Is Sony Secretly Overclocking The PS3 With Firmware Updates?

[Robin]

Firstly this is a theory / discussion so don't shout for facts and figures.

With some reporting their consoles running hotter with newer firmware updates and Rockstar's gaf about heat issues could it be that Sony are turning up the juice slightly (maybe on the GPU) to extend the PS3's life cycle?

Sony has done this before , the PSP CPU was originally under clocked at 222mhz then a few years later and update was released to bring it up to its full 333mhz.

The PS3's RSX is capable of 700mhz but currently sits at 550mhz. Apparently it was underclocked for launch because of heat (at 90nm with the heatsink already being huge) but now that the chips are at 40nm its not really an issue.

Could be the reason why older PS3's are struggling as the updates are designed for the slims and might be upping the mhz's for newer games? Remember the PS3's had stellar cooling reviews in the beginning yet in the years following there have been overheating issues.

There was also something about Sony speeding up the Blu Ray drive after FW 3.00 so loading times would be reduced so improving hardware performance via updates is nothing new.

Thoughts?

 

[ImprezaAddict]

Maybe these increases don't have a noticeable effect like time and dust do?

PS3s were praised for their processing power and stuff (I'm not really knowledgeable here though) but dust build up is what killed my 60GB PS3. My Slim is also running hotter and louder due to dust which means a cleanup is in order.

 

[Centura]

Sony has done this before , the PSP CPU was originally under clocked at 222mhz then a few years later and update was released to bring it up to its full 333mhz.

If I remember correctly, that's not entirely correct. The CPU is running at 333Mhz, but anything above 222Mhz is reserved for WiFi. After said update, they allowed developers to use the extra CPU power if they were not going to use WiFi.

 

[Robin]

All games after that update could make full use of the 333mhz, God Of War PSP was the first to use the extra power but only as you said if Wi-Fi is off but I'm just saying that they did increase the power of the system. Also Sony did not publically advertise the fact it had been included, it was only through developers that people found out so they could have done it with the PS3.

 

[LaBounti]

All games after that update could make full use of the 333mhz, God Of War PSP was the first to use the extra power but only as you said if Wi-Fi is off but I'm just saying that they did increase the power of the system. Also Sony did not publically advertise the fact it had been included, it was only through developers that people found out so they could have done it with the PS3.

Sony had nothing to gain by "advertising" that the performance cap had been lifted. Maybe because it was only advertised as being a 1-333mhz cpu from day one. I think the 38MB of unused ram sitting inside PSP2000 and up is a bigger deal. But then again lacking a second analogue pad is greater than that.