3 Reasons to Overclock a Raspberry Pi 4
By: Tyler Harris
Tags: Technology, Tech, Raspberry Pi, Education, Overclocking

Do you still need a fancy computer to work remotely in 2020? Probably, but using the Raspberry Pi can be a lot more fun!

Photo by Jeff Loucks on Unsplash

Low Risk Education about Overclocking

What happens if you break something and can’t fix it? Did I just void my warranty for a $500 CPU? Will the system even be stable? Will all the crashing harm my other components?

Especially for people new to the world of overclocking, uncertainty and feeling a bit intimidated is totally normal. If you just went out and bought a bunch of brand new and probably somewhat expensive parts, jumping into the BIOS to modify voltages, clock frequencies, or memory timings can feel too risky.

Overclocking a Raspberry Pi, assuming you are using Raspberry Pi OS or even Raspbian, is a pretty low risk endeavor. The worst thing that will happen is that you will have trouble booting up and experience lock ups if it does boot. Even if all the data gets corrupted somehow, just write the OS onto the SD card to try again.

What you learn in the process is how to dial in power constraints get stable a overclock. If you push the CPU and/or GPU too hard without increasing the power, even simple tasks can push it to crash. You can also experiment with what is too far. Is 4 GHz going to happen on a Pi? Probably not unless you are a mad scientist with too much time and cryogenic cooling materials on your hands.

I have a usable and stable overclock on mine at 2 GHz on the CPU and 700 MHz on the GPU, which is up from the stock of 1.5 GHz on the CPU and 500 MHz on the GPU. Many different combinations are possible, so feel free to experiment without being worried about breaking more expensive and sensitive components. It will be fun and educational, which is most of the reason why the Pi exists anyway.

For bonus points, open up the terminal and using the htop command to see all the usage levels of each CPU core as well as the RAM being used at the moment. Seeing that in real time with the processes below gives a sense for how busy the little Pi is behind the scenes.

In my article about how I Wrote a Paper for a PhD Course on an Overclocked Raspberry Pi 4, I get a little more specific about the actual overclocking process I used and the work that was able to be done on it.

The Overclocked Pi is Fun to Use

The whole idea of buying a Pi as a desktop replacement honestly isn’t quite all the way “there” yet, especially at stock speeds. Overclocking the Pi makes a world of difference and takes it from borderline useless for doing basic work to usable and fun.

As someone who built my own desktop, has a nice laptop, an iPad, and a smartphone, I actually enjoy using the Pi most when I am writing. In fact, this entire article was written using only my overclocked Pi!

Since the Pi is not really powerful enough to support too many distractions, it is great for being able to focus on a single task at a time. There is something satisfying about being able to work from a computer smaller than most wallets.

For a technologist, following the latest and greatest high core count CPUs or seeing how many CUDA cores are in the new RTX 3090 is great. It’s just that sometimes it is fun to try to get some work and play done on a stripped down device. There is a kind of intangible excitement that comes from using something that even most average smartphones run circles around.

Appreciate the Other Devices You Have

While using the Pi is great, it still cannot replace a power user’s workstation or laptop. There is no way the Pi is going to handle several billion data points in RStudio like my desktop can. Modern video games really have no chance. Video conferencing is probably not a great idea.

When I go back to my “real” computing devices after using the Pi, I get a true appreciation for just how much processing power is available in modern computing. Using a Pi for a while makes those other devices feel so much faster when switching back.

Go out and get a Raspberry Pi. It will be educational, fun, and help you appreciate the other devices you have.