...and it's not just for Pi Day.

After posting my deep-dive into the Pi 5's new BCM2712 and RP1 silicon this morning, someone linked me to this GitHub issue: Raspberry Pi 5 cannot overclock beyond 3.0GHz due to firmware limit(?).

For the past few weeks, a few blog readers (most notably, tkaiser—thanks!) commented on PLLs, OPP tables, and DVFS and how something seemed a little off with the 3.0 GHz CPU limit—which was apparently recommended by Broadcom, according to that GitHub issue.

But today, @popcornmix generated a test firmware revision without the 3.0 GHz limit, and zealous overclockers can get to pushing the clocks higher.

I started things rolling with a stable 3.14 GHz overclock, able to complete a Geekbench 6 test run, and posted a video with my process and results:

I tried 3.2 and 3.3 GHz as well, but 3.2 was unstable during benchmarking, and 3.3 wouldn't boot.

I was using an Argon THRML 60mm tower cooler for my testing (pictured at the top of this post). It is quite overkill (it actually keeps the Pi cooler than the Pi 5 water cooling setup I tested earlier!). But I would rather not have thermals be an issue when pushing the clocks higher.

Note: I've also been told, at least with the 16nm process node used for the BCM2712, the chip may be more stable at higher temperatures, versus lower (at least in relative terms). I may re-test trying to maintain the chip at 50°C or 70°C and see if it's more stable at another temperature. It seems unintuitive... but I've seen stranger things. I may also try chilling the chip to see how it does at lower-than-ambient temperatures.

My Geekbench 6 result improved a bit (but was still slightly less efficient than the base clock at 2.4 GHz):

Pi 5 clock	Single Core	Multi Core
2.40 GHz	748	1507
3.00 GHz	907	1662
3.14 GHz	967	1793

In the end, I will remind you that most Pi 5's won't even reach a 3.0 GHz overclock because of the silicon lottery, and performing more extreme overclocks (especially involving firmware you download from a GitHub issue) may void your warranty or at minimum cause permanent damage to your Raspberry Pi 5. You've been warned.

Now, go forth, and please beat my Geekbench scores!