Graphics card life span

Hey guys, im a couple days away to overclocking my laptop (my Zalman NC1000) will be ariving ^^. Anyway, i know the overclocking dimishes life span of the gfx but if it is cooled, wil it still wear out?

How long is the lifespan of an 8400M GT OC'd and non oc'd

 

It isn't (to a point) the clock speed that kills the card, it's the extra heat that accompanies it. It really depends on how good the cooling system is in that laptop.

Greg

 

Unless you do heavy overclocking for prolonged periods of time, youll probably want to upgrade your laptop before you see any failure.

 

Your looking at anywhere between 5 months to 2 years if your a heavy gamer. Its really unexpected when GPU's fail so its very hard to tell what the life expectancy is.

Heat is the main killer for GPU/CPU and HDD. Keep em cool, always watch the temps making sure they are at a safe range

 

If it's constantly running hot, around 75-85C, expect your card to be dead within a year.

 

STOP IT ALL!

So much misinformation.

I'm no expert, but have dealt with dozens of PC's in my life, and have never had a video card fail while I owned it, and most PC's have been pushed hard for gaming. Usually I'm ready to buy a new PC before the existing one fails - it usually won't perform with the games I want to play.

Also, GPU's have a maximum recommended temperature for a reason. If you maintain below that temperature, then it should survive the spec'd life span (which is many years). Increased voltage can also kill a GPU (or CPU), but again, its usually heat that is the killer.

In other words, unless you're running above 90C continuously I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Well, heat or actual mechanical failure. Fans for air-cooled GPU's and such can break and/or get clogged with dust after years of use.

AFAIK under "normal" conditions, CPU and GPU chips can last for up to decades, far past their usefulness in fact. It's thing like HDD's (which have a lot of mechanical parts) that tend to wear down and become unreliable after 5 years.

 

i second the misinformation. i have been OC'ing gpu's for a long time and I have NEVER had one fail. EVER.

 

Exactly. There is too much misinformation here.

I have never seen a GPU break down in my life. Sure, they become obsolete after about 3-4 years but they don't "break" unless something is seriously wrong.

Flipfire, if a graphics card fails after only 5 months, then by definition it is a "defective" card. No one designs their cards to fail after such a short time span.

 

Although I'm still wondering how long my OC'ed 8600GT will hold out lol.
While gaming it hits a max of 93'c

 

Mine is touching 90 without OCing!!

 

Yes they dont just break magically. Main factor is wear and tear from heat. I had my Go 7200 die out in 5 months or so. no it wasnt defective. I just had a flawed dv2000 which was notorious for overheating mobo. I didnt think of high gpu temps at the time

Like i said, keep it cool. I recommend a cooler to any heavy gamers and clockers

 

So most Graphics card can last as long as the you keep it cool????

What are the chances of it still failing at cool temperatures????

 

It wont fail as fast if its in ranging in the 60~70. It will if it is 80+ celcius

 

Well it only reaches 80+ when playing games, how much will that affect the timeline?

 

I think that is a good point when it comes to light gamers like me!

 

Have to agree with htwingnut, destroying a modern GPU via overclocking is fairly rare. Both of the times I did it involved overclocking older cards that lacked thermal sensors, heat sinks, and even fans (a Nvidia TNT and a 3DFX Voodoo2.) With modern GPU designs, even with a fairly high temp, it's far more likely that your hardware becomes obsolete long before you wear out a piece of silicon.

 

Okay i think this thread is getting people paranoid about their GPU's.

It wont fail that easily or quickly. It should last you a year or two at the very least. (Assuming its not defective, No OC and run on good temp range). There are cases where gpus fail prematurely , these are either defective or run uber hot. If your a really heavy gamer then it will obviously wont last as long as light users

Its a undeniable fact that heat is the main killer of GPU and also CPU's. If your laptop is automatically shutting off obviously its doing that as a fail-safe to prevent hardware damage. Its a good idea to keep an eye on temps here and there

 

mine too before it died =(
no OCing and playing old games
lasted about 7 months....


are 8400gs hotter?

 

OK so the heat seems to be back on me and my card. After a series of optimistic post here comes one which has sent me back where it all started! Seriously is it the cooling of my laptop or is it that these Card are really hot? Is there a way of contacting nVIDIA on this issue?

 

Its hp's 14.1" design that makes our gpus run hotter compared to other manufacturers with the same card.

Have a look at the exhaust vent, so small. I suggest you get a cooler radopod.

 

Just out of curiosity flipfire, can I try reducing the Core and Memory bus clock speed? Will it be affective?

Also have you used a Notebook cooler? How affective are those when it comes to cooling the laptop down?

 

For CPU you can do it through rmclock. Disable the 11x mutliplier and it will only run on 2ghz. It will be effective to a point, but your laptop will run slower. If your gonna enable it again, make sure you retick them in the profile and Sub-Profile pages. Not sure for GPU, i think rivatuner can do it.

Yes my laptop sits on a laptop cooler when im at home. You will notice an average of 5c cooler laptop. (eg without the cooler my idle HDD is around 43c, with a cooler it will sit on 37c). For CPU and GPU i only noticed about 4c improvement, which is not much but still great.

It really helps keeping it cool when your doing intensive stuff

 

Which brand do you use by the way? Was looking at reviews of Zalman and Antec coolers and they seem to be doing their job nicely!

 

Im just using a simple generic $10 cooler from ebay. Its got great 3 fan placements and blue lights to match the laptop. One fan sits below the HDD vents and one sits below the RAM vents. Its quite cost effective

I suggest you go for the Zalman NC-1000 though, judging by the reviews. Kinda pricey though

 

flipfire to the rescue as always! Really appreciate your replies. Just one last question. You said that it would lower the temps by 4 degrees C. Is that good enough to protect the laptop from heat damage? Frankly a 86 C is not much better than 90 C as far as my understanding is concerned.

 

Well my temps dont exactly go that high so you might see better results. Hopefully 6-10c for you.

4c off your max temps doesnt sound much but also think about average load and idle temps.

Try putting a small fan beneath your laptop or something. I used an electric fan to cool both me and my laptop before i had a cooler

 

Thanks a lot for the replies. Really appreciate it. Will be trying using a fan to see if it helps or not!

 

Download some type of fan control, and force your fans to high speed durring gaming or any overclocking just to be on the safe side. This will keep your computer far from overheating. Normally my computer never goes above 50C with forced high fans while OC'd

 

AFAIK you cant override the fans algorithm for HP's. The fan controls are locked in. Dell laptops can though