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 processor onboard here is capable of operating at a higher clock speed. But due to 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 the performance significantly. On that note, let’s learn how to overclock Raspberry Pi 4.
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 have also included a few things you should keep in mind before overclocking the CPU on your Raspberry Pi 4 board. You can expand the table below and move to any section at your convenience.
Notable Points to Remember Before You Overclock Raspberry Pi 4Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2GHz Using Raspberry Pi OS
Raspberry Pi 4 Not Booting After Overclocking? Here is the Fix!Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2.1GHz Running Windows 11/ 10
Raspberry Pi 4 Not Booting After Overclocking? Here is the Fix!
Notable Points to Remember Before You Overclock Raspberry Pi 4
Before we delve into the steps to overclock the Raspberry Pi 4, it’s strongly recommended to install a heatsink and a cooler on your Raspberry Pi. As you overclock the CPU, it gets hot, and I mean, really hot. In some instances, it can touch temperatures up to 70-degree Celsius, which is not good for the computer board.
Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2GHz Using Raspberry Pi OS
I am assuming you have already set up your Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspberry Pi OS. If you haven’t done it yet, go through our tutorial on how to set up Raspberry Pi without a monitor or Ethernet cable. After that, follow the steps below:
Next, run the below command to upgrade the distro to the latest version. This process will take considerable time, so keep patience.
Having done that, we need to update the Raspberry Pi firmware to the latest version so we can overclock the Raspberry Pi 4. If the Terminal reads – “rpi-update is already the newest version”, you are good to go. In case it updates the firmware, you need to reboot your Raspberry Pi by typing the command – sudo reboot.
Once you restart your Raspberry Pi 4, it’s time to overclock it from 1.5GHz to 2GHz. Open the Terminal and run the below command. It will allow us to modify the config file through the GUI Geany editor.
sudo geany /boot/config.txt
Now, a Geany window will open up. Here, scroll down and look for #arm_freq=800. We need to modify this line. First, remove the # from the line to enable the command. After that, change the arm-freq value from 800 to 2000.
In case you want to overclock the GPU as well, add the below line to the config file. Now, save the file and close the Geany editor.
Restart your Raspberry Pi, and this time, it should boot up with the overclocked CPU and GPU. To test the numbers, open two instances of the Terminal and run the below commands in each of the Terminal windows. One will let you monitor the CPU clock speed in real-time, and another will display the current temperature.
- Monitor CPU Clock Speed
watch -n1 vcgencmd measure_clock arm
- Measure Temperature
watch -n1 vcgencmd measure_temp
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 so, you need to install sysbench on your Raspberry Pi by executing the below command. Press “y” to allow the installation.
Next, execute the below command to run the sysbench test. When you run this command, you will notice that the CPU clock speed has touched 2GHz. In my case, I have not installed a heatsink and a cooler for demo purposes. And well, you can see that the temperature hovers around 68-degree Celsius, which is not normal in this situation. However, we strongly advise you to install a heatsink and a cooler on your Raspberry Pi 4 if you want to use the overclocked board for a longer time.
To give you some numbers, the base-clocked Raspberry Pi 4 (1.5GHz) took around 15 seconds to complete the sysbench test. Whereas the overclocked 2GHz Raspberry Pi 4 only took 10 seconds. You will also find a vast difference in performance while exporting videos and while playing videos in the browser, thanks to the overclocked GPU.
If you want to disable the overclocked CPU and GPU on Raspberry Pi, run the below command again to open the Config file.
Move to the same section where you modified the values earlier. Here, add # to all the new lines and save the file. This will disable the commands, and your Raspberry Pi will load with the default clock speed after a reboot.
Raspberry Pi 4 Not Booting After Overclocking? Here is the Fix!
If the Raspberry Pi 4 is not booting after you overclock the CPU and GPU, you will need a PC to revert the changes in the config file. Here is how you can do it.
- Open the file using Notepad and add # to all the modified commands and save the file. Now, plug the SD card into the board, and your Raspberry Pi 4 will boot with the default clock speed (1.5GHz) this time around. Then, you can follow the steps in the section above to try and overclock the board again. Or, you can use your Windows computer, as detailed in the next section.
Overclock Raspberry Pi 4 to 2.1GHz Running Windows 11/ 10
We assume you have already followed our in-depth guide on how to install Windows 11/10 on Raspberry Pi. If not, you can use the linked guide to set up Windows on ARM on Raspberry Pi.
Now, unzip the file and open the folder. Here, open WoR-Boot-Mounter.
After that, select the SD card where you have installed Windows on Raspberry and click “Mount“.
Next, click on “View contents“.
Here, you will find the “config.txt” file. Open it using Notepad.
Now, add the below lines based on your cooling system. I would suggest stable overclocking if you have a decent cooling system. If you do not have a cooling system, none of these changes will allow Raspberry Pi to even boot.
- Stable Overclocking
over_voltage=6arm_freq=2147gpu_freq=700
- Medium Overclocking
arm_freq=2300gpu_freq=750gpu_mem=32over_voltage=14force_turbo=1
- Extreme Overclocking (Freezing issues and might be dangerous)
initial_turbo=60over_voltage=15arm_freq_min=100arm_freq=2350gpu_freq=800gpu_mem=512
Once you have added the commands, the config file will look like this. Now, save the config file and restart your Raspberry Pi.
Now, you will find that your Raspberry Pi is overclocked to 2.1GHz if you have chosen stable overclocking.
