Overclocking SuperFX

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:51 pm

blabmouth02 wrote:"What the copulate was that," said dad.
"Are you okay Johnny," asked mom.

[Johnny walks out of his room covered in sut]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

blabmouth02 · Post by **blabmouth02** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:13 pm

ya i know, the most random thing i could think of without being a spammer... anyways new to the whole electronics thing so don't know much about over clocking...does it like help the graphics or something?

Post by **Sparkfist** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:07 pm

What overclocking does is you have the CPU or GPU run more processes a second. What this does to a computer/console is that programs run smoother and graphics are sometimes inhanced.

With the SNES and the Super FX, it lets you get over the slow down you can experiance in fast motion parts of a game.

warmachine · Post by **warmachine** » Tue Dec 27, 2005 4:43 am

Okay, I gotta quick question. One of my other hobbies is flying RC planes; my dad and I have been doing that since I was three (now 18). We recently crashed a cheapo foam plane from about three hundred feet up (total nose dive) and scrapped it, but I, being the parts saver, saved the controller board. I ripped out the oscillator and noted the resonance - 27.XXX MHz (I can't recall the XXXs right now). Would it be possible to overclock an FX chip with a standard 27MHz RC oscillator? If so, I saw Vortex at a pawn shop a couple of days ago and I'm itchin' to try this out if it's possible.

Post by **marshallh** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 9:10 am

I'd guess the chip would run fine at 27MHz, if a little warm.
I got some pictures from a guy who claims he ran it at 40MHz but I don't really believe it.

Epicenter · Post by **Epicenter** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:18 pm

Excellent work-- I'd been considering embarking on this little project for a while now. Rob Ivy and I are getting our crap together to perform the anticipated SNES Overclocking modification soon-- we will also start on StarFox. I'm almost positive of a method to get the Mario Chip running at a higher frequency with success.. and damn is StarFox a game that needs it!

Congrats again and keep up the good work.

King of Bling · Post by **King of Bling** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:47 am

I know that the Mario chip used in Star Fox doesn't have a ceramic resonator, but do the two later models of the Super FX chip, GSU-1 and GSU-2 have different sized ceramic resonators?

Super Cameraman · Post by **Super Cameraman** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:19 pm

Is that piece the same thing used for R.C. car radios? If so, I have a lot! I need more info, though.

ConsoleFun · Post by **ConsoleFun** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:42 pm

marshallh wrote:YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Vortex is now running at 24MHz! The mod was so simple it hurt!

Hey marshallh!
I just wanted to say that I did your mod today (on Vortex), and it works great!

PS:The game did not boot when I used the two 18pF caps, but it works great without the caps.

ConsoleFun

Dr. Killjoy · Post by **Dr. Killjoy** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:16 pm

Is there anyway to overclock Starfox? Obviously, there aren't any crystal resonators to replace, but there must be some way...

If anyone finds a way (or even has a schematic for the game), I would greatly appreciate it. As it has already been said, the game desperately needs it at times.

Thanx.

Player0 · Post by **Player0** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:11 pm

Hmm, excellent find.

Vortex runs the SFX chip at 10.7Mhz as far as I can tell. The SFX chip runs a multiplier of 0.5x by default, although apparently it can be changed on the fly by software methods. Vortex at least stats up at 10.7mhz.

Which makes me wonder if running a 40Mhz crystal isnt such a bad idea. Apparently there's a control pin on the SFX which can change the multiplier on start up to default to 0.5x or 1.0X. But if that multiplier is stuck at 0.5x, using a 40MHz crystal is going to run the SFX chip at 20Mhz, which is actually within spec for the SFX!

Unless Vortex changes the clock mult to 1.0x after start up via software means, at which point that theory sucks.

I have StarFox 2 sitting on a Stunt Race FX cart running slooowly, so Im looking for any sort of method to improve this situation!

Sword_Gun · Post by **Sword_Gun** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:25 pm

Old thread man,

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:49 pm

Sword_Gun wrote:Old thread man,

He's submitting information.

Player0 · Post by **Player0** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:40 pm

Submitting information, or contributing to confusion, I'm not sure which

Ive just spent the past couple hours reading the SuperFX chip patents and trying to determine a basic pinout. No such luck.

I havent actually found any new information, so I have to default to the typical answers others have given, other than the fact that the SuperFX chips DO work on a wait state deal. Which means you can clock it to anything it might actually be stable at, and it shouldn't screw up the important timings to the rest of the game. The game itself will probably just run faster (just like they do in emulators when SuperFX timing is too fast).

So overclocking is aokay, so the real question is how far can one go with it.

Krepticor · Post by **Krepticor** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 9:52 am

I have been thinking about the starox overclock

The issue is where the resonator is located For if I am correct (write it down if I am guys) the super FX chip is the same technology in all the carts right?

However, the starfox cart has those stupid black dots for their circuits I wonder where the blasted resonator is located If it is loactaed on the inside of those black dots then there isn't a way to overclock it If there is a line out from one of the ships there may be a way... Wishful thinking on my part but possible by placing a oscillator after it to accelerate the current, but I do not know whwere the blasted oscillator is located in the circuit...

However, there may be one way to play an overclocked starfox...

SNESdev shows us how to build a cart using EPROMs one could build a Starfox cart using the stunt race fx cart and overclock that...however, this would consume money at a rate most undesirable (after the EPROM Programmer and the EPROMs plus the other chip meeded will run up the price