PS3 Project RSX Boost: Overclock your Retail PS3 RSX Speeds (ps3 cfw only)

[LuanTeles]

@RIP-Felix , @Evilnat is asking what we want to xai display about the rsx, can you talk to him via X (twitter) ?

 

[tristen8878]

This is just terrible silicon luck sadly. I have 4 slims. All are 2501A and 2501B and they all handle 700 core and above easily stable with memory at 950 easy. Your model gotta be some early 2010 or late 2009 model. This is the first PS3 I've seen on here this unlucky.

2503b it is date code 0c so mid 2010

 

[ajthenoob]

I've included the results for all 4 of my consoles below, hopefully these help!

RSX	Node (nm)	DIE	FAB	MFG	DS	VIDBin	MODEL No.	MB rev.	lvl1 RSX String	DAYS
CXD2991GGB	65	?	1	TOSHIBA	2	0	CECH-2002A	DYN-001	rsx65 a06 600/750 vpe:ff shd:6f [AP0016364:1:1:7:16:c:2:5:1][1c:0:2:0:1:2:0][2:1:0]	103
CXD5300AGB	40	?	4	TSMC	6	0	CECH-2102A	SUR-001	rsx40 a01 700/900 vpe:1ef shd:7b [NM9842-02:0:4:2:9:11:6:0:2][26:0:2:0:1:0:1][1:1:0]	85
CXD5300A1GB	40	?	4	TSMC	6	0	CECH-2512B	JTP-001	rsx40 a01 700/900 vpe:ff shd:3f [NN5709-12:0:4:c:12:18:6:0:2][1d:0:a:0:1:0:1][1:1:0]	1
CXD5300GGB	40	?	2	SONY	2	0	CECH-2502A	JSD-001	rsx40 a01 850/950 vpe:ff shd:3f [L6B897804:0:2:19:15:1a:3:0:2][24:0:a:0:1:0:1][1:1:0]	240

I'm also planning on picking up a cheap CECH-2502B with 1B date code listed as for parts on Ebay, if I'm able to get it running and it has low enough firmware to be capable of CFW then I'll post the results for that one too!

------------

On another note, is anyone aware of ways to patch / mod games to run at different resolutions, graphical settings or frame rate caps? I have seen mention online of editing the PARAM.SFO for a game to change resolution, but I don't believe that has any impact on the actual render resolution of the game.

To be clear, I don't expect to run games at 1080p, 60 fps with some magical hidden ultra settings imbedded in the game lol. I'm mainly looking to see if games that render at sub 720p resolutions might be able to push for 720p with the overclock, if games that run above 30 fps but can't achieve a solid 60 can be capped at 30 fps, etc.

I have been digging through some of my games files in pursuit of the above and found that the FPS cap can be changed for F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Condemned 2: Bloodshot and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. These all appear to be games made by Monolith Productions using the LithTech Jupiter EX engine. F.E.A.R. which was also made by Monolith on an earlier version of the same engine doesn't appear to have this file.

All 3 of these games have an "autoexec.cfg" file within PS3_GAME > USRDIR which controls the "MaxFPS", I've tested these games at both 30 and 60 FPS and adjustments to the "MaxFPS" figure do seem to apply. F.E.A.R. 2 and Shadow of Mordor both have 45 FPS caps by default, whereas Condemned 2 has a 40 FPS cap.

View attachment 42992

• Running a 850/950 overclock, F.E.A.R. 2 constantly bounces between 25 and 45 FPS by default which is rather unpleasant. Raising the FPS cap to 60 produces the same unpleasant results, except now the game is bouncing between 25 and 58 FPS. Limiting the FPS to 30 results in a more consistent frame rate but it's still not perfect. It continues to drops primarily when spawning NPCs and transitioning between areas, the lowest I've seen so far is 25 FPS but most drops are only to ~27/28 FPS, it spends the vast majority of the time around 30. The FPS counter typically shows 29.6 fps though, almost never 30, I'd normally expect 29.96 from a 30 fps cap, so maybe something isn't quite right?

• Condemned 2 runs very similar to F.E.A.R. 2, limiting the FPS to 30 also produces similar results. This game does dip a little more often than F.E.A.R. 2, but still runs quite well with the overclock.

• Shadow of Mordor runs like shit no matter what lol. The initial tutorial scenes maintain 40~ FPS fine with the overclock, but the second you get into the actual game world the FPS frequently drops into the 10 - 20 range. Sadly the overclock doesn't salvage this title.

Is anyone familiar with any other games where similar modifications are possible?

I know that with dev menus, Uncharted 1 - 3 and the Last of Us can have their FPS caps removed/changed.

Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas and Skyrim can have some graphical settings changed by modifying .ini files, they can also have PC mods installed. Not all changes to the .ini files work though, amendments to resolution for example don't actually change render resolution like they do on PC, lowering resolution just pixelates the image and increasing it does nothing.

In digging through further game files myself it looks like some changes to graphical settings may be possible for Syndicate and Yakuza Dead Souls, but I'm yet to test these though so they may not work.

This tracks with mine. I think CXD5300GGB is the clear winner as far as we know.I made a post earlier with these details but don't know how to get the MB revision and manufacturer, can you decode from it?

I REALLY want to unlock FPS or 1080p Battlefield 3/4/hardline, since they're not GPU bottlenecked maybe going 1080p would do something. I'll have to look into this later!

 

[Cratus666]

Pretty absurd, right ?
Unfortunately, this YouTuber do not really explain anything in this video. So, how difficult it is to "convert" RPCS3 patches to make them works in Artemis ? I don't really know.

@DelixDex , @ashura , @Yusuf Mantam

As always, do it at your own risk !

650/850
https://www.mediafire.com/file/79b1ru70jvpxah9/test_650_850_beta8.pup_4.91.PEX-PS3UPDAT.zip/file

650/900
https://www.mediafire.com/file/v4shd77q3thy2ph/test_650_900_beta8.pup_4.91.CEX-PS3UPDAT.zip/file

700/700
https://www.mediafire.com/file/h51t8j8178yx2rn/test_700_700_beta8.pup_4.91.CEX-PS3UPDAT.zip/file

800/800
https://www.mediafire.com/file/vgujoqg1zvct0d7/test_800_800_beta8_.pup_4.91.PEX-PS3UPDAT.zip/file

800/850
https://www.mediafire.com/file/kowbiiucudj89vl/test_800_850_beta8_.pup_4.91.PEX-PS3UPDAT.zip/file

If I forgot something, tell me.

BTW, if you really need a video tutorial about how to use MFWBuilder, I'm okay to work on it.
(Not that I mind making you these firmwares, don't worry.)

I support this it'll help a lot of people. I'm still out but as soon as I get home I will try it again with everything they advised. Also is it possible to set your own custom number(? Eg I no longer see 750/975 and it's the most stable for me but I keep getting another error.
FATAL ERROR: !!ERROR!!: failed to import self sce headers from file:lv1.self

 

[RIP-Felix]

On another note, is anyone aware of ways to patch / mod games to run at different resolutions, graphical settings or frame rate caps?

I have a Cvar modified version of Crysis3. That user data directory has a config file in which you can ebable and disable features, unlock framrates, increase draw distance on grass animations, tessilation, etc. I cranked to absolute max on everything and unmodified 500/650 manages about 12FPS at my test location. My 650/800 OC (65nm A01 frankie) bumps that up to about 15FPS...lol! Clearly it's not ideal to play at this level of detail, but it is taxing the console full tilt and easily overwhelming any OC you toss at it.

The test location has grass in the foreground and distance (grass animation draw distance), water (ripples and reflections are known to be hard on ps3), cobble stones (tesselation), 3D models in enemies and humans fighting and buildings (many objects loaded in memory), lots of strait edges on buildings and wires (antialiasing), is half dark with moving shaddows across the scene and lighting (there were setting related to this in Cvars, I forget which. But I cranked them based on whatever said it was GPU intensive). There is fire and smoke, and fog. All in one test location. Basically it testes everything this game can put on screen and cranked to max to be the worst case scenario for the PS3.

The Cvar config only works on a base version from disc. They were patched out in update 1.04.

I know that with dev menus, Uncharted 1 - 3 and the Last of Us can have their FPS caps removed/changed.

Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas and Skyrim can have some graphical settings changed by modifying .ini files

Can you point me in the right direction for TLOU? That's my goto test game. I would like to mess with it.

 

[lemote8]

Hey guys today I kind of bricked my ps3 cech 2104a after installing 750 and 1000mhz. I guess going for 1ghz is pretty steep for these early ps3s. I kind of have hope to navigate blindly to update the firmware to a non oc firmware but I think that's out of the picture for me since the screen is garbled and doesn't even boot into safe mode it seems like. Only plays the startup music and I can still access my ps3 with web man on my computer. Trying the remote ps3 also didn't work because the rsx is cooked or it's being cooked. Please don't try 1000mhz guys trust me.
One more thing when I hold the power button for safe mode it just turns off but when I then turn it on no startup sound plays and I can move 1 left and 1 right because I can hear it what does this mean?

 

[haxxxen]

@RIP-Felix
glad you got it solved on your own and also for letting me know, but it seems weird that you've got that (ancient) task selected by default. I have checked now my git and the default task in Settings.xml is empty.

the most common failure seems keys with mfwbuilder, and I wonder why other users have problems with this batch file, when it does work fine for me. everybody should know, main error with batch files could be some misspelled path with whitespaces. anyways, I have to improve the batch file, cause I don't want to update my git everytime, only because of keys

 

[Cloud-Stri]

750/900 pex Beta 8 please

 

[Charles_n_town]

@RIP-Felix
glad you got it solved on your own and also for letting me know, but it seems weird that you've got that (ancient) task selected by default. I have checked now my git and the default task in Settings.xml is empty.

the most common failure seems keys with mfwbuilder, and I wonder why other users have problems with this batch file, when it does work fine for me. everybody should know, main error with batch files could be some misspelled path with whitespaces. anyways, I have to improve the batch file, cause I don't want to update my git everytime, only because of keys

I think some think there's a problem with the bat file, because it may error due to this line:

removing it will search only the data folder for keys.txt. I think @LuanTeles had this problem. I tested it with keys for 4.92, and it worked without issue.

 

[NunoRS2000]

Can you point me in the right direction for TLOU? That's my goto test game. I would like to mess with it.

to unlock the framerate in The Last of Us (v1.11) search for 1571A6F and change the byte 02 (30fps) to 01 (60fps) or 00 (unlocked)
for Uncharted 2 (v1.09) search for E9C1FB and change the byte 02 (30fps) to 01 (60fps) or 00 (unlocked)
about Uncharted 1 and 3 I don't know the address and values.

On the little test I did with the 700/900 overclock on Uncharted 2 I was getting anything between 36 to 60 with an average of high 40s (47fps iirc) in that chapter with Drake and Flynn.

 

[haxxxen]

lol, stupidme and blind. just now I've realized the error you have pointed out @Charles_n_town . have rem'ed it only on my own batch, lol

 

[Charles_n_town]

ok, I have no idea how sfk (google swiss file knife=public license version) behaves on Win7+, but it should work fine, cause afaik it isn't restricted to OS and is a pure cmdline tool. it was the easiest and fastest way I could think of, when updating scetool keys

edit
anyone can try sfk on Win7+ for me in cmd and report? I am almost sure this will work

I think it's updating the keys, but it's searching in two locations, so it fails when it can't find the keys.txt in the ps3keys folder. I don't know if they updated for him or not, but it's a false positive. it may be related to windows 7 as I'm on windows 11. I don't know what @LuanTeles is on.

 

[haxxxen]

please re-read again, sorry^^
have fixed it on my git. sorry for my ignorance and almost rant

 

[Charles_n_town]

please re-read again, sorry^^
have fixed it on my git. sorry for my ignorance and almost rant

no worries. we must've been posting at the same time as I didn't see it.

 

[ajthenoob]

I have a Cvar modified version of Crysis3. That user data directory has a config file in which you can ebable and disable features, unlock framrates, increase draw distance on grass animations, tessilation, etc. I cranked to absolute max on everything and unmodified 500/650 manages about 12FPS at my test location. My 650/800 OC (65nm A01 frankie) bumps that up to about 15FPS...lol! Clearly it's not ideal to play at this level of detail, but it is taxing the console full tilt and easily overwhelming any OC you toss at it.

The test location has grass in the foreground and distance (grass animation draw distance), water (ripples and reflections are known to be hard on ps3), cobble stones (tesselation), 3D models in enemies and humans fighting and buildings (many objects loaded in memory), lots of strait edges on buildings and wires (antialiasing), is half dark with moving shaddows across the scene and lighting (there were setting related to this in Cvars, I forget which. But I cranked them based on whatever said it was GPU intensive). There is fire and smoke, and fog. All in one test location. Basically it testes everything this game can put on screen and cranked to max to be the worst case scenario for the PS3.

The Cvar config only works on a base version from disc. They were patched out in update 1.04.
Can you point me in the right direction for TLOU? That's my goto test game. I would like to mess with it.

Is cvar modifying for Crysis3 the same as modifying for PC? I'll have to try it out sometime.

 

[Mitsu™]

I support this it'll help a lot of people. I'm still out but as soon as I get home I will try it again with everything they advised. Also is it possible to set your own custom number(? Eg I no longer see 750/975 and it's the most stable for me but I keep getting another error.
FATAL ERROR: !!ERROR!!: failed to import self sce headers from file:lv1.self

I'm working on it !
I think I've managed to add 975MHz VRAM to the list, but I can't test it myself (on my PS3).
I can make you one if you want.

 

[RIP-Felix]

to unlock the framerate in The Last of Us (v1.11) search for 1571A6F and change the byte 02 (30fps) to 01 (60fps) or 00 (unlocked)
for Uncharted 2 (v1.09) search for E9C1FB and change the byte 02 (30fps) to 01 (60fps) or 00 (unlocked)
about Uncharted 1 and 3 I don't know the address and values.

On the little test I did with the 700/900 overclock on Uncharted 2 I was getting anything between 36 to 60 with an average of high 40s (47fps iirc) in that chapter with Drake and Flynn.

Would you (or someone who understands what he's talking about) mind elaborating? I'm pretty new to this sort of thing. Just checked forum rules again as I wasn't sure if talking about hacking Cvars (which can be used to cheat) is allowed. Didn't see anything specific to game mods, just piracy talk. So I think it's ok. Subject to the opinion of mods OFC. I'm mainly interested in pushing the hardware to it's limits and if I can run through a game in god mode with infinite ammo to find a good test location and save there, all the better.

Is cvar modifying for Crysis3 the same as modifying for PC? I'll have to try it out sometime.

I think so. The tool I used seems to be meant for the PC version of the game, but apparently the devs left alot of that in the PS3 port, as it still works. Or at least many of the settings do. Though I think that yes and No is replaced with 1 and 0 for PS3. Not sure as it's hard to quantify if a change actually did anything. I'd have to really compare them side-by-side before/after and haven't gone to the trouble. I just read down the Cvar list and set everything to 255. Except maxFPS (0=no limit).

 

[Cratus666]

I'm working on it !
I think I've managed to add 975MHz VRAM to the list, but I can't test it myself (on my PS3).
I can make you one if you want.

This would mean a lot thank you, I need one lol!

 

[ajthenoob]

What's more likely to brick? I assume core clocks.

 

[NunoRS2000]

Would you (or someone who understands what he's talking about) mind elaborating? I'm pretty new to this sort of thing. Just checked forum rules again as I wasn't sure if talking about hacking Cvars (which can be used to cheat) is allowed. Didn't see anything specific to game mods, just piracy talk. So I think it's ok. Subject to the opinion of mods OFC. I'm mainly interested in pushing the hardware to it's limits and if I can run through a game in god mode with infinite ammo to find a good test location and save there, all the better.

About that thing for Uncharted 2 and The Last of Us I use PS3MAPI, that comes on Webman to apply the value changes. use your phone or tablet or pc to apply the changes. Put "ip address the console is connected to"/home.ps3mapi and go to Processes Commands and search for the desired memory address. Once it finds it change only the values that will return the desired effect that in our case is unlocking the framerate or raising the fps cap in the game. For the values, I've been checking on RPCS3 in the pages related to the game I want to unlock.