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I've been overclocking my computers for nearly 10 years, and I have yet to ever kill a component from doing so.  If you're smart about it, you can easily reap the extra performance without any longevity issues.

jsnipy wrote:

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

I've been overclocking my computers for nearly 10 years, and I have yet to ever kill a component from doing so.  If you're smart about it, you can easily reap the extra performance without any longevity issues.

guess the key is not to get too greedy?

I'd say the key is not to be stupid.

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

I've been overclocking my computers for nearly 10 years, and I have yet to ever kill a component from doing so.  If you're smart about it, you can easily reap the extra performance without any longevity issues.

Damn straight!

Pushing components right up to the limit however, is not big or clever (yet I still usually end up doing it when I get a new toy to play with, but only to see where the limits are, then I drop it to something more sensible).

CrazeD wrote:

killer21 wrote:

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

Over-clocking when you don't need to makes no technological sense.

Agreed.  Just asking for your mobo to fry when a few frames per second aren't really that worth a risk.

lolwut? Your motherboard isn't going to fry from overclocking your video card...

Some of you guys seem quite ignorant when it comes to overclocking. It's not going to lose that much life span. It may last 8 years instead of 10 years...big deal.

It's also not just going to up and fry one day because you overclocked it a little, unless you are completely newb at it and have never read up on it (dumb thing to do). Heat and such doesn't really increase from just raising the frequency (MHz). It only does when you raise the core voltages, which then lowers the lifespan and increases heat - but still, not by a whole lot.

Video cards do seem to get a big heat increase usually from overclocking. I'm not sure why, maybe the programs also increase voltage slightly to compensate, but CPU's (at least in my experience) don't really change temperature from frequency alone.

You will do practically no damage unless you run the overclocked components unstable for a long time. You can tell if a video card is unstable if your system crashes, freezes, you get artifacts, loss of performance, etc...

Increasing the FSB can increase temps a lot. Even with no voltage modification.

You can do a heck of a lot of damage to your components through OCing badly. I'm not just talking about frying components, I'm talking about damaging them over a period of 3-6 months, it's pretty common. I see it all the time.

But I'm with you on the GPU OCing presenting no risk whatsoever to the mobo.

CrazeD wrote:

From my experience with overclocking I've only seen temperature differences of 2-3 degrees tops from just frequency adjustment. I've also read lots of places that frequency adjustment doesn't really create that much more heat. I'm referring more to CPU's, I've never dabbled too much with GPU overclocking.

I've seen much, much bigger differences than that. Far from being unusual, I'd say it's the norm.

The#1Spot wrote:

Sup3r_Dr4gon wrote:

The G92 GTS is a powerful card for it's price, but goddamn, it's ugly as hell.

Since when do you buy a video card based on looks

Since I got a case with a window. I didn't spend time managing the cables and CCFLs for it all to be ruined by a card that's had the shit beaten out of it by the ugly stick.

CrazeD wrote:

Sup3r_Dr4gon wrote:

The#1Spot wrote:

Since when do you buy a video card based on looks

Since I got a case with a window. I didn't spend time managing the cables and CCFLs for it all to be ruined by a card that's had the shit beaten out of it by the ugly stick.

Lol yeah, I don't have to worry, mine is sexy

lol wtf is that shit

I'm surprised by how little some people here seem to know about overclocking. I've got about 6 years of experience myself, the first two being a total nub. I've never killed off any hardware by overclocking it, and without major volt mods, you're not gonna break anything (Assuming you get it stable) by overclocking it. I've got a GeForce 2MX that's been running 24/7 oc'd by a lot (Don't remember how much, but it doesn't have different speeds on 3D mode/2D mode) on a passive heatsink, topping off at very high temps (85+). It's been doing this since I first got it in 2003. If an 180nm card can do that 24/7 for five years, what isn't a modern 65nm card gonna do?

On the temp discussion, I'll add that it depends A LOT on what you're ocing. If you take a look at this and this, you'll notice how the Athlon XPs differ a lot more in TDP/speed than the C2Ds, that are, in fact, all the same. I'm not 100% sure if the Intel numbers are correct, but seeing temp benches of different C2Ds, I'd say it's pretty true.

Overclocking doesn't come with any risks if you play it safe and don't alter voltages. Going in small steps, keeping an eye on the temps and checking for errors caused by doing so, you're not gonna break something. The "Lifespan decrease" that people are talking about is, in laymans terms, inexistant, as it's a matter of about 20 years to 17 years, a timespan that will not matter, seeing how many times you've upgraded until then.

Not everyone is a genius when it comes to OCing.  There are tons of tutorials that explain all of that.

Bertster7 wrote:

CrazeD wrote:

killer21 wrote:

Agreed.  Just asking for your mobo to fry when a few frames per second aren't really that worth a risk.

lolwut? Your motherboard isn't going to fry from overclocking your video card...

Some of you guys seem quite ignorant when it comes to overclocking. It's not going to lose that much life span. It may last 8 years instead of 10 years...big deal.

It's also not just going to up and fry one day because you overclocked it a little, unless you are completely newb at it and have never read up on it (dumb thing to do). Heat and such doesn't really increase from just raising the frequency (MHz). It only does when you raise the core voltages, which then lowers the lifespan and increases heat - but still, not by a whole lot.

Video cards do seem to get a big heat increase usually from overclocking. I'm not sure why, maybe the programs also increase voltage slightly to compensate, but CPU's (at least in my experience) don't really change temperature from frequency alone.

You will do practically no damage unless you run the overclocked components unstable for a long time. You can tell if a video card is unstable if your system crashes, freezes, you get artifacts, loss of performance, etc...

Increasing the FSB can increase temps a lot. Even with no voltage modification.

You can do a heck of a lot of damage to your components through OCing badly. I'm not just talking about frying components, I'm talking about damaging them over a period of 3-6 months, it's pretty common. I see it all the time.

But I'm with you on the GPU OCing presenting no risk whatsoever to the mobo.

Likewise, I'm talking about OCing badly. There's a very fine line between 'good' and 'bad' when it comes to overclocking, and in fact, you've got to risk your card to know where that line is - you know it's at that point when it starts artifacting - and when it starts artifacting, that's exactly when it's too much - the artifacting is due to you overstressing the silicon - leave it like that for more than a short length of time and you will damage the component.

CrazeD wrote:

Bertster7 wrote:

CrazeD wrote:

From my experience with overclocking I've only seen temperature differences of 2-3 degrees tops from just frequency adjustment. I've also read lots of places that frequency adjustment doesn't really create that much more heat. I'm referring more to CPU's, I've never dabbled too much with GPU overclocking.

I've seen much, much bigger differences than that. Far from being unusual, I'd say it's the norm.

Are you talking about CPU's, or GPU?

CPU. Upping the FSB increases temps. Simple as.

CrazeD wrote:

Scorpion0x17 wrote:

Bertster7 wrote:

Increasing the FSB can increase temps a lot. Even with no voltage modification.

You can do a heck of a lot of damage to your components through OCing badly. I'm not just talking about frying components, I'm talking about damaging them over a period of 3-6 months, it's pretty common. I see it all the time.

But I'm with you on the GPU OCing presenting no risk whatsoever to the mobo.

Likewise, I'm talking about OCing badly. There's a very fine line between 'good' and 'bad' when it comes to overclocking, and in fact, you've got to risk your card to know where that line is - you know it's at that point when it starts artifacting - and when it starts artifacting, that's exactly when it's too much - the artifacting is due to you overstressing the silicon - leave it like that for more than a short length of time and you will damage the component.

Doesn't mean it is "overstressing the silicon", it just means you don't have enough voltage and it's unstable - simple as that. When your average non-hardcore overclocker overclocks their video card, they just take a program like Rivatuner and turn the frequency up until it is unstable and then back it down a bit. That is completely safe, you pretty much can't hurt it that way. But when it is unstable, you can either turn it down or do a volt-mod of some kind, to make it stable again.

Obviously eventually you will be "overstressing the silicon" but most chips, especially without a volt-mod, will handle it just fine...

It does mean it's overstressing the silicon. It has nothing to do with having insufficient voltage. If you have insufficient voltage the program will crash. Artifacting is not caused by lack of voltage. Certainly not in any scenario I can envisage. It means the chip is under too much strain and is being damaged. If you see artifacts caused by OCing, you hit the off button immediately to prevent serious damage. You can damage a card a lot using a program like Rivatuner.

It sounds like you need to get a better grasp of the fundamentals of overclocking theory. Start approaching it from an electronic engineering perspective.

Last edited by Bertster7 (2008-04-30 11:27:50)