There is a lot of bad information about this, so I hope this will straighten things out some.
** Note**
While new info has shown some of the finer details of this to be incorrect in places, in terms of how to overclocking is concerned, the info is still good. I will try and correct the bad parts later.
Yes, this is a wall of text, there is a lot to cover.
Overclocking can be simple or complex, depending on how well you want to do it. Doing it well means a faster phone with more battery life (yes, you can actually gain battery life through overclocking!) or you can do it bad and end up with a somewhat fast phone, that sucks down batteries. The devil is in the details and I bet a large amount of you are doing it wrong.
A lot of good and bad information came almost a year ago when Mmarz did some serious testing with his OV. The testing was good, but missed a few things that were later covered in the thread. The problem is, too many people read only the first post, which was missing a great deal of information later learned. Because of this, we often have two camps of overclockers with the OV, those who read the thread and understand it, and those who skimmed the first post and/or were handed bad information. This is an attempt to clear all of that up once and for all.
First off we need to get the basics about of the way.
Your phone essentially has three speed settings and two voltage settings. Voltages are split at 480mhz, 480 and below uses a lower voltage and anything above 480 uses a higher voltage. We have no way to adjust this so don't bother asking, the phone supposedly doesn't support it. Then you have the three processor speeds, idle or sleep mode, low speed, and high speed. Idle or sleep mode is obvious, it's when the screen is off, low speed is for low cpu intensive tasks, such as music or gps or just any task that doesn't require full cpu power, then finally we have high speed for anything requiring hardcore processing. Idle speeds you can't control, so we'll focus on the other two.
Let's start with high speed since it's easier to understand (though most get it wrong).
This is obviously your max overclock setting, while people focus on it most, it's also the least important of the two settings. Now many crank up this number until it seems to not crash to make the phone as fast as possible, unfortunately, this is actually wrong. Just because it seems stable, doesn't mean that it is. We often hear of people having really high overclocks saying they are stable, EXCEPT for that one app. No, you aren't stable.
What is happening is that the system is compensating for errors. These errors finally overwhelmed the system and caused the app to crash. This is why we say two notches below "max stable". See, we don't have a program to verify how many errors we are getting, but there is another way, we use a benchmarking tool. When you get an error, the phone has to compensate and redo that calculation, which takes time and slows you down. Over time this has been turned into an easy to follow rule, two notches below your max stable speed which is about where speed vs error rate becomes bad. Some of the apps that fall prey to this first is Gallery, and the camera. Those crash more often than the rest due to overclock, however, Gallery can be pretty unstable even in the best of times so don't base your overclock stability on it alone. There are a few other common ones, and as I come across or remember them I will add them here.
Ironically, this has also been shown to be the most efficient for batteries as well, yep, overclocking can improve your battery life! Amazing right? Every time you make a processor go faster, it uses more amperage, the voltage is the same but the amps go up (it's a law of computing). The faster you get work done, the faster you can return to idle, however, there is more to it than that. First you have errors, those suck down battery and do nothing, and then you have the law of diminishing returns. At some point you are using more amps than you are getting work done. Again, two steps down from stable has shown to be the most efficient for getting work done done the fastest, and gives you the best battery life. This has been born out in benchmarks several times.
Low speed (minimum clock)...
Many people set this as low as possible and think they are all set, unfortunately not only are they wrong, but this is also the most important setting. Before I go any further I want to say one thing... The OV does NOT support 122mhz, setting your phone to that is pointless, it will simply not work. So what is it defaulting to? I can't be certain, but I suspect it probably goes to 240mhz, regardless, it doesn't work.
Now, there is some debate on the low setting.
We don't know for certain if the phone scales between idle and minimum. In other words, if your minimum is set to 480, does the phone only use 240 when needed or does it automatically use 480? What we do know, is that there is no scaling between minimum and maximum. In other words, once you exceed your minimum, even by one mhz, your phone will spike to full speed. Let that sink in and remember that, it's extremely important.
So let's say you set your phone at 240 minimum, and you decide to stream Pandora and use Google Maps, 240mhz is not enough, therefore your phone will go to whatever your maximum speed is. The problem with this is that we aren't compressing a file which has an end point, we are using low power items over an undefined period. During this time your phone is running away using as much power as possible. This means your battery is draining and just creating heat, which only hurts your battery more.
How high you set the minimum and exceed it also matters because the lower you set the low, the worse this gets. Say you set the minimum at 240 and you use 241 and your phone spikes to a max overclock of 740, that means your phone is burning off 500mhz, compared to had you set your minimum for 360 where you would only be burning off at most 119mhz because it would at most be using the 360 setting if the cpu doesn't scale, if it does scale below minimum speeds, you wouldn't burn off anything. Interesting to note here, if the cpu does scale below minimum, then 480 would be the optimal minimum setting no matter what you do since it would scale up to that point then jump.
If you think that is bad, it gets worse, there is evidence to show that the phone will stay at peak, until ALL of the processing is done. So if you are streaming and using navigation and your phone spikes to 804mhz, even if you turn off streaming, the phone can stay at 804 until you stop navigation as well. In other words, you really don't want to exceed your minimum.
Now you can see why this setting is so important and why we say just use 480 if you are unsure. If you can get by on a low minimum, great, that is best for the battery, but the moment you cross that, you really start sucking down more juice. It's a trade-off, higher risk can equal big gains or big failure.
With all of this in mind, we can sort of figure out a basic plan.
Set your high as mentioned above, that part is simple. For lows, there are some general guidelines, but remember, these are only a basic guide, you may need to experiment a bit. If you are unsure, just set your minimum at 480, it's safe and we know it works well for most people. You may not get the very best battery, but you also are less likely to let loose a battery vampire.
For those willing to experiment, here is the basic guidelines I recommend and have worked for others:
(Set these for what you use MOST)
240mhz is fine for just just playing MP3's, browsing, things of this sort.
360mhz is better suited to streaming OR possibly navigation
480 is better for things like nav and streaming together.
I use and recommend 480, though my phone tends to get hot when doing this regardless. Keep in mind these are only suggestions and what works best for one person may not be best for another and some apps are also better or worse than others.
** Note**
While new info has shown some of the finer details of this to be incorrect in places, in terms of how to overclocking is concerned, the info is still good. I will try and correct the bad parts later.
Yes, this is a wall of text, there is a lot to cover.
Overclocking can be simple or complex, depending on how well you want to do it. Doing it well means a faster phone with more battery life (yes, you can actually gain battery life through overclocking!) or you can do it bad and end up with a somewhat fast phone, that sucks down batteries. The devil is in the details and I bet a large amount of you are doing it wrong.
A lot of good and bad information came almost a year ago when Mmarz did some serious testing with his OV. The testing was good, but missed a few things that were later covered in the thread. The problem is, too many people read only the first post, which was missing a great deal of information later learned. Because of this, we often have two camps of overclockers with the OV, those who read the thread and understand it, and those who skimmed the first post and/or were handed bad information. This is an attempt to clear all of that up once and for all.
First off we need to get the basics about of the way.
Your phone essentially has three speed settings and two voltage settings. Voltages are split at 480mhz, 480 and below uses a lower voltage and anything above 480 uses a higher voltage. We have no way to adjust this so don't bother asking, the phone supposedly doesn't support it. Then you have the three processor speeds, idle or sleep mode, low speed, and high speed. Idle or sleep mode is obvious, it's when the screen is off, low speed is for low cpu intensive tasks, such as music or gps or just any task that doesn't require full cpu power, then finally we have high speed for anything requiring hardcore processing. Idle speeds you can't control, so we'll focus on the other two.
Let's start with high speed since it's easier to understand (though most get it wrong).
This is obviously your max overclock setting, while people focus on it most, it's also the least important of the two settings. Now many crank up this number until it seems to not crash to make the phone as fast as possible, unfortunately, this is actually wrong. Just because it seems stable, doesn't mean that it is. We often hear of people having really high overclocks saying they are stable, EXCEPT for that one app. No, you aren't stable.
What is happening is that the system is compensating for errors. These errors finally overwhelmed the system and caused the app to crash. This is why we say two notches below "max stable". See, we don't have a program to verify how many errors we are getting, but there is another way, we use a benchmarking tool. When you get an error, the phone has to compensate and redo that calculation, which takes time and slows you down. Over time this has been turned into an easy to follow rule, two notches below your max stable speed which is about where speed vs error rate becomes bad. Some of the apps that fall prey to this first is Gallery, and the camera. Those crash more often than the rest due to overclock, however, Gallery can be pretty unstable even in the best of times so don't base your overclock stability on it alone. There are a few other common ones, and as I come across or remember them I will add them here.
Ironically, this has also been shown to be the most efficient for batteries as well, yep, overclocking can improve your battery life! Amazing right? Every time you make a processor go faster, it uses more amperage, the voltage is the same but the amps go up (it's a law of computing). The faster you get work done, the faster you can return to idle, however, there is more to it than that. First you have errors, those suck down battery and do nothing, and then you have the law of diminishing returns. At some point you are using more amps than you are getting work done. Again, two steps down from stable has shown to be the most efficient for getting work done done the fastest, and gives you the best battery life. This has been born out in benchmarks several times.
Low speed (minimum clock)...
Many people set this as low as possible and think they are all set, unfortunately not only are they wrong, but this is also the most important setting. Before I go any further I want to say one thing... The OV does NOT support 122mhz, setting your phone to that is pointless, it will simply not work. So what is it defaulting to? I can't be certain, but I suspect it probably goes to 240mhz, regardless, it doesn't work.
Now, there is some debate on the low setting.
We don't know for certain if the phone scales between idle and minimum. In other words, if your minimum is set to 480, does the phone only use 240 when needed or does it automatically use 480? What we do know, is that there is no scaling between minimum and maximum. In other words, once you exceed your minimum, even by one mhz, your phone will spike to full speed. Let that sink in and remember that, it's extremely important.
So let's say you set your phone at 240 minimum, and you decide to stream Pandora and use Google Maps, 240mhz is not enough, therefore your phone will go to whatever your maximum speed is. The problem with this is that we aren't compressing a file which has an end point, we are using low power items over an undefined period. During this time your phone is running away using as much power as possible. This means your battery is draining and just creating heat, which only hurts your battery more.
How high you set the minimum and exceed it also matters because the lower you set the low, the worse this gets. Say you set the minimum at 240 and you use 241 and your phone spikes to a max overclock of 740, that means your phone is burning off 500mhz, compared to had you set your minimum for 360 where you would only be burning off at most 119mhz because it would at most be using the 360 setting if the cpu doesn't scale, if it does scale below minimum speeds, you wouldn't burn off anything. Interesting to note here, if the cpu does scale below minimum, then 480 would be the optimal minimum setting no matter what you do since it would scale up to that point then jump.
If you think that is bad, it gets worse, there is evidence to show that the phone will stay at peak, until ALL of the processing is done. So if you are streaming and using navigation and your phone spikes to 804mhz, even if you turn off streaming, the phone can stay at 804 until you stop navigation as well. In other words, you really don't want to exceed your minimum.
Now you can see why this setting is so important and why we say just use 480 if you are unsure. If you can get by on a low minimum, great, that is best for the battery, but the moment you cross that, you really start sucking down more juice. It's a trade-off, higher risk can equal big gains or big failure.
With all of this in mind, we can sort of figure out a basic plan.
Set your high as mentioned above, that part is simple. For lows, there are some general guidelines, but remember, these are only a basic guide, you may need to experiment a bit. If you are unsure, just set your minimum at 480, it's safe and we know it works well for most people. You may not get the very best battery, but you also are less likely to let loose a battery vampire.
For those willing to experiment, here is the basic guidelines I recommend and have worked for others:
(Set these for what you use MOST)
240mhz is fine for just just playing MP3's, browsing, things of this sort.
360mhz is better suited to streaming OR possibly navigation
480 is better for things like nav and streaming together.
I use and recommend 480, though my phone tends to get hot when doing this regardless. Keep in mind these are only suggestions and what works best for one person may not be best for another and some apps are also better or worse than others.
Last edited:
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