I just software overclocked my G4 400 to 533MHz!

me hate windows said:
i am still confused about the ram, would my pc100 still work?
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It would work, but the rest of your machine will work also at 100 mhz. So you don't overclock anything then.

I have in my G3 400 B&W a 256mb 133 mhz dimm. Just curious if this works with this machine. I will try it out. I never could get it hardware overclocked. It wouldn't run stable by just altering the processorjumpers!
I'll get back to you guys as soon as possible! (hmmm, wonder if Folding@Home still works after the hack, it hates overclocked machines!)
 
tooo bad, didn't work. Does anyone know how to do this with a G3 B&W? Already tried to to replace "G4" with "G3" and messing with the jumpers doesn't make it stable (won't even boot).
 
Software overclock does not work

It's completely bogus. Panther wasn't fooled in the sliightest.

I have a Sawtooth 500Mhz upgraded with a GigaDesigns Dual 1Ghz G4* (running at 1.3Ghz) that I set to 10x multiplier (1Ghz or 1.33Ghz with the overclocked bus). I tried the openfirmware hack and I got nothing. No performance increase, not even different numbers reported for bus/cpu speed. I checked on the hardware prefpane and the "About this Mac" page.

I think the comment (#64) that says this is for fooling earlier OSes (which didn't handle the timebase properly) into seeing your *hardware* bus overclock must be correct.

* Asutute readers will note that I don't have my PowerLogix CPU anymore. Alas, it didn't like my machine (prevented it from sleeping) so I sent it back and got this one instead. Even better, I paid less money for a vastly superior CPU.
 
Dreadnought said:
(hmmm, wonder if Folding@Home still works after the hack, it hates overclocked machines!)
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Programs like Folding@Home push your hardware to the limits. Compiling large projects will also do this. If F@H is crashing on your overclocked hardware, it's because your hardware isn't stable.

I had an old Pentium 3 that had been overclocked and it worked fine until I tried to compile stuff when the compiler would crash. Un-overclocking it made everything work fine.

Link
 
ecino1 said:
Sorry, here is the screen shot. I will do xbench now and compare the results.
Click to expand...

ever think of updating to 10.2.8? it worked sooo much better for me before i got panther.
 
just used open firmware on mine. I get G2 dual dual 1.08 bus speed@167. I am not sure if its faster but I did score alower make on Xbench. Its all very confusing.
 
So I realize this is an old thread, but did anyone ever get this to work? I have a Sawtooth 400 that is starting to run a bit sluggish in 10.3.9 and I wouldn't mind bumping it for a little while until I can afford a processor upgrade...

Basically, does anyone have any real-time answers? Some have already said it foold the software tests, so can anyone confirm that they've noticed a difference in performance, especially in Illustrator?
 
I overclocked my old Pentium 150Mhz PC to 166Mhz hoping it would die, so I can get a new PC. :p But unfortunately, the machine is still running 8 1/2 years on, so I am out of luck on getting another PC.

Make sure the G4 gets a lot of cool ventilation, which might mean prying it open or replacing the case fan with something more powerful.
 
I haven't tested the hack yet, I'm in the middle of my work "day" and just stumbled across the thread. I'll gladly do it later tonight or tomorrow, though.
 
Bumping this as Lowendmac has an article up about adding DIP switches to overclock the G4 Sawtooth bus speed. Anyone have any luck with this? I was thinking of trying it out, but would rather pick up a test tower first...

Also, if anyone knows about the L2 cache boost? Would that be necessary with a non-Apple processor (i.e., a Sonnet upgrade)?

Article: http://www.lowendmac.com/macdan/05/1130.html
 
Of G4s? Possibly; a lot of these hacks work well, and some don't, but it's all about experimenting (which is why we get stuff like this years after the model is new, as who is going to risk a $3000 machine on a hunch?). If the DIP configuration is the same, I don't see why it wouldn't...
 
gotohamish said:
Yeah, I do.

I have a Sawtooth G4 500, processor upgraded to 1.3Ghz, with the processor jumpers set for a 100Htz bus, anyone know how applying this hack would affect that?
Click to expand...

You would have to change both the jumpers on the card, and the OF setting. This is pretty straight forward overclocking, PC enthusiasts have been doing this for years. The OP's experience isn't that abnormal. Every machine is different, so one person might get a 25% overclock, while someone else won't get any.
 
Just used the software overclock to overclock G4 400 Sawtooth to 533!

It worked! I booted into open firmware (cmd opt O F), typed the commands, and rebooted and now system profiler shows a 533GHz G4! :) And it does even feel peppier! And I only have a single 128MB PC100 ram chip in.....how about that!
 
What the... 3 year old thread?

How much difference is going from 400MHz to 533Mhz going to make nowadays, as far as aiding in ability to run any modern software?
 
overclocking worked!

I just signed up purely so I could say, I followed the OP instructions, and bingo bango, I went from 400MHz to 533MHz. SAWEET.

Running a G4 (AGP Graphics), so pretty happy with it now. Seems to run a little quicker, I think.

I discovered this comp collecting dust in an old farm shed in outback Australia, and how its running Tiger, got a 2nd SATA HDD (using a SATA/IDE converter), and is the server at home, stable, quiet, reliable. Awesome!

Question though; is this fix just tricking the software to read an overclock, or is the processor ACTUALLY running faster? Im new to all this (but learning fast!) and have been considering whipping out the soldering iron and giving this a shot too:

http://power-mac-g4.com/g4clockup.html

Brave, or stupid?

Cheers all!
 
rbellinge said:
I just signed up purely so I could say, I followed the OP instructions, and bingo bango, I went from 400MHz to 533MHz. SAWEET.

Running a G4 (AGP Graphics), so pretty happy with it now. Seems to run a little quicker, I think.

I discovered this comp collecting dust in an old farm shed in outback Australia, and how its running Tiger, got a 2nd SATA HDD (using a SATA/IDE converter), and is the server at home, stable, quiet, reliable. Awesome!

Question though; is this fix just tricking the software to read an overclock, or is the processor ACTUALLY running faster? Im new to all this (but learning fast!) and have been considering whipping out the soldering iron and giving this a shot too:

http://power-mac-g4.com/g4clockup.html

Brave, or stupid?

Cheers all!
Click to expand...

Do you realize that this thread is from 2003?
 
The only way to overclock a G4 is moving some PLL resistors which control the frequency multiplier.
The firmware trick will do NOTHING in terms of speed, it only leads the system to read a different value for the bus clock than it actually is...
The only thing which could happen are timing problems or similar things when playing audio and movies...

On Sawtooth you can modify the bus speed by means of a DIP switch, though. You have to install it near the RAM slots, there is an article somewhere.

Good luck anyways.
 
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