Does O/C a Video card really make a difference in games?

[Se7en01]

Or is the O/C just for bragging rights in benchmark programs? My GF3 ti200 gets 100fps in MOH accept under extreme fire. Would I notice any difference in game play or graphics quality by O/Cing the beast?

 

[AA0]

no at 100 fps, but the difference when you hover in the 20s is important. Image quality can look worse if you overclock too much.

 

[LS20]

i myself wouldnt notice it.. and i wouldnt risk the card to get a very minute increase in fps

 

[cmyk]

I dont think its worth it either.

 

[csH4x0r]

eye lub to OC my gf3 :] cause all i gots is a plll800 and i need the extra horsepower. but yeah, if your fps are good enough no need.

 

[scoobydooby]

Your fps is probably at 100 because you're playing at a lower resolution. Try playing at 1280x1024 with max settings. It's not gonna make much of a difference but it can give you 10-20 fps and I don't think it's all that risky anyways. But in general I think most people overclock because it's fun.
Scoob

 

[Theslowone]

At higher res it will help some, especially if you overclock a ti200 to regular or ti500 specs and a radeon le to retail specs. It all depends on how much you overclock, the less you overclock the less you will notice(sorry for being mr obvious on the last part). But unless you really push your card to high extremes, the chances of you messing it up are slim. Now if you start adjusting voltages to high or frequency to fsb to high then that is when you can screw your card up fast, but normal core/mem will usually give you signs that your card can't handle it.

 

[BFG10K]

IMO it's not worth the small ~10% performance gain that you get in most situations when you consider the risks of overclocking video cards. I pay a bit extra and I get the next model up so I'm essentially guaranteed to get the performance level that I might have gotten with the slower but overclocked card.

 

[Noid]

I think it depends on your card/chipset right? Cuz my old Voodoo5 5500 still gives me a good oc for the board, Yet my MSI GForce2 Pro (really an oc'd GTS) wont oc at all.. In fact MSI had to replace my intial purchase cuz it wouldnt run 4x.

 

[csH4x0r]

i dont see it as dangerous, as long as you cool it properly. i've never had a card give up on me or loose pic quality cause of me OC'in it, and i leave the card pretty close to its limits when i finally get it stabel. i had a tnt2m64 OC'ed to the very max (hehe, about 175core and 200 mem i think, cant remember though :] ) for a long time and it never gave up on me. It all really depends on what you want. i usally ugrade every year or so, so i dont really need my gf3 to last for the duration of its 4 year warrenty(sp)

 

[Metalloid]

I overclocked my Hercules Prophet II pro from 200/400 to 223/446 with some extra cooling, and I only noticed a 300pt increase in 3dmark 2001 on its standard settings. If you run at very high resolutions with anti-alliasing and anisortopic filtering on then you might need the extra fps.

 

[darktyco]

Its worth it to me, if I can squeeze an extra 10 FPS out of my system with various OCing, then that is 10 more FPS that I have to sacrifice for some anti-aliasing or ansio filtering. Plus when the frame rates really start to drop when some newer games come out, I will be glad that I have those extra FPS to help keep the action smooth.

 

[rogue1979]

If you are getting 100fps in all the games your are playing, then you don't need to overclock. However, if you are like me and go for image quality, I always play my games with FSAA on 4X. So overclocking can mean the difference between 25fps and maybe 35fps in some situations, a noticable difference.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

2 words: Free performance! If you're keeping your card 2 yrs or less, then why not? I prefer not to change voltages though as that can be more risky. OC'ing made a significant difference with my Radeon 7500, everything is a bit smoother

-Ice