Why do people "happily" OC if it voids warranty??

It totally sounds like a newbie question, but I cannot find the answer...

I guess that the technical service would be able to determine whether or not the GPU has been overclocked, right?

Thanks for the answer guys

 

To some degree, yes, you can discover if a GPU has been overclocked. It's not as easy as it sounds, though. If a user pushes the GPU too hard, it can break. This is detectable. Otherwise it's pretty hard to figure out what's been done to the computer. Some people really just want to squeeze every last drop out of their computer and could care less about the consequences. When done right, OCing may be worth the calculated risk.

 

OCing can be worth the calculated risk. true.

the problem is that each individual user attributes different amounts of worth to the performance increase of overclocking. also, the risk varies a lot depending on the components you have and your knowledge.

one person might look at a 5% increase and say "whoa thats 5% awesome," while the next might be unimpressed. if the risk is the same for both people, then it might be worth the risk for person A and possibly not for person B.

i personally don't find value in overclocking parts. especially not processors. maybe if you are playing a game hovering at 30 fps, you could clock up everything a tad an give yourself a little bit of a buffer to smooth things out. you probably wont fry anything doing that.

but don't expect huge performance changes from a little overclocking, and don't overclock much if your only cooling solution is air. the heat will increase exponentially to the performance, if that makes sense.

 

Depends on what type of equipment you have. You can get a few percentage boosts or you can get boosts of up to %50 granted you know what your doing and have the proper equipment. But when you overclock its like your getting more performance for free granted it does cost you in terms of battery life and heat. The wear and tear I dont really believe in, again I repeat if you nkow what your doing you wont overclock it too much so that it reduces the life span of the equipment. But a good amount of things can be overclocked %20-40% without any negative effects though I repeat it depends on what equipment (cpu, gpu, cooling) and how much you know.

 

Well, I assume that there must be some pretty wide "safety margins", but even in that case, people are overclocking FROM DAY ONE (as the C90s guys are clearly demonstrating...)

Any post you remember guys about someone who has had problems with the warranty because of OC issues??

And in any case, the question for me would be: if it is so difficult to brake the card if OC is done "properly", why do manufacturers sell their cards way way "underpowered"? (Since I´ve been reading a lot of posts, and the 3DMark differences among native and OC GPUs are clearly noticeable)

Thanks a lot

 

I just read the last two posts.

Is there any way, then, to determine how much a specific GPU can be overclocked? Any idea of what kind of GPU is going to be a "good" overclocker (read "WORTHY"), which one is not?

Are there any "charts" or something like that?

 

For my laptop I personally would not over clock anything. Laptops are engineered and tested with heat and cooling in mind. If the engineers could put a faster video card in a laptop they would probably offer it.

Also, with Laptops warranty is much more important. Because it covers the whole expensive unit. So if you void your warranty you are screwed if you screen stops working, or anything else.

On my Desktop computer it's home made, and I spent extra on cooling. I overclocked my Core 2 Duo from 2Ghz to 2.8Ghz. That's a 70% speed increase and very noticeable. But on a desktop if the processor blows I am out $150 bucks. If my laptop blows I am out $2000, or however much Dell wants to charge me for out of warranty repairs.

So in short, I do not think it's worth over clocking laptops because you have nearly no control over the heating solutions and due to the comprehensive warranty.

 

Hmm well don't use the c90 example because it is not a difference of clocks its a difference in the type of ram or memory being used. Gddr3 vs ddr2. The stocks numbers are different for both so the c90 is not a good example. But yes sometimes manufacturers do underclock gpus (even cpus sometimes) and that is so they can boast about battery life.

I'm assuming you know difference between gddr3 and ddr2 if not I will be happy to explain. Im not sure about gpu warranties. Nvidia has its own official overclocking utility but you will have to contact your dealer. But gpus like you see Eddie doing just usually crash when they are overclocked too much and a few tries well tell u the max. Only way to do permanent damage is to clock it too high for too long and leave it in very high temperatures. People overclock their cpu, gpu and ram and cause the computer to get very very hot which is bad. But usually overclocking just the gpu or even gpu and cpu is fine but you just have to monitor the temperature.

Edit: No charts but you can just ask people on forums about your speficic card. Everyone pretty much knows the maxes and its easy for you to figure out. It takes like 30 min to an hour depending on how thorough your testing is. But overclocking is rather easy.

IF your referring to the c90 overclocking is welcome (to the cpu at least) as Asus has made overclocking the processor one of the c90s selling points. But again with the gpu you will have to talk to dealer and like I said above its not that easy to ruin the gpu if your overclocking sensibly.

 

Normally if you read the reviews for specific cards on Anandtech.com or Hardocp they will nearly always include a over clocking section.

Also, as Forerunner said a lot of chips are underclocked. Take the Core 2 Duo for example. Every model of Core 2 Duo from the 1.6Ghz to the 2.4Ghz are identical. When they are made they are simply tested and the ones that run at the faster speed without over heating etc are stamped 2.4, and the ones that don't run as fast are stamped 1.6. But sometimes they get a good batch and all the chips run well at 2.4Ghz. They still need to produce 1.6Ghz chips, so they just stamp the 2.4 chips as 1.6 and sell them.

If you are lucky you get a good 1.6Ghz chip and can overclock the hell out of it.

The same thing kind of applies to Video cards. A GS video card might be the same as a GT video card just clocked lower. But you also have to consider memory speeds, etc.

I had a lot of fun over clocking my Desktop, but I am not going to touch my laptop. All of this stuff is at your own risk, and your system maker will not be sympathetic, because overclocking takes money away from them.

 

Well, I guess that your last replies sum it up: it´s apparently "safe" to do so (provided that you´re cautious enough and monitor temperatures) but, as codemonkey says, if it happens, it happens, right? It´s effectively 2000$ bucks down the sink (or whatever you spent on it) instead of the GPUs only money for a desktop...

Still kinda hard for me why so experienced people like the ones I found in these forums can do it so "happily", as I said. Only understandable explanation to me is:

- Damage the card is not that easy (provided that you aren´t brutal with the OC)

- "Prove" that the laptop broke because of OC is next to impossible.

I´ll consider what you said, thanks again guys.

 

Doesn't Asus normally take over clocking by the end user into account, even sending out software that allows them to do it? I've always read that they gear sales toward the OC'er and make the m-boards on desktops easy to OC as well, so I think they may be one company that doesn't void the warranty. I could be wrong....

 

Well again if your talking about the c90 if your gpu does blow that is the only thing that will otherwise your fine. But in general if you wait for numbers like if you were to get to the c90 with the 512mb I (and everyone this forum, this forum kicks ass) would post our numbers and give you a reasonable overclock. Its easy to do no harder then any other program its either enter numbers or move a slide bar.

 

Asus offers no overclocking utilities in their notebook systems; very different from their desktop motherboard lines, but those utilities are BIOS based (some motherboards have Windows-based OC utilities, but I'm blanking on which atm). Whether or not there would be a warranty issue for your notebook depends on whether and how hard the techs go looking for an explanation for the part's failure, as there can be traces of OC software in either the registry or HDD (although the former can be wiped by a reinstall), since in that event the failure occurred not because of an inherent flaw in the manufactured part, but as a consequence of user action. I'm unsure whether Asus explicitly prohibits overclocking in its notebook warranty language.

In any event, the bottom line is this...... overclocking should only be attempted if you either know what you're doing or are willing to accept the potential financial consequences of failure as you're learning. Done carefully, it can be a powerful tool to gain increased performance from a standard part (the Athlon chips were famous for this). IF you don't know what you're doing, or how to recover from problems that can surface along the way, it can be a quick road to destruction.

EDIT - should have said Ensemble systems do not ship with OC software .

 

C90 is exception ^ . It has "turbogear".

 

This thread reminds me so much of conversations I have heard between automotive gearheads regarding superchargers, turbos, etc.

 

I just found this tiny little comment from geared2play.com

We will uphold our policy in the warranty about overclocking. Any notebooks sent in for rma which have been found with overclocking software not made by asus will be declined for warranty.

You can read it here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=140220&page=15

Yummy, yummy...

 

Eddie has always had that policy. It is company specific, applies to all of his Customizable systems covered by BTOTech's company warranty, and is meant to discourage overzealous/uncontrolled overclocking with alternative 3rd party software that might break things. And he checks the systems out for it.

Ensemble systems are covered by Asus' global warranty and go in for service with Asus NA (corporate), not resellers.

 

Understood. Thanks for the feedback man.