Over clocking GPU?


TylerAW

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Aug 30, 2010
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I noticed when you look up the SGX 530 the Graphics Chip in the Pandora it is usually clocked @ 200 not 110 MHz, is there a way to get it back to 200?
 
It can't be clocked higher on OMAP3530, it's a limitation inherent in the clock tree. You can clock it off of a divider of the L3 clock instead, but then you're even slower and that's not safe to overclock much (or maybe at all) due to all the critical stuff that's attached to it.


I'm curious as to why you actually want more GPU performance.
 
Wait, last I heard the graphics chip didn't work (didn't have drivers, was going to be a pain to get them working). Are they working now?
 
It's not that bad. It can handle the Quakes just fine.
Well no it is not terrible I just think it is odd that the PSPs Graphics Chip can out perform it in Polygon count, it's like the Pandora kicks it's ass for everything else but 3D the Pandora lags behind.

It can't be clocked higher on OMAP3530, it's a limitation inherent in the clock tree. You can clock it off of a divider of the L3 clock instead, but then you're even slower and that's not safe to overclock much (or maybe at all) due to all the critical stuff that's attached to it.


I'm curious as to why you actually want more GPU performance.

Well for one it would help it with Open Source 3D games and anybody who wants to do a 3D project on it.

Wait, last I heard the graphics chip didn't work (didn't have drivers, was going to be a pain to get them working). Are they working now?
I have never heard this, how else would the N64 graphics plugin work?
 
Just seems to me like you should wait for software that you know is GPU limited beyond an acceptable framerate before wanting to make it faster. You it could have theoretically made a big difference down the road.. it's also possible that not a lot will ever stress it.


Looking at metrics like polygon count promoted by GPU vendors is a waste of time. There are far too many variables (and flat out lies) for it to be a meaningful comparison of anything.
 
Just seems to me like you should wait for software that you know is GPU limited beyond an acceptable framerate before wanting to make it faster. You it could have theoretically made a big difference down the road.. it's also possible that not a lot will ever stress it.


Looking at metrics like polygon count promoted by GPU vendors is a waste of time. There are far too many variables (and flat out lies) for it to be a meaningful comparison of anything.

Ok let me put it this way, current tests and evidence put most Mobile Phones that run on hardware similar or in the case of the iPhone equal to the SGX 530 @ 3-5K Tris on screen. Now keep in mind they do not use all of the available ram ever in any apps or games. Draw calls are very limited too.


The Pandora that runs the same hardware as a regular iPhone runs the same Graphics Chip @ basically half the speed. Unless memory "RAM" matters that much and can get you more Tris on screen than the Pandora's 3D output will be always limited. I do not know much about the inner workings of a game engine or how a graphics chip works despite being a 3D artist but am I right or wrong?
 
Ok let me put it this way, current tests and evidence put most Mobile Phones that run on hardware similar or in the case of the iPhone equal to the SGX 530 @ 3-5K Tris on screen. Now keep in mind they do not use all of the available ram ever in any apps or games. Draw calls are very limited too.

Okay, now how does PSP actually do vs Sony's numbers? How does it do when doing all of the per fragment operations OpenGL ES 2 compliant GPUs can do? Considering that it only has basic fixed function fragment processing capabilities..

The Pandora that runs the same hardware as a regular iPhone runs the same Graphics Chip @ basically half the speed. Unless memory "RAM" matters that much and can get you more Tris on screen than the Pandora's 3D output will be always limited. I do not know much about the inner workings of a game engine or how a graphics chip works despite being a 3D artist but am I right or wrong?

But unfortunately for Pandora it doesn't have the library of games that iPhone and Android has, maybe that should be your bigger concern..


In actuality, only the OMAP3 phones ran SGX530s, so there's more than just a clock speed deficit when comparing against say, iPhone 3GS+. That said, it won't always be the case that polygon count will be the limiting factor of performance in a 3D application on Pandora, other things can hit you first. None of this changes the fact that it doesn't matter until you actually have a decent amount of GPU stressing software on Pandora..
 
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Wait, last I heard the graphics chip didn't work (didn't have drivers, was going to be a pain to get them working). Are they working now?
I have never heard this, how else would the N64 graphics plugin work?

That was my impression, but someone will come in and correct one of us sooner or later.
Like, in 2008 there was some issues with the video drivers, but they were sorted over two years ago. The only thing we're waiting on is the DSP, and that has little to do with 3D rendering.
 
Ok let me put it this way, current tests and evidence put most Mobile Phones that run on hardware similar or in the case of the iPhone equal to the SGX 530 @ 3-5K Tris on screen. Now keep in mind they do not use all of the available ram ever in any apps or games. Draw calls are very limited too.

Okay, now how does PSP actually do vs Sony's numbers? How does it do when doing all of the per fragment operations OpenGL ES 2 compliant GPUs can do? Considering that it only has basic fixed function fragment processing capabilities..

The Pandora that runs the same hardware as a regular iPhone runs the same Graphics Chip @ basically half the speed. Unless memory "RAM" matters that much and can get you more Tris on screen than the Pandora's 3D output will be always limited. I do not know much about the inner workings of a game engine or how a graphics chip works despite being a 3D artist but am I right or wrong?

But unfortunately for Pandora it doesn't have the library of games that iPhone and Android has, maybe that should be your bigger concern..


In actuality, only the OMAP3 phones ran SGX530s, so there's more than just a clock speed deficit when comparing against say, iPhone 3GS+. That said, it won't always be the case that polygon count will be the limiting factor of performance in a 3D application on Pandora, other things can hit you first. None of this changes the fact that it doesn't matter until you actually have a decent amount of GPU stressing software on Pandora..
The SGX535 has the same polygon count as the 530. :p I'm trying to figure out if the future of Pandora software will be more 3D oriented or not.
 
The SGX535 has the same polygon count as the 530. :p I'm trying to figure out if the future of Pandora software will be more 3D oriented or not.

I'm telling you, polygon count is not the only relevant metric in GPU performance. SGX535 has twice the TMUs and therefore twice the theoretical texturing fillrate.


Rest assured that the future of Pandora 3D software won't be determined by the capabilities of the GPU nearly as much as it'll be determined by the willingness people have in doing 3D software for Pandora.
 
The SGX535 has the same polygon count as the 530. :p I'm trying to figure out if the future of Pandora software will be more 3D oriented or not.

I'm telling you, polygon count is not the only relevant metric in GPU performance. SGX535 has twice the TMUs and therefore twice the theoretical texturing fillrate.


Rest assured that the future of Pandora 3D software won't be determined by the capabilities of the GPU nearly as much as it'll be determined by the willingness people have in doing 3D software for Pandora.
Well that is a concern too but when it comes to even the iPhone 4 apps and games do not get all of that ram in the system, in fact I'm pretty sure they don't get more than 64MBs unless it's an app that only runs on the iPad or iPhone 4 for example. Do you think the freedom of using all of the Pandora's ram helps? Speaking of which I was wondering if Virtual Memory helps games and apps work better or is it painfully slow?
 
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Well that is a concern too but when it comes to even the iPhone 4 apps and games do not get all of that ram in the system, in fact I'm pretty sure they don't get more than 64MBs unless it's an app that only runs on the iPad or iPhone 4 for example. Do you think the freedom of using all of the Pandora's ram helps? Speaking of which I was wondering if Virtual Memory helps games and apps work better or is it painfully slow?

I doubt any iPhone 3GS or better is limited to 64MB. The OS probably does use too much memory (although if you really want to see a flagrant example check out the OS on Blackberry Playbook, which uses over 512MB at startup!) but I doubt it uses that much. Surely you can get over half of it.. by the way, iPhone 3GS had as much memory as the first iPad, 256MB.


Virtual memory is definitely too slow to use for a program to have a working set of > 256MB, but it could be used to prevent programs from running at all. You just have to be careful when enabling it.. Most people probably won't be doing a bunch of extra stuff simultaneously, but if for some reason you leave a web browser with a bunch of tabs running it won't kill your memory supply.
 
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