Overclocking the SG3?

awesomedeals88

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I wonder if the samsung galaxy 3 can be overclocked with any kernels. If so, what is the maximum speed that can be achieved. 1.8ghz would be really nice.

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Cruiserdude

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Except that kernel is for the international S3, which is an entirely different platform than the US GS3. I'm sure the S4 can be overclocked like most any other chip, but I would wait a bit for stable kernels to come out. Even then, overclocking can really damage the phone if you don't know what you're doing or are just unlucky, so you'll want to be careful.

As a personal rule of thumb I don't tend to go above the highest speed that particular chipset runs in any consumer device. For instance, my Droid Charge was clocked at 1ghz, but the Hummingbird was clocked at 1.2ghz in a few other devices, so I had no problem running it slightly undervolted at 1.2 ghz all day every day. With my Razr, I haven't felt the need to overclock, and didn't really notice a difference the one time I tried it. Again, I'm sure it can be done, but I would wait and see how much benefit there is. It's not worth giving up any stability or battery life for something that may not give a tangible benefit anyway.
 

slide83

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Except that kernel is for the international S3, which is an entirely different platform than the US GS3. I'm sure the S4 can be overclocked like most any other chip, but I would wait a bit for stable kernels to come out. Even then, overclocking can really damage the phone if you don't know what you're doing or are just unlucky, so you'll want to be careful.

As a personal rule of thumb I don't tend to go above the highest speed that particular chipset runs in any consumer device. For instance, my Droid Charge was clocked at 1ghz, but the Hummingbird was clocked at 1.2ghz in a few other devices, so I had no problem running it slightly undervolted at 1.2 ghz all day every day. With my Razr, I haven't felt the need to overclock, and didn't really notice a difference the one time I tried it. Again, I'm sure it can be done, but I would wait and see how much benefit there is. It's not worth giving up any stability or battery life for something that may not give a tangible benefit anyway.

The problem with that logic is that chipmakers "bin" chips according to how well they perform. Even though the chip in your Charge and the ones in other phones are technically the same chip, they may perform very differently due to manufacturing tolerances.
 

Cruiserdude

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The problem with that logic is that chipmakers "bin" chips according to how well they perform. Even though the chip in your Charge and the ones in other phones are technically the same chip, they may perform very differently due to manufacturing tolerances.

Oh, I understand that, that's why I'll still test everything very carefully to make sure its stable, and I never go above the max stock voltage. In fact, I tend to not go higher than I can remain stable at with a slight undervolt, as I'm huge on efficiency. If I find I can substantially undervolt the lower multipliers and remain fully stable, I can usually push the chip a bit faster than stock and still have the same or slightly lower voltages even at those levels.

Just like with PC cpu's, binning takes place, but many chips can still perform as well as chips that were graded higher, it just takes more experimentation and testing to get them there, and manufacturers do not want to do that. It's much more efficient for them to be able to run every chip at the same speed and voltage without having to test stability, which is why binning takes place.

So there's typically a good bit of headroom in each chip, which is where you can gain some efficiency. Because manufacturers don't want to test each chip, but don't want to make products that have to be sent back, a chip has to exceed a standard that is some considerable margin higher to be considered a certain "grade". Many chips that are lower than this standard could still perform at the level of the higher "grade" chip, due to this margin. That's why if you're willing to take the time to experiment, you can typically find ways to pull a bit of voltage out at each level, and/or increase maximum clock speeds to a slight degree, without any impact on stability.

I've been running my laptop undervolted for years with all the different processors I've thrown into it, and typically undervolt my slightly overclocked PC builds. But if you're not familiar with the incremental process of testing stability after each change at each multiplier, I would shy away, as you're likely to just make your phone unstable with no tangible benefit. Also, while its certainly possible to increase voltages a bit above stock and raise the clock even higher, this comes at the expense of both battery life as well as the potential to damage your phone, which is a trade-off I'm not willing to make.
 

hoovhartid

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Just like with PC cpu's, binning takes place, but many chips can still perform as well as chips that were graded higher, it just takes more experimentation and testing to get them there, and manufacturers do not want to do that.

So there's typically a good bit of headroom in each chip, which is where you can gain some efficiency. Because manufacturers don't want to test each chip, but don't want to make products that have to be sent back, a chip has to exceed a standard that is some considerable margin higher to be considered a certain "grade". Many chips that are lower than this standard could still perform at the level of the higher "grade" chip, due to this margin. That's why if you're willing to take the time to experiment, you can typically find ways to pull a bit of voltage out at each level, and/or increase maximum clock speeds to a slight degree, without any impact on stability.

I've been running my laptop undervolted for years with all the different processors I've thrown into it, and typically undervolt my slightly overclocked PC builds. But if you're not familiar with the incremental process of testing stability after each change at each multiplier, I would shy away, as you're likely to just make your phone unstable with no tangible benefit..

I found this post very interesting. Is there a guide to any programs like setCPU or anything similar you could point me towards? I'm interested in an undervolted/overclocked phone, but of course I want to do my homework first. You have any recommendations for threads/forums that I could read to give more insight to doing this? Thanks in advance

EDIT also, this is the first I have heard of lowering voltage while overclocking....how do you know the stock voltage?
do apps like setcpu allow you to lower voltage and overclock like this?
 

anon(94115)

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The op never if it was us or international so I went with international. Yes setcpu will allow you to do both, uv and oc at the same time.

I didn't read the whole thread, but if it wasn't mentioned you should move both in small steps and check each step for stability. Each phone is different so what works great for some people will crash for others. My charge hated uv altogether

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Paul627g

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No two devices run exactly the same, that is the main thing to keep in mind..

Could be the same device, same ROMs, same kernel, same exact setup.. Both may react differently to the same kernel tweaks.. Trial & error is all you can do.

Most lockups and problems stem from voltage.. Not enough voltage to support the required speed, but at the same time you don't want to over juice the thing and just gobble up battery for no reason.
 

anon(94115)

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No two devices run exactly the same, that is the main thing to keep in mind..

Could be the same device, same ROMs, same kernel, same exact setup.. Both may react differently to the same kernel tweaks.. Trial & error is all you can do.

Most lockups and problems stem from voltage.. Not enough voltage to support the required speed, but at the same time you don't want to over juice the thing and just gobble up battery for no reason.

Or burn it out prematurely

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