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Video Card Life With OverClocking???

post #1 of 5
12/4/05 at 4:44am
Thread Starter 
Hello all, I have been reading thread upon thread noting how people are Ocing their 6800 and getting as much as 800-1000 more on their 3dmark05 scores.. but how long do the cards last at their max frequency? And if it fails within the 1 year warranty... can they prove you oced it or what? And if something does fail *anything* from what I can tell, all I have to do is call dell and they will ship me whatever I need without knowing if it needs replaced? *I don't scam, I just want to understand how it works*



As Always Thanks for the Feedback!!
Nick
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post #2 of 5
12/4/05 at 7:30am
This is a fairly debatable issue, and so ill just tell you my personal opinion on the matter. Overclocking might reduce the life of your hardware from lets say 10 years to 5 years. But do you usually keep your system for this length of time? I usually buy a new computer every 2 to 3 years, so the extra performance seems worth it, however, if your not going to need the extra power then it is just a pissing contest if you overclock. And thats all I have to say bout that.

P.S. - Dell will probably not know whether you overclocked your computer unless the hardware is changed somehow, so you're probably in the clear if your willing to live with pulling a minor scam.
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post #3 of 5
12/4/05 at 11:34am
Overclocking doesn't usually cut down the life expectancy of a hardware device all that much as long as the card isn't running too hot or you aren't using too much voltage or trying to overclock way out of your means. Overclocking will knock off a few years that the card might of lasted BUT you usually have a new replacement long before that and there is always the chance the card would of died prematurely anyways. I pretty much upgrade every year or two anyways so i dont really worry about it much lol.
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post #4 of 5
12/4/05 at 12:54pm
I'm not sure about the life expectancy, but there also is no reason to "keep" the card overclocked. Once i found what my max clock settings were, i memorized them. So the only time i overclock the card is when i play a game. And now that i'm using i9kfangui, i can set the fan speeds to max to make sure i have plenty of air flow and cooling. Once i'm done playing, i set the clock frequencies back to normal. So my card is usually only overclocked for no more than an hour or 2 at a time. I would think that would help as well. With the fans on max speed the temperature ususally stays around 60*C with my 6800 clock settings on 355mhz for the core and 740mhz for the memory (thats if the vents aren't covered up lol). So with these temps i dont think it'll reduce the overall life by much at all.
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post #5 of 5
12/4/05 at 1:15pm
I find overclocked to be more of ego thing then really necessary. AT least where I'm at with the 7800. I mean if you hit 7000 on the 3d mark score I think that's more then good enough for a laptop, that one thread with guys trying to go get to 8000 is cool and all, and I congrat and respect the guys for venturing off and trying to break 8000, but I don't think it's practical at all and given what we paid for these 7800's.... But then others will say it's a 7800!!! It can take it, so I'm just going to keep mine stock until the day arives where in order for me to keep up I'll have to overclock, and just burn the piss out of it with the intnentions to eventually get another card again.
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