Unshackled: PSP firmware 3.50 allows official games to hit 333MHz

Posted Jun 20, 2007 at 6:20PM by QJ Staff Listed in: Firmware, News Tags: Sony

More power to portable gaming. We've just picked up word via an insider that among the updates that PSP firmware 3.50 carries, one important feature that's apparently been unlisted is that this latest fw release will finally allow commercial games to run at the PSP's full 333mhz CPU speed.

Prior to this, all UMD games for the PSP have been restricted to just 266 MHz - roughly 80% of the portable console's full power.

And while homebrew applications (that means you, intrepid coders!) have already been unlocking this feature for some time now, this move will provide new-found benefits for official UMD games: accelerated frame rates and game load timesare definitely at the top of our wish list, although we'll just have to wait and see if this is indeed the case. Aside from the hopeful speed boost, we're just hoping Sony's also got something planned for the increased power usage expected from turning the proverbial limiter off on the PSP - do we see a new battery in the works?

That aside, the company has yet to give an official statement on this new feature, and whether this unlocked CPU speed is dedicated to post-3.50 UMD games, or will affect past titles as well. Stay tuned for updates on this hot news.

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Comments

# Let's Summon Captain Planet! — Guest 2007-06-20 13:38

EARTH!

# great news — Guest 2007-06-20 13:40

this is great news....now they can make even better looking games for it

# ZOmG!!1!!!11!!!!1 — Guest 2007-06-20 13:44

ZOMG FERIST!

IM DA PWNER TO MAX

# Nice — Guest 2007-06-20 13:59

I played midnight club on my psp at 333mhz and the load times were garbage but the frame rates was better.

# Woooo!!! — Guest 2007-06-20 14:00

Ill Wonder if PS1 game will run Faster that will be sweet and to make the upcoming FF7 crisis Core mor Fatser Cool!

# Interesting — Guest 2007-06-20 14:09

Very interesting. This is probably due to some upcoming games, notablely from SquareEnix, like Final Fantasy VII:Crisis Core and Final Fantasy: Dissidia. I would imagine they would take the full 333 MHz to power those puppies into full gear. Although, probably not, because the release date for FF7:CC is in Sept, and Dissidia, probably not until the end of the year. Perhaps they are right about it being for a new battery? I'm still in wonder about it. Maybe it's a piece of hardware they plan to release? The question is, why did Sony not make their consumers aware of this? Maybe it is because, some might be turned off that this may drain the battery more, but still, when you do something like this, you at least have to mention it to the consumers still using your firmware

# It makes sence — Guest 2007-06-20 14:42

I mean if you look at coming games like Crisis Core and GRAW 2, those games crank out graphics that surpass what we have seen so far. So its likely sony is pulling out its Trump card for the next batch of games. Not to mention the "redesigned PSP" may have improved battery life.

# @Captain Planet Summon — Guest 2007-06-20 14:48

FAIL!

# FIRE — Guest 2007-06-20 14:51

FIRE

# No to the PSX question — Guest 2007-06-20 15:26

When you play PSX games on your PSP, the emulator boosts the MHz to 333 automatically. So no, it won't. Only way some other games will work properly is if Sony tampers with the emulator for the next version to make other game compatiable in some form or another. Then again, they may not have to.

# .... — Guest 2007-06-20 16:29

WIND!!!!!

# makes no sense — Guest 2007-06-20 16:48

>accelerated frame rates and game load times

frame rates, yeah. but for load times, the bottleneck is the speed of the UMD. overclocking the CPU won't make the drive be able to read data faster.

# Captain Planet Summon — Guest 2007-06-20 18:25

WATER!!!!

# . — Guest 2007-06-20 19:06

...and homebrew has let us do this ever since its existance.

# Definitely.... — Guest 2007-06-20 22:03

It will help on frame rates. Using CFW I run my PSP at 333 all the time and games and the XMB are much quicker.

At these low speeds, it might be that load times from UMD can be quicker, but I don't know what the read speed of it is.

Yes it will help older titles to speed up, but not graphically increase.

# Wrong — Guest 2007-06-20 22:25

# heart — Guest 2007-06-21 00:46

HEART!!!!

# liver — Guest 2007-06-21 01:02

LIVER!!!

# Dumbshoots — Guest 2007-06-21 01:03

You have awakened the almighty captain planet now fawk off, get a life, and let me rest and the planet burn baby burn!!

# maybe metal gear solid portable ops... — Guest 2007-06-21 01:13

will have less laggers soon. because everytime i go to play it online, somebody kills me when they are 10 feet behind me shooting the ground for example.

but only because i ALWAYS run the cpu @ 333Mhz ^^

# Mmm... — Guest 2007-06-21 01:24

I suppose this is a way of making people stop having custom firmwares since all PSPs would be able to run at full capacity.

Plus yeah it probably is because of new games such as MHF2 and FF:CC. I remember hearing on an interview of MHF2 that they did something to speed up the load times so maybe this is it. Mmm...

# f — enjoiskater 2007-06-21 01:53

freewebs.com/tsk8team

# yeah — Guest 2007-06-21 02:04

im on 3.40 OE-A and i always leave games at 333mhz. You really notice the difference in games such as GTA. But i leave my XMB at default since i don't need the extra power there and i want to conserve power when i listen to music, etc.

# lungs — Guest 2007-06-21 02:14

LUNGS!!! LOL

# . — Guest 2007-06-21 02:16

FLASH MEMORY>UMD

# bender — Guest 2007-06-21 03:47

how do u change it so it does use 333?:S

# Hmm — Guest 2007-06-21 04:01

Well, it is about time SONY started to actually let people use the full capacity of their PSP hardware. I would rather sacrifice some battery life for the ability to play better games on this system, and selling people hardware and telling them that they can not use all of it is generally bad business practice.

Not that this affects me much, considering that one can always set the custom firmware to 333 MHz.

# Captain Planet — Guest 2007-06-21 06:06

FIRE!

# > — Guest 2007-06-21 07:03

GO PLANET!

# Reporting for duty! — Guest 2007-06-21 07:43

WIND!

# Oh my f.... — Guest 2007-06-21 09:45

Aw, dammit~! This had better be good. Why the hell do you all keep bothering me~?!? I was about to score! Damn all of you.

# Captain Planet — Guest 2007-06-21 10:06

WATER!

# lol — Guest 2007-06-21 12:36

Fatser lol

# CAPTIN PLANET — Guest 2007-06-21 13:03

HEAR

As your powers combine I am CAPTIN PLANET.

# Captain planet elemnts — Guest 2007-06-21 13:42

There was love too remember lol

# rectum — Guest 2007-06-21 14:08

RECTUM!!!

# Summoning Captain Planet — Guest 2007-06-21 14:27

Yeah sorry to interupt your day Mr. Planet sir. But could you open my jar of mayonaise? Its really stuck!!! Im serious I can't open it.

# ... — Guest 2007-06-21 14:54

ummm... I have a quick question. I downloaded 3.50oe-b on the internet, and how do I install it on my 3.11 PSP? This might have been asked before.

# You've been duped. — Guest 2007-06-21 15:31

3.50OE is not available yet. Good thing you don't know what to do with it, because it'll likely brick your system.

Any firmware past 3.03 can NOT at this time be downgraded or OE'd. You're just screwed. Buy a new PSP or wait for a very long time.

Don't go anywhere else - dark-alex.org is THE place for Open Edition firmware. He's the one that did it, after all.

# Captain Planet — Guest 2007-06-21 16:00

@johnnnn

It wasn't love, it was HEART!

# ??? help please — Guest 2007-06-21 16:01

wat does it mean when they say cpu speed?

# :P — Guest 2007-06-21 16:16

Rainbow

Hot Pants

Mascara

NAMBLA

Ponies!

By your powers combined I am Captain Fa ggot!

Captain Fa ggot, he's our hero, gonna rape you right down to zero.

# it means — Guest 2007-06-21 17:59

how many operations the processor does in a certain amount of time.

# YES! — Guest 2007-06-21 18:00

i dont give a ***k about battery life i want to play all of my games at full speed! but umd data transfer rate is 11mbps and cpu speed hasn't NOTHING to do about loading times sorry :(

# They should have just... — Guest 2007-06-21 19:29

The people who have PSP's should have just downgraded then the 333MHz would have been unlocked! I hope they do release a new battery coz the PSP battery at the moment is useless! LOL I hope it's true!

# Sony — Guest 2007-06-21 19:50

Finally the power of psp will be shown

www.freewebs.com/pspjp

# Hi! I'm PsFeet! — Guest 2007-06-22 00:58

I'm a big Fạggot! I loooovvvveee sucking dỉcks, fụcking men, and all other sorts of gay stuff.

# *****ing mexican — Guest 2007-06-22 01:57

hear?

learn a little english before trying to summon CP, you n00b!!!!!!!!!!! 111111111111

# mysterious tree — Guest 2007-06-22 02:34

is this a rumor?

# gsfg — Guest 2007-06-22 05:39

gsfgsgha

# ***** — Guest 2007-06-22 05:42

^^^^^^^^^U R ALL *****S^^^^^^^

# suck — Guest 2007-06-22 08:12

yayyay go get custom fw *****es

# Captain Planet — Guest 2007-06-22 09:07

Tacos

# hmm — Guest 2007-06-23 01:12

well sony is finally taking its first step toward unlocking the true potential of the psp

# will u b able 2 run ur own ps1 games on 3.50 — Guest 2007-07-20 16:59

i wonder if they will allow custimation of the xmb and let u play your own games

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