Does keeping your video card OCed wear it out?

Since OCing with the AMD tool means that the video card is constantly running at 800/1100 (for me at least) and never down-clocks to 400/1000 even when idle, does that cause greater stress on the card overall? Does it decrease its lifetime? Do any of you downclock when not gaming? Or is it safe to keep it overclocked as long as the temperature is stable? Thanks in advance for the input.

 

No, it's temp fluctuations that'll ruin a card, you don't tend to get part degradation from OCing unless it's extreme. So the OC won't kill your card ... but your ambient temps might.

 

can you explain how?

 

Overclocking absolutely shortens the life of any electronics due to electromigration.

Electromigration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electromigration occurs in all electronics whether you OC or not. However, the phenomenon occurs at a rate proportional to current density. Pushing the card harder speeds up the process. Is it significant? I don't know. It probably depends on how hard you push it and how often/long you play games.

 

Is overclocking really worth it? How many more frames can you possibly push out ths card before it's just pointlessly wearing it out?

 

In all honesty, it's a judgment call as to whether or not it's worthwhile to overclock. Sure, you may raise your 3dmark score, but in terms of real world performance you may see virtually no difference vs stock settings.

As far as premature wear goes, the general consensus is that, yes, additional voltage contributes to premature failure. HOWEVER, being a computer enthusaist, the odds are that you'll have long replaced your hardware before you reach that point anyway. Or the short form: Don't worry about it, you'll probably replace it long before you have any problems with it anyway.

 

Personally, I'm pretty darn happy with the cooling and performance of my G73. I've been playing Torchlight off and on all weekend with everything maxed out and it's wonderful. It will slow down just a hair when there are large mobs on the screen and I'm doing a lot of magic. OCing might eliminate those momentary stutters but they don't bother me a bit because they are so brief. It's just not worth the effort or the risk of smoking the card to me anyway.

 

Sweet! I love questions with no right answers.

Nothing lasts forever, all electrical components are doomed to fail.

 

It's like having an overtime on your work with extra stress, that's what happening in OC'ed VCards

 

In all honesty, you're probably right. But this is why I asked the question. If you can squeeze out the extra 10-15 FPS on your card with no major consequences, why not? The mixed answers do pose a dilemma. Coupled with a SetFSB CPU overclock, the 800/1100 can really help out performance. It may not be needed now, but next gen games are going to be very taxing. Have you ran the LP2 benchmark on the G73? Or tried playing Split Second on Very High graphics? It would be nice to be able to keep this laptop around for a few extra years via tweaking as opposed to going straight to expensive upgrades.

 

I don't agree with your first statement, as going to 800/1100 clock will give a significant boost (5-7 fps in some games, such as Metro 2033... larger boosts in other games) which will really make a difference if you are going from 25 to 30 or a shaky 30 to 35 in some games.

On the other hand, your next statement is great. Sure, the video card will eventually wear out, but who cares if it happens in 18 years instead of 20 years. Will you really still be using this laptop in 20 years? Good point on this one.

 

frankly how many of you guys could really reach 800/1100 without a problem? mine crashes when playing SC2 even if I went higher than 750

 

I think that most people on here have been able to reach 800/1100 and maintain stability. However, some get higher than that while others can't reach it.

I have to disagree about the this being worthwhile for performance in games. In my experience only yield an avg 2-4 fps increase. It probably also depends on which drivers you are using.

IMHO OC'ing on laptops is fun but only really useful for bragging with benchmarks.

As far as longevity is concerned, yeah you will shorten the gpu life but it's not really a problem unless you're getting artifacts or you're overheating.
It's when you start to add voltage or overheat that you have a problem with longevity. However since every chip is different you also have to test for artifacts to be sure that your chip can handle a particular overclock.
But again I never notice a difference in image smoothness.
Maybe I just have bad eyes.

 

From what I have been reading, the GTX460m is overclockable to 800/1200/1400. They say the 460m is a great overclocker and still remains cool. Anyone else with experience with these numbers or are they not obtainable with stability? I can see where OC could be important, like someone said earlier, when the game is barely playable and then those few extra FPS makes it much better. Just some food for thought. We need Quadzilla to comment on this.

Respectfully,

Kyle

 

those clocks are still well within the 10-20% that many OC'd laptops can achieve
and about the same as what many can achieve with the 5870m.

 

the question was "does keeping your video card od'd wear it out"
electrical parts are always being "worn out"
stock clocks are what the manufacturers and laptop manufacturers have deemed to be the optimal sweet spot for performance and health of the card.

push it harder, itll die faster. the point of failure for a stock 5870 could be 100,000 hours. oc it 15 percent and that number could become 70,000 hours.

those numbers are completely made up for example and nothing is set in stone with videocards because no 2 of the same card will ever be identical as many people here can tell you, but you will decrease its life.

 

To follow up with my question, I've heard that swapping out a video card in a laptop is nearly impossible with most, is it as tough to do with a G73? I understand it would require full disassembly, but would, say, putting in a 460m be a huge pain in the future?

 

The motherboard is physically different, the GPU has a much larger heat sink, and the BIOS on a JH doesn't support it. For what the GPU costs it would be the same price to eBay your used JH and buy a JW with full warranty that hasn't been frankensteined.

 

OCing a card is harder on it and probably most definitly can/will shorten its life.

But when a video card may last 8+ years if you take a year off its life does it really matter? Chances are you will be done with it by them

However also see if the OC is even worth it for you. A pretty big +100/100 OC on my G73 5870M only gives me 2 or 3fps in most games. Not really worth it and not enough extra fps to make a game go from unplayable to playable.

 

Also, alot of these video cards already come OC'ed from the manufacturer. Lol, nvidia has three different stages of OC. Lol Stage 3 was called "FTW" Super Ultraclocked or something crazy like that.

I feel OCing wont matter if you keep the temps under control. At least thats what I took away from this whole thing.

 

That's where the "judgment call" part comes in. Sure, if you're REALLY looking to max your FPS every little bit helps. I don't really see a difference at all performance wise. . .but the only game I really play on my G73 is WoW, which is already fairly well maxed in the FPS department [60 FPS cap with Vsync and triple buffering on, all settings maxed except death effect=off, shadows 2 down from max]

I'm by no means saying it's not worth it for some people, the results of others may vary however.