Overclocking the CM4 in config.txt
arm_freq up to 2000 with over_voltage and a faster GPU makes the CM4 noticeably livelier; two published recipes, and a clear warning not to try it on a CM5.
What it takes
- Config change
Difficulty 1 of 3 — easy.
Details
Caljank's 'middle of the road' settings (March 2025): arm_freq=1800, gpu_freq=750, over_voltage=5, gpu_mem=256, staying under 53 °C in normal use (browsing, Game Boy Color emulation) and averaging about 47 °C in a 22 °C room, with YouTube acceptable. Chris Stoddard's '10 things to do' notes go further — over_voltage=6, arm_freq=2000, gpu_freq=750, gpu_mem=256 under the CM4 section of /boot/firmware/config.txt — and say he has used them on many Pi 4s without trouble.
The same notes are the source of the often-repeated rule: 'do not under any circumstance try to overclock a CM5, the passive cooling is not enough.' Watch temperatures with the stock pad either way; the Thermal category has the fixes if it throttles.
Links
Open at Forum thread- GitHub — Chris Stoddard's uConsole notesRepository
Related mods
Every CM4 or CM5 sits on an adapter in the CM3 socket: the $19 open-source original, HackerGadgets' $23 board with NVMe and USB 3.0, or lulu's $20 CM5 kit.
A CM5 drops into the CM4 adapter for a faster CPU, up to 16 GB of RAM and USB 3.0 — get a Lite with WiFi, update its EEPROM, and mind the heat.
trinity's reference table of every compute core that fits the uConsole — ISA, RAM, eMMC, WiFi, OS support, adapter needed or not — plus the adapter boards.
An RK3588S module with up to 32 GB RAM on HackerGadgets' Radxa adapter: display, keyboard, USB and charging work, no onboard WiFi, mainline kernel since 2026.
ClockworkPi's own RK3399 module — two Cortex-A72 plus four A53, Mali-T864, 4 GB — needs no adapter; $129, with a smaller but real software base.
A single-core 1 GHz RISC-V module with 1 GB and no GPU — a terminal machine with long battery life, now sold out, with a small but determined software scene.