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Sonnet Clocker II: software extension overclock of Sonnet L2/Nubus G3 accelerators

Byrd

Well-known member
Hi,

Reporting on a little discussed utility that I'd forgotten about ...

http://www.zone6400.com/Sonnet_Clocker.html

Sonnet Clocker (use the rev. 1.2 version) is a utility that edits the Sonnet G3 extension to adjust the multiplier of a L2 or Nubus based Sonnet branded G3 accelerator.  I'd never heard of successful software overclocking on Mac hardware, but can confirm I can overclock a Sonnet G3 400Mhz (1MB cache) L2 accelerator in my TAM to 500Mhz, as confirmed in benchmarks.  Running at 500Mhz, it gets hot and I have replaced thermal grease on the card and intend to install a small fan nearby to dissipate some heat from the cramped TAM internals.  Of note, it did not work at 450Mhz, I believe G3 revision and multiplier support is the key here.

Next I'll try it on a Sonnet Nubus G3 300Mhz card.  Results may vary for you and on particular hardware.

JB

 
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Byrd

Well-known member
No - multiplier speeds only.  If edits the extension which you have to remove the old, and drag the edited one back into the Extensions folder.

 
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trag

Well-known member
Okay, I"ve since dug through the PPC750 datasheets and the L2 cache multiplier/divider is set in software.   I wonder if this utility can be hacked to adjust other parameters.  So the utility adjusts just the CPU bus multiplier, correct?    That's a different parameter from the one that would adjust the cache multiplier, and cache size, unfortunately.

 
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