Raspberry Pi Model 3 Overclocking Settings?

Question

I have procured a Raspberry Pi Model 3 few days ago and planning to (safely!) overclock it. I want to get maximum from my little Pi 3 and looking for the instructions for the safe overclocking. I am also planning to install heat sink on the pi. I tried searching internet and stackoverflow for the detailed instructions. However, I could not find satisfactory step-by-step guide for safe overclocking of Pi3.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=138123

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=138840

http://www.jackenhack.com/raspberry-pi-3-overclocking/

http://hackaday.com/2016/03/03/overclocking-the-raspberry-pi-3-for-tasty-speed-increases/

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Overclocking

Raspberry Pi Model B 3 Overclocking?

Answer 1

Overclock at your own risk:

Overclocking is not exactly safe, but it can be done right and the Pi 3 will likely run without any problems if so. Not all Pi's are made equal so some people may be able to overclock their Pi to 1500 MHz will others may only be able to get 1300 MHz. It is a game of testing. I have my Pi 3 running perfectly fine at arm_freq=1350 MHz with the sdram_freq=550 and over_voltage=6.

To overclock your Pi 3 open the /boot/config.txt file and test different things. Maybe first try arm_freq=1250 and then put your Pi 3 under a heavy load and see how it works. To find the right numbers you will need to test different things. If the Pi starts to freeze, changing the over_voltage settings may be necessary, but do so at your own risk. If the Pi refuses to boot at some point, just put the sd card in your laptop, open the /boot/config.txt file on your laptop, and change the numbers to something more modest.

Again, overclock at your own risk.

Answer 2

In /boot/config.txt I used:

arm_freq=1350
over_voltage=3

and it runs stable but not much faster.