benches)? It seems like some of the stuff in those tests triggers blocks that get quite unstable past 3.0/3.1 :( It'd be cool to see if we can find any patterns to which Pis get up to exotic clocks and run well!

[@kevinmcaleer28]

3.14Ghz - you win Pi Day Jeff!!

[@JeffGeerling]

Hehe, there's still a few hours left, if you want to try 3.2 or 3.3! :)

[@four-pixels]

try 3.141592 Ghz

[@shahriar0247]

What about 3.1415-92-65359?

[@grubbyga7601]

Its the Pi number. 🤣

[@DavidParathyras]

Yeap, thus the pi day

[@antonisautos8704]

I doubt the firmware is able to get that precise. A fun thought though

[@GermanMythbuster]

​@@antonisautos8704At that many decimal places clock stability gets more of the problem 😄 Even the CPU heating up the board and there fore the crystal oscillator would have significant effects on the clock signal.

[@michaelhopcroft6972]

its always nice to see you enjoying yourself and bringing fun to our screens. i'm 80 this year but still love playing with my pi, I remember the first computer I worked with, no hard drive just two 5.25 floppy drives. Thanks

[@k.c.sunshine1934]

To error is human, to *pi* *on* *pi-day* *is* *sublime.*

[@AJB2K3]

Sub lime? Surly you mean Sub Raspberry?

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

@@AJB2K3 Subpi

[@travisholt92]

The short amount of time you spent editing this together is amazing. Less than 2 hours?! Wow. Phenomenal video too!

[@JeffGeerling]

I definitely cut some corners in the process, left a bit more uncut footage in there than usual! But I do like mixing it up, it's a bit more like 'watch while I'm doing it' versus 'I did this and here's what happened'!

[@Defianthuman]

@@JeffGeerling I think that "watch while I'm doing it" is better than the "I did this and here's what happened" videos. Just my opinion. Great video!

[@ClericChris]

@2:13 You put on such a brave face when struggling with your debilitating disability. Those of us healthy should be thankful to you, you do a good job at bringing the struggles of being disabled to those of us abled enough to do manual tasks without the crippling disadvantage of being a left handed mutant. Bless your brave soul. Never let them tell you "you can't". 😊

[@JeffGeerling]

Ha!

[@XciterD]

INJECT VOLTAGE, BYPASS THE VOLTAGE CONTROLLER :D

[@cabbose2552]

my gpu rn

[@susannerudolph8469]

thats ... you are gonna burn your pi faster than an actual pie in an oven

[@2Fingz75]

@@susannerudolph8469ez 2v in watercooling 🥸

[@TheBackyardChemist]

@@susannerudolph8469people have done external power to break world records with 780Ti-s and 980Tis, it is not that unusual for extreme overclocking

[@elikirkwood4580]

Buildzoidmaxing

[@AndersHass]

You surely got this video up quickly. KZbin algorithm did luckily recommend the other one first before this one, lol.

[@shapelessed]

I remember my PI 4. I went the ultimate DIY route, and made the cooler myself from aluminium sheetmetal welded to a copper block. It cooled amazingly, compared to many market solutions. The PI died 6 months into the warranty, in the middle of the shortage. They repaid me the pre-shortage price. Yey.

[@shanent5793]

How did you weld aluminum to copper?

[@realcartoongirl]

so what country so good let you refund

[@oliverer3]

​@shanent5793 Perhaps they meant brazing? As far as I know the only welding that works on copper and aluminium is friction welding.

[@virtualtools_3021]

@@oliverer3explosive welding too

[@shanent5793]

@@oliverer3 probably, though sometimes people manage to DIY some advanced techniques. Diffusion bonding is another way to stick dissimilar metals together

[@JessicaFEREM]

2:10 usually you can just use a closed or taken apart ballpoint pen housing to get those white nubs out.

[@JeffGeerling]

Ooh good idea! And less chance of gouging the board!

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

@@JeffGeerling I use a socket small enough to compress and push the clips in, kinda like the ballpoint trick. Difference is it works with many different size clips of that style.

[@buckykattnj]

Yep. Been using the venerable Bic Biro housing since the '80s for those... perfect size.

[@kahnzo]

Thanks Jeff. I was supposed to be on a flight right now but Denver International Airport had a snow day. Very entertaining!

[@NicoDsSBCs]

Nice to see. I didn't know I won the silicon lottery. Mine does 3Ghz fine and 1125Mhz GPU OC, I'll have to try this to see how far it will go.

[@JeffGeerling]

Woah nice! You did win.

[@ivankyurkchiev7374]

@@JeffGeerling I tried mine. 3250MHz CPU and 1150MHz GPU stable. Boots at 3350/1150, but it is unstable.

[@blackmennewstyle]

It's never about the size Jeff, it's about the heat-pipe design they selected for that lovely tiny cooler ;)

[@michaelbauers8800]

"Some of you won't survive overclocking, but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make" :) Glad it didn't fail.

[@RealEngineer]

Two videos in a day? What a treat 🎉

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Diet Pepsi > Diet Coke. Sorry not sorry.

[@JeffGeerling]

Haha, I am with you there-Diet Coke comes in third behind Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Pepsi. Something's up with Diet Coke, I feel like it used to be better.

[@philemonzz]

Diet coke doesn't have any sweeteners, unlike coke zero which has aspartame, which makes it taste worse (in my opinion) than other drinks

[@culan_SCP]

Original of both > diet if both

[@redmach12003]

Thoroughly enjoyed this video, Jeff. Keep up the great work, my friend.

[@tonyscaminaci7959]

Great video Jeff! As an avid overclocker myself, I couldn’t get beyond 2.8 GHz with the default firmware but I’m fine with it. I need stability as the Pi 5 is my DNS server and will soon be my OpenVPN Access Server as well.

[@rpdom]

Thanks for that Jeff. Previously I hadn't tried my Pi 5 at more than 2750MHz with no overvolt. I've added the over_volt_delta and used the unlocked firmware and it's now running at 3100MHz with a simple 100% CPU load. Standard case fan with the lid off and around 63°C. I'll be doing some video editing on it later. Then I might see how high it will go.

[@zebop917]

I’ve said this before Jeff. It’s great that you do these things so that we don’t have to 😀

[@JeffGeerling]

I will glady risk my Pi 5 for your enjoyment! :D

[@Sajjad.A]

There's no better way to celebrate Pi day than to run a Pi at 3.14 GHz clocking speed. At this point, it can replace my PC.

[@alexlandherr]

I find it strangely enjoyable that SBCs are so powerful we “need” tower coolers now.

[@JeffGeerling]

Hehe not quite 'need' :)

[@garsonthedude]

On the other hand, there are some more powerful you can run with passive cooling (RK3588S).

[@colonelfustercluck486]

seems to keep the Temperature down well enough. I think I would go for needing them compared to the usual hobbyist heat sink and fan. Particularly in a warm environment

[@Kane0123]

This fan size immediately made me think of those people who put a giant wing on the back of their Hyundai Xcel

[@colonelfustercluck486]

actually with the power of his heat sink fan, I thought it was lucky he didn't have wings on it..... it may have taken off !!

[@henkdevries5042]

Amazing job Jeff! Happy PI day!

[@coarse_snad]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that enjoys a good chuckle when I see jiffies in a kernel oops 😅

[@pompomaddons]

next challenge for next years pi day, print as many numbers as you can when overlocking

[@JeffGeerling]

Heh, get the Pi 5 Pi Day challenge record!

[@pompomaddons]

@@JeffGeerlingif i can get a pi 5 😭😭

[@prince3121]

Cool Video. Thanx for always pushing the limits, so we can all learn about new things in the Pi community. And Happy belated Pi Day to you too! 🤣

[@Ben79k]

this was the best pi day celebration ive seen this year. bravo

[@Coderjo.]

Those "corrupted" characters during boot were almost certainly not because of the overclock, as they show up on the first default boot at 5:22. I think it might be an ellipsis character that the console character set doesn't have a glyph for. Console lines at that point and above are all short, whereas below that they get longer, like the console video mode was changed at that point.

[@hisamiyomotsu1337]

:3 no problem jeff (it's me, the guy who made the issue)

[@JeffGeerling]

Haha thank you for posting it! Now post one on open sourcing the firmware haha.

[@hisamiyomotsu1337]

@@JeffGeerling LOL will try (i have yet to test the patched firmware but if i do ill be breaking the 1000 mark in geekbench :))

[@IanLantz]

This might be a dumb question; is there any way to bypass the 1V rail to the CPU, maybe by cutting trace on the board and hooking it to an external DC power supply? Or perhaps do something like the shunt mods they perform on GPUs to bypass voltage limits? Or are all the voltages generated on the SoC itself?

[@JeffGeerling]

That's a good question, and something I didn't look into. It sounds like this limit *might* also be able to be lifted in firmware... but maybe not.

[@SuperBuker]

It is possible on the RPi B. I directly fed the processor of a V2.0 using a Keysight $1k high precision generator borrowed from the university. The HWBot Prime score Jabatrox and I set that day will certainly remain as the best in "air" cooling. It's quite possible that this technique can also be done in the RPi 5, we need the schematics. Another big problem is finding a fine tunnable generator.

[@JeffGeerling]

I like this train of thought :) @@SuperBuker

[@panjak323]

What's the point of overclocking this CPU ?

[@kevinj24535]

Maybe you could also use a board like Elmor Labs EVC to change the voltage, as is done with current graphics cards. If there is a possibility to solder the wires to the raspberry pi 5 so that the EVC can communicate with the voltage controller via l2C or another interface.

[@GTDragonGaming]

Cooler on the board ❌ board on the cooler ✔️

[@DarrylAdams]

Pi day is now renamed Geerling Day!

[@mk500]

It was nice of you to let Red Shirt Jeff take over the channel for a day.

[@mikeburch2998]

I learned a lot. Thank you for the experiment. Greetings from Arizona.

[@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim]

the 314th day of the year should be pie day second edition 😂

[@g3n3r1c6]

15:26 we all love seeing the numbers go up, and the Pi go up (in flames)

[@JaytheGreen]

wow here i was impressed with myself getting a celeron n5105 quad core to run at 3.2ghz

[@waynewilliamson4212]

another cool video. I'm also one of those yyyymmdd guys, it just makes sorting things so much easier(I also tend to follow with hhmmss)..

[@LeeSmith-cf1vo]

8:46 - It happened on the first (2.4Ghz) boot too

[@SLCA46]

For the plastic standoff retainer (the plastic you squeeze with needle nose) use a small nut driver the diameter of the compressed tabs. Shove the nut driver over like you were going to remove a nut. The socket will push the retaining tabs in when you slide it in. So much easier than needle nose. If this makes no sense let me know I will send pics.

[@StormWarningMom]

Best Pi day video! Excellent way to celebrate 🥳 🥧

[@Dqrnan]

Thank you. Great show and info. I like the date format I learned in the USMC, for chronological organization YYMMDD; it will keep files in order of the date.

[@AndersHass]

Makes sense to start with years as that is the most significant

[@JeffGeerling]

Easy for filesystem sorting :)

[@robbybobbyhobbies]

8601 is the one true date format for that reason.

[@andrewknowles55]

Nice work Jeff, what a guy

[@hummel6364]

does raspberry release board schematics? Cause y'know if you could sever the trace that supplies power to the chip you could solder your own power supply to it, say 1.05V instead of just 1V

[@JeffGeerling]

This... is a fun suggestion.

[@Saturate0806]

oh no...

[@patricktocher6653]

Damn, someone has beaten you score Jeff, by 5 points with a 3.2ghz clock!

[@JeffGeerling]

Haha I noticed that this morning! (browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/5312673) - looks like that was a 4 GB model, and it could have memory that's *just* so slightly faster, accounting for that difference. Would love to see someone hit 3.3 GHz stable.

[@MrRanger1964]

Ah, Pi Day (only in the U.S.), I've still got my WD Pi Day hard drive. Got it running Home Assisitant at the moment.

[@JeffGeerling]

I still wish I had bought one of those WD drives, 314 GB, right?

[@tomstech4390]

Ah, 4th of July coming up (only in the rest of the world).

[@MrRanger1964]

Yup, 314 GB@@JeffGeerling

[@psyolent.]

love your work as always jeff. look after yourself matey you don't sound yourself.

[@JeffGeerling]

Been fighting a cold then ear infection for a few weeks. It's just annoying at this point, been on some medication and hopefully it'll clear up by the end of March!

[@psyolent.]

@@JeffGeerlinglook after yourself bud

[@MegaKrustyman]

"...until next time, I'm Jeff Geerling." I keep waiting for the name to change, but next time he's always STILL Jeff Geerling! Happy Pi day Jeff. 😀

[@jimjam742]

that lil tower cooler is so freaking adorable 😆

[@wizardothefool]

The Second you said you repair old macs, I had to Subscribe !!!

[@kikihun9726]

Can you attach a bench psu and give it 1.05? or 1.1V? Just cut the cpu_pwr trace and solder a wire to it. And put a big resistor on the cpu_power trace to make a bit of current pull from the PMI to not shut down.

[@Thee_Dr_Evil]

I'm giving her all she's got Captain.... -Scotty (I swear I just typed this to hear you quote it)

[@Psychx_]

It's a shame that Broadcom doesn't let you push the chip past 1V. As long as thermals are in check and the power delivery circuitry can keep up, +10% on top of that should be perfectly fine on most boards, as engineers always add a safety margin to account for the "weakest" chips and SMDs that have a bigger than average negative deviation in quality.

[@PhoticsTV]

…but the *“Instructions for safe use”* which was included with my Raspberry Pi 5 said, *“This product should not be overclocked.”* 😄

[@JeffGeerling]

Heh, but note it does not say "must" :)

[@toastrecon]

15:18 Lol. That's about what my mid 2015 MacBook Pro gets (single core). I wonder if you really went nuts and did something like decap the processor and dripped liquid nitrogen on it or something? Pre chilled it?

[@steffenfrkjr1424]

for the small plastic clips.. get a old pen, take out the ink and spring.. use to pus Around from the back, and pull out

[@Defianthuman]

I only ever got my pi4 to 2.3 with the S2Pi Ice Tower Cooler. Right now the pad has slipped since its not in use and one of the screw heads broke, but it was a solid piece of kit when I used it.

[@K3NnY_G]

2:21 - Those pliers just from Amazon? Got a link? I like they look extra thin but still seem pretty strong at the tip.

[@JeffGeerling]

Yes, picked them up off Amazon a few years ago. Can't find them on mobile though, but I think they still sell them

[@pertsevds]

What a mad lad, overclocked Pi to the Pi!

[@ClovisChitwood]

hell of an accomplishment for pi day👍

[@fixitman2174]

Use a small socket to remove the clips on the cooler next time. Push on the clip as though you're installing it, while using the socket to retract the "fingers" from the other side. It's easier and much safer that way.

[@nddulac]

THRML

[@JeffGeerling]

0.000001g of ink saved!

[@PatFarrellKTM]

What? you didn't try 3.1415926?

[@Lion_McLionhead]

Wonder how long Broadcom lets this fly. They don't allow remote work either.

[@Thomas_Meier93]

You could just connect a i2c interface to the voltage controller from the pi. Then you can set the voltage that is been applied to the pi and use dry ice to cool the pi

[@Lampe2020]

Here in Sweden we have a few date formats, the most common are "dd/mm" and "yyyy-mm-dd".

[@Luix]

This makes me wonder witch is the most powerfull SBC without exteral fan.

[@RowynOfficial]

1 volt limit? and they force it? so what if you want to go higher it's your stuff.

[@wanfuse]

little update on helium heat transfer trchnique, assemble with your chosen cooler inside a fish tank as you blast it with helium, probably wont work without decaping cpu and helium blast wont last long in open air ( no sealing and enclosure) might try another gas not as good but that doesn't float away so easily , but might give you a few minutes, break boundary layer and then put your graphite sheets or thermal paste on, might be limited by way the thermal paste containing CO2 molecules. I would try it but no resources! Like to see if it works though! let me know if you try it! Also you could try replacing the crystal?

[@ParswaNathTheo]

Stress test @ 3.2 GHz with temperature just 38.4 is quite impressive on its own.

[@fu1r4]

2:25 Use something round as an entry ferrule.

[@JeffGeerling]

Good idea!

[@MyEconomics101]

Looking forward to LTT machining a custom water cooler plate and put it on the chiller.

[@Innocentdarkness72]

A good weekend Jeff

[@thegreeneyej]

Thanks Jeff! Keep it up.

[@scaredyfish]

I also like ISO 8601 because sorting alphabetically is the same as sorting chronologically.

[@neutronpcxt372]

Wow, not bad at all. Your single cores are close to the same level as an A77 core on a beeg smartphone chip, which has signifcantly more cache and a faster interconnect. Wonder how it would compare to the N100 Intel CPU in this context.

[@Arek_R.]

Original cooler has the heat sink fins wrong way around, a lot of turbulence are created and probably second half of the fins get next to no airflow...

[@p74_]

Hi Jeff, I have a question. Will the 4 Way Gen 2 X 1 Driver-Free PCIe Packet Switch 4P Kit for Raspberry Pi run on Raspberry Pi 5

[@1budel]

Absolutely Amazing 👏

[@offbeat_link]

This guys a legend

[@leodsouza5272]

Raspberry pi 5 4gb active cooler always running the device is running very hot any idea to maintain the temperature

[@leshommesdupilly]

It's Pi day, and I'm still waiting for my Pi 5 to arrive :D It was supposed to be delivered weeks ago, but there is a "locker issue" :D

[@redmach12003]

My local Microcenter (Overland Park, Kansas) has 25 Pi 5 8GB boards on the shelf.

[@philnelson2364]

What is it with people that are afraid of spreading thermal paste and rely on cooler pressure to do the job??? Doing it that way, there will always be more paste where the blob is compared to the sides which means less pressure contact on the sides. Phil - Sr. engineer.

[@mina86]

Can't wait for overclocking Raspberry Pi to 6.28 GHz in three months.

[@NotPac-lb8nx]

Did you happen to measure the watts the pi 5 is pulling while stress testing at 3ghz+?

[@ivankyurkchiev7374]

3250MHz CPU and 1150MHz GPU stable here. I suppose I won the silicon lottery 😆

[@renobodyrenobody]

I understand this Pi: it was replacing the string "service" by "se?vice" and sevice is right, in french it means "abuse".

[@makerbymistake]

It didn't go past 3.14 because it was being was stubborn after the excessive use of needle-nose pliers. Lol

[@chestercopperpot3793]

I too have many tubes of thermal snot.

[@JeffGeerling]

They get really snotty after a while!

[@milgramskinnertransport3761]

Do you know of something to run on a Pi to see if it is fully functional such as after you flogged it hard?

[@theAlpha-hd5ed]

ive never had a raspberry but thought about trying to get one what exactly are they good at?

[@michaelstewart289]

Hi Jeff, could you please provide a link to the clear base that the Pi is mounted to? Thanks.

[@JeffGeerling]

I don't have a link to it anymore as those 'dog bone acrylic' stackable cases were purchased in 2014, and the vendor's gone. But there are more 'dog bone' style cases out there now, so try to find one on Amazon or eBay.

[@michaelstewart289]

Thanks!

[@lavavex]

Obligatory pi day 3.14 was a success

[@JeffGeerling]

And luckily neither of us was killed by falling ice softballs today :D

[@henrysanecdotes5323]

Will it let me underclock, and if so is there a limit? Can I boot at 0.01 gHz

[@andrescervantestorres3556]

Hi Jeff, greetings from Costa Rica. Last 2 weeks I've been watching your work here and it's really awesome. Due to you're an engineer I was thinking maybe you could be interested about to develop a VoIP PBX Solution using Raspberry PI 5 with Issabel PBX and OpenVox Card model D130E. Let me know if this could be good for you because I will be working soon on it for my side.

[@alexscarbro796]

Does the PLL clock frequency have to be an integer multiple of 54MHz?

[@opm3115]

incredible video as usual but is it current what you need to change to overclock?