How bad?

[Compnewbie01]

If I say OC my 6800GT to ultra speeds (400/1100 i believe) how bad could/would this damage the card over the next year/two/three? Now I would definately work my way up to this OC, but say it is stable and no artifacts show up. I just added a vf700 and AS5 to my card today (Leadtek). Any input would be appreciated.

 

[volrathy]

Depends on the temps. I used to own a ASUS V9999GE "GAMERS EDITION" 6800 AGP (the 6800 that has 256MB of GDDR3) unlocked it to 16 pipelines and overclocked it to 400/1100 using coolbits and rivatuner. Its temps dropped from 72 degrees in full load down to 63 degrees in full load. I found no problems with the card when overclocked. As long as it stays below 75 degrees with no artifacts etc. It would most likely run fine for 2-3 yrs without issue.

 

[gac009]

are you having performance problems? what games/settings are you trying to play? maybe we can help you optimize your settings.

If you just want to have a GT overclocked to Ultra speeds so that you can say that you have a GT overclocked to Ultra speeds, and you are worried about burning out your card then I wouldnt risk it.

 

[Compnewbie01]

I just want to get an extra few months out of the card performance wise while not reducing its life time. Right now I am 55C idle and it gets to around 70-75C load playing CS:S (runs hotter than Doom3 for some reason). 400/1100 would be as high as I would go because maxing it out doesn't sound like a good idea if I plan to keep the card for awhile. I also don't want to have to keep adjusting the clocks like setting it high for gaming and down to normal for everything else. I am not having any performance problems as of right now, but I expect performance will go down over time as cards require more power. Just by playing around last night, I set it up to 370/1.05 and got at least 5 extra fps in the CSS stress test. I just want to know if putting it to ultra settings will cause the card to burn out in one year.

 

[gac009]

most likely will not burn out in one year, Ive heard of it happening with oc cards that are stable and then burning out a few months later but that dosnt seem to be the norm. if you are worried about you cards future performance then just overclock in the future when you need it, then there wont be anything to worry about from now untill then.

 

[ronnn]

Does oc make any difference for you in games? I don't bother with oc has the difference as always seemed marginal to me. Mind you I don't have a 6800gt to see the difference.

 

[nitromullet]

I ran mine at 400/1100 for almost a year with no issues. I think the guy I sold it to was planning on running it at those speeds also. The GT is pretty much an underclocked Ultra, and most will run at stock Ultra speeds just fine for many years. That being said, some won't... YMMV...

Sorry, but there just isn't some formula where you take the:

Life of Card - [(C * MHz) / FPS] = New Life Expectancy

You're trying to get a definite answer to something that cannot be guaranteed.

I also don't want to have to keep adjusting the clocks like setting it high for gaming and down to normal for everything else.

...you don't have to do that anyway. Notice the 3D and 2D clockspeeds. You only use 3D clockspeeds when you are doing something 3D.

 

[Compnewbie01]

Well I didn't expect a formula, but from the sound of it, I think it will be pretty safe. Thanks for the input everyone. Oh and at 370/1.05 I had around 5fps increase in the source stress test (1280X1080 4XAA 8XAS max settings). So with a good Ultra level OC I could probably be pushing 10fps which is considerable when future games might slow down to 40-50 fps.