We’re overclocking the Orange Pi 5 Max 16GB SBC with Rockchip RK3588 SoC up to 2647 MHz in 5 minutes or less using the 52pi ice tower cooler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szwPMz5Sfp0

I’ll speedrun you through the overclocking process and provide some notes and tips along the way. Please note that this is for entertainment purposes only and not the whole picture. Please don’t outright copy these settings and apply them to your system. If you want to learn how to overclock this system, please check out the longer SkatterBencher guide.

All right, let’s do this.

5 Minute Speedrun

I’m using the official Orange Pi 5 Max Debian Bullseye image available from the Orange Pi website.

When you’ve entered the operating system, open the File Manager.

Navigate to the /boot/ directory and open orangepiEnv.txt. The Orange Pi 5 Max device relies on this document for configuring the device during boot.

Make sure the parameter fdtfile links to “rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dtb.” This ensures that the steps we’re going to take will likely apply to your device. If this file isn’t here, don’t proceed.

Navigate to the /boot/dtb/rockchip directory. This folder contains the Device Tree Binaries or DTBs. A DTB describes the hardware infrastructure to the Linux kernel.

Create a new folder called “overclock” on the Desktop and copy rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dtb from /boot/dtb/rockchip/ to this directory.

Open a terminal in the new directory.

Type “dtc -I dtb -O dts -o rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dts rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dtb”. This will convert the device tree binary in its human-readible device tree source format.

Open the rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dts file with a text editor. Now we will prepare the device tree source file for our overclocking parameters.

For cluster0-opp-table entry:

• Remove all opp-j-m entries.
• Remove all opp-microvolt-Lx entries.
• Set all opp-supported-hw to <0xff 0xffff>
• Set all opp-microvolt entries to 1.5V maximum voltage (0x16e360, 3rd and 6th value).

This ensures we can have the four A55 cores and DynamIQ Shared Unit PVTPLLs run up to 1.5V which will automatically increase its operating frequency.

For cluster1-opp-table and cluster2-opp-table:

• Remove all opp-j-m entries.
• Remove all opp-microvolt-Lx entries.
• Set all opp-supported-hw to <0xff 0xffff >
• Set all opp-microvolt entries to 1.5V maximum voltage (0x16e360, 3rd and 6th value).

This ensures we can have the four A76 cores and respective PVTPLLs run up to 1.5V which will automatically increase its operating frequency.

For dmc-opp-table:

• Remove all opp-j-m entries.
• Remove all opp-microvolt-Lx entries.
• Set all opp-supported-hw to <0xff 0xffff>
• Set all opp-microvolt entries to 1.5V maximum voltage (0x16e360, 3rd and 6th value).
• Create a new OPP at 3500 MHz (0xd09dc300) with the same voltages as the previous highest OPP.

This ensures we’ll be be able to increase the memory frequency up to LPDDR5-3200.

For gpu-opp-table:

• Remove all opp-j-m and opp-m entries.
• Remove all opp-microvolt-Lx entries.
• Set all opp-microvolt entries to 1.5V maximum voltage (0x16e360, 3rd and 6th value).

This ensures we can have the Arm Mali-G610 integrated graphics PVTPLL run up to 1.5V which will automatically increase its operating frequency.

For rk8602@42 and rk8602@43:

• Set regulator-max-microvolt to 1.5V (0x16e360).

This ensures the voltage regulator for the two Cortex-A76 clusters can output up to 1.5V.

For DCDC_REG1, DCDC_REG2, and DCDC_REG5

• Set regulator-max-microvolt to 1.5V (0x16e360).

This ensures the voltage regulator for the GPU, Cortex-A55 cores, DSU, and Dynamic Memory Interface can output up to 1.5V.

Then save the DTS file.

Open a terminal in this directory.

Type “dtc -I dts -O dtb -o rk3588-orangepi-5-max_unlock.dtb rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dts”. This will convert our modified device tree source in a machine-interpretable device tree binary format.

Return to the File Manager.

Create a new document called “opi5m_oc.dts”. Now we will prepare the device tree source for our overclock settings. What we’ll do is increase the target operating voltage of the highest highest entry in every OPP table. The Rockchip RK3588 PVTPLL technology will then automatically increase the operating frequency to match the increased operating voltage.

The target voltage for the A55 cores and DSU is 1.25V, for the A76 cores it’s 1.30V, and for the GPU it’s 1.1V.

/dts-v1/;
/plugin/;

/ {
    fragment@0 {
        target = <&cluster0_opp_table>; // Little Cores 0-4
        __overlay__ {
            opp-1800000000 {
                opp-microvolt = <1250000 1250000 1500000 1250000 1250000 1500000>;
            };
        };
    };

    fragment@1 {
        target = <&cluster1_opp_table>; // Big Cores 0-1
        __overlay__ {
            opp-2400000000 {
                opp-microvolt = <1300000 1300000 1500000 1300000 1300000 1500000>;
            };
        };
    };

    fragment@2 {
        target = <&cluster2_opp_table>; // Big Cores 2-3
        __overlay__ {
            opp-2400000000 {
                opp-microvolt = <1300000 1300000 1500000 1300000 1300000 1500000>;
            };
        };
    };

    fragment@3 {
        target = <&gpu_opp_table>;
        __overlay__ {
            opp-1000000000 {
                opp-microvolt = <1100000 1100000 1500000 1100000 1100000 1500000>;
            };
        };
    };
};

Return to the Terminal window.

Type “dtc -I dts -O dtb -o opi5m_oc.dtbo opi5m_oc.dts”. This will convert our modified device tree source in a machine-interpretable device tree binary overlay format.

Now we will copy the files in the appropriate boot directories.

Type “sudo cp rk3588-orangepi-5-max_unlock.dtb /boot/dtb/rockchip”. This will copy our DTB in the directory with all the device tree binaries.

Type “sudo mkdir /boot/overlay-user/”. This creates a folder in the boot directory for device tree binary overlays.

Type “sudo cp opi5m_oc.dtbo /boot/overlay-user/”. This copies our overlay containing the overclock settings into the appropriate directory.

Type “sudo nano /boot/orangepiEnv.txt” to open the boot configuration text file. Now we will update our boot configuration with the overclock settings.

• Comment out fdtfile=/rockchip/rk3588-orangepi-5-max.dtb
• Add fdtfile=/rockchip/rk3588-orangepi-5-max_unlock.dtb
• Add user_overlays=opi5m_oc

Press CTRL+O to save the file and CTRL+X to leave the text editor.

Type “git clone https://github.com/hbiyik/rkddr”. This will download Boogiepop’s memory tuning tool that will help us set the memory overclock.

Type “sudo ./rkddr/rkddr/” to open the application.

Navigate to [lp5] and set the first line to 3200. This will make the LPDDR5 memory run at 3.2 GHz or DDR5-6400.

Then exit the application and confirm the settings with “y”.

After a reboot, the Orange Pi 5 Max is now running at its overclocked and overvolted parameters.

Orange Pi 5 Max Overclock Performance Improvement

We re-run some benchmarks to ensure everything works as intended and check the performance increase compared to the default settings. Higher is better, and all are higher. The Geomean performance improvement over stock is now +27.23%, and we get a maximum benchmark performance improvement of +75.92% in GLMark2-ES2.

When running the S-TUI Stability Test, the average A55 Cluster clock is 2099 MHz with 1.25 volts, the average A76 Cluster0 clock is 2556 MHz with 1.30 volts, and the average A76 Cluster1 clock is 2601 MHz with 1.30 volts. The average SoC temperature is 52.0 degrees Celsius. The approximate wall power consumption is 21 watts.

When running Jeff Geerling’s High Performance Linpack benchmark, the A55 Cluster clock drops as low as 2069 MHz, the A76 Cluster0 clock drops to 2520 MHz, and the A76 Cluster1 clock drops to 2561 MHz. The peak SoC temperature is 66.5 degrees Celsius and peak wall socket power draw is nearly 40W watts.

And that’s it. Thank you for watching and the YouTube members and Patrons for their support, and see you next time!