How's your 8600M/8400M (and did you OC?)?

Hey, just wondering how these notorious G84 cores are holding up for everyone... Mine died within the first 12 month after OC'ing to about 600/500 (thankfully it was literally two weeks before my warranty ran out), and my second one I haven't dared to OC ...

Just wondering if anyone's OC'd (or not) 8600M or 8400M is still alive and kicking .

Yeah, I know I should seriously consider upgrading, but budget is tight and it's unfortunately out of the question for the next foreseeable future (gotta finish my education, and tuition is where most of my money is going to!)

EDIT: Oh, and if your 8600M/8400M actually died on you, then I'd definitely want to hear how long it lasted you!

 

mine's still fine after 2 years.
temps are 60-72 with a cooler. from what i understand, it's okay so long as the temp doesn't fluctuate too much.

 

My 2 8600's are going strong since november 2007 with mild overclock when needed *knock on wood*... Temps are 63~70 on idle depending on room temps... Goes up to 95 while gaming (although thats very weird, usually 88 max)...

 

Dell Inspiron 1720 since August 2007, 2 and a half years here, coming to 3 years. With BIOS flashed 8600M GT to OC'ed speeds @ 640/1280/525 with powermizers disabled (Card constantly runs at these speeds both idling and stressed for 2 1/2 years now). Max temperatures of just 65*C, idling temperatures of just 50*C. If powermizers enabled it would be about 45*C - 38*C lowest. ICD7 applied, maintenance and dust bunny cleaning every 3 months.

 

Vostro 1500 here, still going strong after 2.5 years. No overclocking or overheating

 

the 8600m GT in my sager 2090 is still going strong at 507 for the core and 435 for the memory. i cant overclock any higher is not the laptop just freezes. i know those overclock rating is really low vs others that i have seem, 600 core and 500 memory for some people but i have tired everything that i know and it wont do anymore.

its been going for 2.5 years now and still going. the reason i still have it is for the speakers. the speakers on this laptop is just amazing compared with other laptops. i did notice that the temps are a bit higher since new, about 7C higher, but i guess its just showing its age. i clean it every month.

 

I notice that you've undervolted your Vostro 1700's CPU... RMClock? Or some other method?

Yeah, I've also heard it has to do with "heat cycles", very similar to the heat cycle damage that causes RRoD with the 360's. I also heard that the BIOS update by Dell helps a bit by turning on the fans more often to try and maintain "optimal" GPU temps...

Hmm... interesting, I guess this gives the "heat cycle" theory more credibility... If you constantly have it OC'd at those clocks, perhaps it actually doesn't break down as fast due to not having to constantly heat up and cool down!

 

my old 8600m gt ddr2 died around 10 months in. I had it oc'ed all the time. my 8800m gts has been overclocked many times and is going on 2 years old.

 

yep, i just followed the undervolting guide.
OC is 24/7, powermizer doesn't work when i use the vga port.

 

Yeah, looks like your 8600M GT faced the same fate as mine (although I guess mine lasted 2 months longer).

A shame, since it's was a decent mid-ranged performer, especially when OC'd! Looks like I'll be keeping my GPU at stock, since I really can't afford to have my Laptop die within the next 2 years before I can finish school!

Right. I tried it before, but I don't think I had any luck with my T5470. A lower voltage option simply wasn't showing up, ah well. Hopefully my new Penryn-based T9300 will use less power anyways .

 

23 months now. Did OC in the beggining but then I stopped. I don't even game now. Temps are 68-73C idle.

 

Almost 2.5 years and it is still running. I did some overclocking but only for 1 month, then I realized the gain/loss ratio was too high to keep it overclocked.

 

you mean too low?

 

I purchased the Asus G1S in May 2007 as they were being released; in a matter of two years the 8600GT inside had fried twice without any OCing and was always on a cooler. I suppose I just had bad luck but my new 9800GS idles at 40C so Im quite content.

 

My 8600m GT had a mild overclock and was used for about 2 years. Temps were usually 85C at full load (never managed to get that thing undervolted). Its sitting in a drawer now, still works fine! (I upgraded to a 4650).

 

My M1530's 8600 ran fine for a year and a half, but I recently had it replaced under warranty because the drivers kept crashing in games no matter which ones I used. I don't know if it was a hardware or software problem, but in any case Dell replaced it and now it runs fine again. I do overclock regularly but my temps never go above about 77C thanks to undervolting the CPU. I have a full 3 year warranty plus I guess another year tacked on by Dell for the GFX card so I'm not worried about the card failing again, by the end of the warranty period I'll want another laptop anyway.

 

My 8600M GT is still working. The laptop itself is about 26 months old, but I had a motherboard replacement in 08 for a different issue, so the current mobo and GPU is about 15 months old.

I gamed regularly on it, max GPU temps were usually about 85C. Didn't overclock the current GPU. I havent gamed in a few months now, and don't plan on gaming on the laptop any more.

My non-gaming GPU temps are between 60-70.

Im out of warranty now (including the extended GPU one) so if it dies, it dies. So far so good.

 

Mine is 2 years and 1 month old now and it's fine. I've never overclocked it and the temperature typically varies from 70C to 78C when idle and up to about 90C under load (it's actually rather surprising -- these are the same exact temps it had when I bought it and I've never cleaned the dust out).

 

Going fine on his third year. Temps on high 80s-low 90s when gaming, since the beggining, always using a cooler.

 

My T61p has the hotter and more powerful GDDR3 570M which is the 8600M GT, same defect and everything. Max temps for gaming are about 83-88, pretty cool but thought my idle temps were too high (50-60 but settle to 38 if there's absolutely no activity) and i had applied 3rd party TIM to the CPU and GPU, CPU temps were fine and topped 72, which for a 65nm undervolted dual core is pretty good, i reapplied TIM to the CPU and GPU but instead using the dab and spread with card technique, none applied to the heatsink, and GPU temps now top 94, and CPU temps stayed the same, was kinda pissed off so i need to yet again reapply thermal paste using the good old dab and spread with heatsink technique.

 

mine has been working flawlessly since nov 08... no OC'ing, ever.

 

My 8400m GS in my Vostro 1500 is still going strong close to the 2 year mark, no OC for me.

 

I managed to overclock the card in a stable manner up to 20% higher in clocks, which reflected like ~20% increases in fps of all games. Now, if I was playing World in Conflict at 25fps now overclocked it was... 28fps. As you see the real world increase was nothing (no visual change in faster graphics) and there was always the risk of long term damage (the crisis of the failing 8600m/8400m was still not arrived on that time). Therefore I considered the overclocking was not worth the risk.

I hope I was clear.

 

I had a quadro nvs 130m (G86 core) overclocked 60% on the core and 50% on the mem. no problems for a couple of months then I sold it.

I bought 2x 8600m GT on ebay (dead ones), they are still dead after baking 3 times