Download How to Safely Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 in 2022 [Guide] for free
Raspberry Pi 4 and the latest Raspberry Pi 400 share the same Broadcom BCM2711 processor with four Cortex-A72 cores. However, the Pi 4 is clocked at 1.5GHz and the Pi 400 can go up to 1.8GHz. So it’s clear that the onboard processor can run at a higher clock speed here. But because of the heat management on the smaller board, the Pi Foundation has limited its clock speed. So if you have a cooler and a heatsink, you can overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2GHz and improve performance significantly. On that note, let’s learn how to overclock Raspberry Pi 4.
Guide to Overclocking Raspberry Pi 4 (2022)
In this guide, we have demonstrated the steps to overclock Raspberry Pi 4 from 1.5GHz to 2GHz, both on Raspberry Pi OS and Windows 11/10. We’ve also included a few things to keep in mind before overclocking the CPU on your Raspberry. Pi 4 board. You can expand the table below and jump to any section whenever you want.
Notable points to remember before installing Raspberry Pi 4. overclocked
Before we get into the steps to overclock the Raspberry Pi 4, it’s strong recommended to install a heat sink and a cooler on your Raspberry Pi. If you overclock the CPU, it gets hot, and I mean, really hot. In some cases, it can touch temperatures up to 70 degrees Celsius, which is not good for the computer board.
Plus, it’s counterproductive to run an overclocked board without a cooler. As the temperature rises, the CPU throttles, and you face freezing issues. In fact, the performance will be worse than the board with a base clock of 1.5 GHz. So yes, if you want to run an overclocked Raspberry Pi 4 longer and get a performance boost, get a cooler and a heat sink.
A word of caution: the two methods explained below are safe and will work as intended if you have a cooler and a heat sink. We are not responsible for any damage to your Raspberry Pi due to overclocking.
Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2GHz with Raspberry Pi OS
I assume you have already set up your Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspberry Pi OS. If you haven’t already, follow our tutorial how to set up raspberry pi without monitor or ethernet cable. Then follow the steps below:
1. First, open the Terminal and run the command below to: Updating all packages and dependencies.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2. Then run the command below to: upgrade the distro to the latest version. This process will take a lot of time, so be patient.
sudo apt dist-upgrade
3. Once we’ve done that, we need to get the . Updating Raspberry Pi firmware to the latest version so we can overclock the Raspberry Pi 4. If the Terminal reads – “rpi update is already the latest version”, you are ready to go. If it updates the firmware, you should: reboot your Raspberry Pi by typing the command – sudo reboot.
sudo apt install rpi-update
4. Once you’ve rebooted your Raspberry Pi 4, it’s time to overclock it from 1.5GHz to 2GHz. Open the Terminal and run the command below. It will enable us to config file through the GUI Geany editor.
sudo geany /boot/config.txt
5. Now a Geany window will open. Here, scroll down and search for #arm_freq=800. We need to change this rule. First remove the # from the line to enable the command. Afterwards, change the armfreq value from 800 nasty 2000.
This is the step that will increase the clock speed of your Raspberry Pi 4 board to 2GHz. You’ll also need to add a line to increase the tension, which I’ve shown below. Basically the configuration file should look something like this.
over_voltage=6 arm_freq=2000
6. Just in case you want to: overclock the GPU also add the line below to the configuration file. Now save the file and close the Geany editor.
over_voltage=6 arm_freq=2000 gpu_freq=750
7. Reboot your Raspberry Pi and this time it should boot with the overclocked CPU and GPU. To test the numbers, open two instances of the Terminal and run the commands below: any of the Terminal windows. One lets you track the CPU clock speed in real time and another lets you display the current temperature.
Remark: If your Raspberry Pi won’t boot after overclocking, follow our solution in the next section below.
watch -n1 vcgencmd measure_clock arm
watch -n1 vcgencmd measure_temp
8. Now that we have set up our monitoring system, let’s run sysbench to see if the Raspberry Pi 4 hits the 2GHz clock speed. To do this, you need to install sysbench on your Raspberry Pi by running the command below. Press “y” to allow the installation.
sudo apt install sysbench
9. Then run the command below to run the sysbench test. When you run this command, you will notice that the CPU clock speed: touched 2GHz. In my case, I did not install a heat sink and a cooler for demo purposes. And well, you can see that the temperature fluctuates around 68 degrees Celsius, which is not normal in this situation. However, we highly recommend installing a heatsink and cooler on your Raspberry Pi 4 if you want to use the overclocked board for extended periods of time.
sysbench --num-threads=8 --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run
10. To give you some numbers: The base clocked Raspberry Pi 4 (1.5GHz) took about 15 seconds to complete the sysbench test. While the overclocked 2GHz Raspberry Pi 4 only lasted 10 seconds. Also, while exporting videos and playing videos in the browser, you will find a huge difference in performance, thanks to the overclocked GPU.
11. If you want disable the overclocked CPU and GPU on Raspberry Pi, run the command below again to open the configuration file.
sudo geany /boot/config.txt
12. Go to the same section where you changed the values earlier. Here, to add # to all newlines and save the file. This will disable the commands and load your Raspberry Pi at its default clock speed after a reboot.
Raspberry Pi 4 Won’t Boot After Overclocking? Here’s the solution!
If the Raspberry Pi 4 doesn’t boot after you overclock the CPU and GPU, you will: need a computer to undo the changes to the configuration file. Here’s how you can do it.
1. First, remove the SD card from the board and insert it into your Mac or Windows PC. Open the SD card on your PC (called “boot” in File Explorer) and locate the config.txt file. It is located in the root folder itself.
2. Open the file with Notepad and to add # to all changed commands and save the file. Now insert the SD card into the board and your Raspberry Pi 4 will boot at the default clock speed (1.5GHz) this time. Then you can follow the steps in the section above to try to overclock the board again. Or you can use your Windows computer as described in the next section.
Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2.1GHz with Windows 11/10
1. We assume that you have read our comprehensive guide to: how do i install windows 11/10 on raspberry pi. If not, you can use the linked guide to set up Windows on ARM on Raspberry Pi.
2. Then download the Boot partition mounting utility from the link here. It gives you access to the configuration file. You can do this on Windows on Raspberry itself or on a separate PC. You need to plug in the SD card to make the changes.
3. Now extract the file and open the folder. here, open WoR-Boot-Mounter.
4. After that, select the SD card where you installed Windows on Raspberry and click on “mount“.
5. Then click on “View content“.
6. Here you will find the “config.txtthe file. Open it with Notepad.
7. Now, add the lines below based on your cooling system. I would recommend stable overclocking if you have a decent cooling system. If you don’t have a cooling system, none of these changes will allow Raspberry Pi to even boot.
over_voltage=6 arm_freq=2147 gpu_freq=700
arm_freq=2300 gpu_freq=750 gpu_mem=32 over_voltage=14 force_turbo=1
- Extreme overclocking (freezing issues and potentially dangerous)
initial_turbo=60 over_voltage=15 arm_freq_min=100 arm_freq=2350 gpu_freq=800 gpu_mem=512
8. After adding the commands, the configuration file will look like this. utilities, save the configuration file and reboot your Raspberry Pi.
9. Now you will find that your Raspberry Pi has been overclocked to 2.1GHz if you opted for stable overclocking.
Overclock the Raspberry Pi 4 and improve performance
So here’s how you can improve the performance of your Raspberry Pi 4 by overclocking the CPU and GPU. As we mentioned above, the Raspberry Pi 4 can overclock quite well, as the ARM Cortex-A72 is a pretty capable core. However, you will need a heat sink and cooler if you want to use the board for extended periods of time without thermal throttling issues. Anyway, that’s all ours. If you want build an audio streaming device with Raspberry Pi, follow our linked guide. And if you have any questions, let us know in the comment section below.
