Raspberry Pi 4: All versions of the popular single-board computer are easy to overclock to 1.8 GHz with Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye
In September, it emerged that the Pi Foundation upgraded the Raspberry Pi 4 with the SoC from the Raspberry Pi 400. Supposedly, the newer chip offers improved power management and power gating, along with a 1.8 GHz clock speed. For context, the Raspberry Pi 4 launched with a 1.5 GHz boost clock, while the Raspberry Pi 400 always shipped with the higher 1.8 GHz clock speed.
Now, the Pi Foundation explains that it has brought simple overclocking functionality to all Raspberry Pi 4 units with the first Raspberry Pi OS image based on Debian Bullseye. In a blog post, the Foundation states that the latest firmware will 'do its best to figure out the best voltage to apply for a given overclock'.
You can determine if your Raspberry Pi 4 contains the newer SoC by looking for three black dots above the board's power input and HDMI 0 connection. These dots are the switch-mode power supply, which the SoC uses as its core voltage rail.
Additionally, you can manually overclock a Raspberry Pi 4 to 1.8 GHz by adding the following line to your config.txt file:
arm_freq=1800
The Foundation recommends reducing your Pi's clock speed in 50 MHz increments if you encounter stability issues. You can read more about the new version of Raspberry Pi OS in a separate blog post.
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