Given all the Cortex A8 processor
clock tweaking going on we admit to being just a little surprised to be reading the first overclocking reports on the eminently hackable N900 only now. Nevertheless, owners are seeing significant speed improvements after updating their stock 600MHz QWERTY sliders with recompiled kernels (no CPU voltage hacks required). Although speeds in excess of 1GHz have been tested (1,050MHz still boots), it looks like 900MHz is the maximum stable clock speed you can expect before the doors rattle off -- but that's only after a weekend of testing. If things continue to go well then you'll see tweaked kernels of various clock speeds released for download soon enough -- something that should keep the device humming right through the commercial launch of MeeGo
whether Nokia likes it or not. Check the video after the break and then follow the latest developments in the
maemo.org forums by hitting up the source link below.
posted April 5th 2010 4:22AM
IT GOES OVER 88 MILES PER HOUR!!
@Cynical Hippie
"Only" 600MHz? Man, my TP and TP2 have slower processors than that, and (at least my TP2) feels pretty quick in most applications.
Can't wait to experience the EVO 4G and its 1GHz Snapdragon. I'm sure that will fry my hands, based off what I'm used to (anyway).
@r34p3r this will surely eat all the battery in like 30min
@Cynical Hippie
N900 vrooom! vrooom!
I just hope you guys would have showed N900 running flash and flash video sites. It's unbelievably fast and smooth. Youtube have always been great and flash sites in general, but many flash video sites haven't been perfect. 300mhz more power and i honestly don't need flash 10 even if it's coming in the coming months.
Simply put this device is a new device now and the overclocking is so easy that i'm scared we will be seeing some a bit too ambitious tries in coming days. There's 1200 people in Maemo.org forums watching the overclocking thread ;)
Posted from N900 running 900mhz.
@fuckoff
Actually there is a chance battery life will extend.
@fuckoff I've been running at 900mhz for a couple of days, same battery performance from normal use, a bit less from intense use like gaming, but since everything is faster you spend less time waiting for apps, web pages, music player, etc to open, so you can get in and out of what you are looking for quicker saving you some cpu cycles, plus 50% increase in cpu clock is a lot better than an hour less of battery per day
Plus Idle clock was taken down to 150mhz so it conserves even more power while idle.
@Leo that...does not compute.
Nerd$
Is there any hope for ARM 11 processors? My G1 is is aging a painful death. She can't hold it much longer, Captain!
@Dafrety
I'm currently using WS020SH, which is a PXA270@627MHz... I have 5 of PXA27x-based devices and most are still functional. Life for aged ARMs...
big issue.
The only reason why you haven't seen it, because people were scared to try (Nokia told them not to overclock it otherwise it will be fried *Something you don't want with $500 device*)
It might be weird but I am glade Nokia lied about it & It is possible.
Overclocking FTW
@Sp4mer aren't we all glade :D uber-fail!
@Sp4mer It's just a standard disclaimer for manufacturers. It's just like when you put NOS in your car, the car company won't be held responsible if you accidentally put too much and burn the engine.
Palm issued a similar statement over overclocking the Pre.
@fuckoff
We are all glade you got down ranked. Now do what your username is...
@ToniCipriani : Thanks for the clarification :)
@Everyone-else: I suggest not feeding any trolls or none-sense comments (Those will believe you actually care about what they are saying, if you did so)
@Sp4mer
Actually, it's NOT a standard disclaimer. Overclocking the OMAP3 WILL result in shorter life expectancy for the SoC. MTBF is about 50,000 hours at 600MHz and drops very quickly past that. Depending on your luck of the draw with the SoC in your device, you can expect lifetimes as short as a few days when you overclock.
It IS dangerous and it's NOT just a standard disclaimer. :)
@GeneralAntilles
Hahaha, I think the excitement killed my sense of logic. Nothing comes for free :)
It will be interested to see how a thermal paste (a diamond type like ICD7) will be able to help in this situation. There isn't much space inside N900 and the battery is in back which might get warmer sometimes not helping the situation either.
However, without doing any mod or anything and being able to get a life expectancy of 3 years would be enough for me.
@GeneralAntilles ANY chip will degrade through overclocking. But honestly who keeps their phone more than a year these days anyways...
n900 at 1 Ghz or even 900 Mhz sounds cool. Good for nokia. May well pick up one when price comes down a bit.
Was Apple A4 on iPad already overclocked? It seems that N900 is powerful as A4.
@symbiandreamsdotcom
Haha...ha.
@symbiandreamsdotcom A4 was underclocked to save battery and produce less heat..
@fuckoff So that means Apple iPad is unusable in Mexico and other hotter countries?
@symbiandreamsdotcom Uhhhhh. He said 'underclocked' which means it will be cooler
@symbiandreamsdotcom
-_-
@symbiandreamsdotcom
Difficult to say, but very possible that the two chips are comparable in speed. Never mind the responses to your A4 question.
Obsolescence, hardly. Its the best phone and most powerful OS out there.
@JFH - and the OS that would fit a tablet best out of all current options. The full power of a desktop-grade Linux combined with a gorgeous touchscreen-optimized UI...
But that's hardly surprising considering that Maemo was infact developed for tablets in the first place.
@JFH Yeah, I thought that might have been true until I read this and then wondered if I was confused or if the post was misleading. I assume this phone has the PowerVR SGX 530 for graphics capabilities that unloads work off of the processor, which partially saves the need for extra processor speed, right?
@juanvaldez
Yes you are right. The N900 has PowerVR SGX530 + C64x DSP @430 MHz. GPU does a god job as a graphics accelerator and the dsp in video encoding / decoding stuff. However they are designed just crunch the numbers on specific tasks, but overclocking the cpu gives the biggest overall speed boost.
@juanvaldez, it's a part of OMAP 3430 platform, so yes. Otherwise it would not be possible to have multitasking as presented in various videos without giving up on the GUI bells and whistles (real-time composition, adaptive blurs, transitions...). OMAP3430@1GHz > Snapdragon@1GHz by a big margin, if utilized properly.
@juanvaldez
Incognito is right.
@JFH : It's not obsolete now, but it will be someday. Overclocking will just push that day a little further off, as the headline says. Some of you people are way too sensitive about your phones, it's not they insulted your mother for crying out loud...
@trwrt maybe their mothers read these half ars posts and do get insulted...just sayin!
I'm curious. While snapdragon may be faster than A8 at stock comparison, it seems like A8 has the upper advantage when it becomes over clocked. As far as I can tell snapdragon hasn't really been over clocked with such drastic improvements in speed.Does that mean A8 is the superior processor?
@suhaybh ask Google and HTC why they are so happy when they announced a 1GHz for their devices.
@suhaybh
For MHz per MHz the Cortex-A8 core is somewhat faster than Snapdragon, at least when it comes to Android devices. That makes an overclocked N900 the unofficial speed champion of the smartphones. And as it seems that iPad has the same Cortex-A8 core, N900 @1GHz would be as quick as iPad, though N900 also has a built in DSP. But as Apple gives no detailed information, I could be horribly wrong on this, too. :)
However, overclocked N900s get pretty good Sunspider benchmark results with Firefox for example - despite the lack of a proper Webkit browser.
@Bigstone78
You mean aside from my Droid clocked at 1.2ghz?
@suhaybh
OMAP3 isn't a stock A8. TI does wonders with microarchitecture; OMAP3 vs. Snapdragon reminds me of Athlon 64 vs. Pentium 4, where the lower-clocked processor smokes the higher-clocked processor due to better design.
What about battery life during overclocking? It's quite bad as it is already :P
@dtakias
there's a fix for everything , it idles at 125mhz instead of 250mhz
and "autodisconnect" app improved my battery life 3-5 times
@tomaskn
will try it out, ta
@tomaskn yea but once you start using it the device will eat up that battery like a fat american at macdonalds
@fuckoff, there are early signs that it may be possible to overclock the CPU run-time w/o resorting to direct kernel modifications, which may allow users to speed up their precioussss when they really need the extra juice, while keeping it at stock speeds for the regular use.
@fuckoff
I think that rule applys to all electronic devices with a battery,
but i charge my phone every day so it doesnt really matter.
@dtakias Those who've overclocked their Droids haven't reported significant battery drain rate increases. In fact, many have improved their battery performance by idling at a lower frequency.
Look at it this way: the CPU isn't doing more work, it's simply doing the work it has to do faster than before.
Apparently, Qualcomm platforms are notoriously difficult to overclock without running into issues (device freezing, program lock-ups, etc.).
Hopefully they can figure out a smooth-working solution, because I would really like to see Qualcomm's performance unlocked beyond what said company deems the end user must put up with.
did the ninja's shadow mean lagging?
anyway, still playable!
COOL!
hmm.... smartphone overclockers...
i can see a market for micro liquid nitrogen coolers...