I overclocked the Super FX in Stunt Race several years ago, but I finally got around to uploading a video of how well it runs.
Also Starfox, which was a bit more complicated.
Starfox
Stunt Race FX
Still not perfect, but "better"
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I overclocked the Super FX in Stunt Race several years ago, but I finally got around to uploading a video of how well it runs.
Also Starfox, which was a bit more complicated.
Starfox
Stunt Race FX
Still not perfect, but "better"
Can you provide instructions? Playing Stunt Race FX would be certainly be more fun if it played a bit faster. Star Fox is fine the way it is.
Stunt Race FX has it's own clock generator IC. The oscillator does not need an external power source to oscillate. You need to desolder the 21.477MHz XTAL (X2 IIRC) and replace it with one of a higher value. 2-pin metal can.
I know, the 21MHz clock signal gets halved for use with the Super FX 1 chip. So would you say 31.5 MHz would be a good oscillator replacement? That would be 1.5 times. Or would 42MHz be better?
Clock input on the GSU is 21.477 (NTSC) as checked with a frequency counter on /CLK. It is divided internally.
There is no reason to stick with a set multiplier, just test whatever frequency you want. Expect no more than about ~10-15%.
I've been very curious about this for a while -- thanks for posting this.
My understanding is that some games run with a higher framerate but the same speed, whereas other games just run fast -- is that correct? I had a vague sense that Stunt Race FX and Vortex were in the first category, while Starfox was in the second, but I'm not sure if that's accurate.
I remember reading a message board thread with a guy who said that overclocking Vortex led to a big improvement...ah, here we go. Later in the same thread, someone says they had also good results with Dirt Trax FX.
Someone else in that thread says Doom has a hardcoded framerate limiter which minimizes any benefits to overclocking. I can't see any gameplay reason to OC Yoshi's Island, so that just leaves the two Euro games and the unreleased Starfox 2 (and that Powerslide pre-alpha, I guess).
Also, there was some concern raised that overclocking certain games would put strain on the console -- is there any truth to that?
Awesome glad to know it's possible to overclock starfox. Are you overclocking the mario chip here? I got my friend to solder a starfox 1 eprom to a stunt race fx cart and I'm waiting for it to show up so I can overclock it. I figured since it seems fairly easy and safe to overclock stunt race fx that this is a good option. Any suggestions/tips?
Yes, the Mario chip is the GSU, AKA Super FX for Starfox. The GSU relies on an external source for it's clock. This is supplied via the cartridge slot, so you need to intercept this signal and supply your own. You will need a 4-pin metal can oscillator. The Mario Chip seems to get much warmer than other versions of the GSU, so I had to supply some passive "cooling" in the form of a heat spreader in order to increase stability. I suspect that a slightly different wafer process was used to produce this chip.
Wow that's really awesome! Yeah me and my friend first stuck a starfox 1 maskrom onto a superfx 2 cart and I tried to overclock it but I only got it to underclockQuote:
Originally Posted by Robivy64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW1BC...el_video_title
I even put a 200 mhz crystal into that cart and still it ran at the same speed as the default 21 mhz resonator. Anyway today my stunt race fx cart with a starfox 1 eprom showed up so I'm gonna see if this cart works better with the overclock. Luckily starfox 1 runs on super fx 1, super fx 2, and mario chip. But you need to be careful that you're using the correct rom we found one rom on the internet that actually kills a real super fx chip if you run it.
please do a guide on this and overclock a reproduction copy of starfox 2 and Vortex
okay I just tried overclocking my stunt race fx cart with a starfox 1 eprom and it does the same thing that my super fx 2 starfox 1 cart...it ends up underclocking....am I doing something wrong? I desoldered the resonator, then I soldered in a 2 pin 27 mhz crystal, then I added two 18 pf caps connecting the crystal pins to the middle pin (which I assume is ground).
Someone on youtube emulated what a 400% overclock would be like for StarFox by changing the clock rates in SNES9x. The result was a bit entertaining really:
Though if I remember correctly all SNES emulators asside from bSNES emulate Super FX games too fast anyways.
It seems like they use the FX to decompress the audio for the voices on the fly, timed against how fast the FX runs.
Do you think there could be a way of overclocking Virtua Racing on the megadrive so that it played even smoother ?
No. Notaz did tests on that when working on SVP support in PicoDrive - IIRC, there was no difference for "overclocking" the SVP beyond about 12 MIPS. The limiting factor on the Genesis is the severe limits of storing to vram. You would need to overclock the VDP and vram to see any improvement in an overclocked SVP.Quote:
Originally Posted by morcar