Thanks to many talented developers, the PSVita has many plugins to boast of but some of the most used are overclocking like PSV VSH Menu and LOLIcon. Now, PSVshell has been released which is yet another overclocking plugin but it aims to fix the issues encountered with the others while bringing its own features!

What is PSVshell?

PSVshell, by Electry, is a kernel-mode plugin for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV which is currently compatible with firmware 3.60 and 3.65.

With PSVshell, you can set core frequencies in LiveArea and every other application with a very high degree of compatibility!

Similar to PSV VSH Menu and LOLIcon, this plugin is an overclocking plugin but it aims to provide a highly polished experience that includes a nice GUI and a high degree of compatibility.

This plugin comes with many useful features which include:

• Obviously, it allows you to overclock every aspect of the PSVita including the CPU, GPU (ES4), BUS and XBAR
  • Like LOLIcon, you can overclock your PSVita’s CPU to 500MHz (494MHz in reality) which provides a small but noticeable boost over the 444MHz frequency that the PSVita can officially run at
  • Unlike LOLIcon, it doesn’t allow you to set your GPU frequency to 333MHz as it only seems to differ from the normal 222MHz mode in regards to stuff relating to the Vita’s codec engine rather than actual GPU cores thus no performance difference is noticed in games
    

    PSVshell also supports HUD mode which provides real-time statistics on how your system is doing performance-wise

• It comes with a pretty nice dark-mode UI rather than the console text-style UI of similar plugins
  • Other than being nice to use, it also lets you modify clock frequencies with a few button presses and save profiles
  • You can also see per-core CPU usage, peak load and some other statistics
• Unlike other overclocking plugins, PSVshell is a kernel-mode plugin so it works in LiveArea
• App-specific profiles are supported
• Games aren’t slowed down when you’re using the clock frequency menu and Adrenaline is supported
• 3 different UI modes which include ‘FPS Counter Mode (Top-Right)’, ‘HUD Mode’ (shows usage statistics & frame rate) and ‘FULL Mode’ (shows you the clock frequency menu)

From a brief testing session, I can personally confirm that the plugin works pretty well with the browser, LiveArea, Age Of Zombies and Fruit Ninja functioning without any hiccups.

How do I install this plugin? How do I use it?

Installing PSVshell is pretty easy but getting it to show may be a tad confusing at first

To get PSVshell on your PSVita, you have to:

• Download the plugin from its GitHub Release Page
• Copy it over to ux0:/tai/ or ur0:/tai/
• Open your taiHEN config.txt and add its path under the *KERNEL section (example: ‘ux0:tai/PSVshell.skprx’)
• Reboot your PSVita and enjoy overclocking without any major issues!

Using the plugin is pretty self-explanatory but getting it to show up the first time might be a tad confusing. To get it to show up, press ‘SELECT+UP (on your d-pad)’ at the same time and you’ll get the FPS counter. After that, press the button combination again and then do it again to get the clock frequency menu. To get rid of it, press ‘SELECT+DOWN (on d-pad)’ simultaneously until you get to the view mode you desire. More instructions can be found in the README below.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, this plugin is recommended for virtually anyone using a hacked PSVita since many games such as Borderlands 2 can use some form of overclocking in order to give you a smoother experience that should’ve been provided in the first place!

If you want your PSVita or PSTV ‘permanently’ overclocked to 444 or 500/494MHz, you might be interested in LOLITA444/500 by Team CBPS.

PSVshell README (check it out before installing it): https://github.com/Electry/PSVshell/blob/master/README.md