Overclocking safely w/ 8600m gt

Hi guys,

I recently got a vostro 1500 w/ 8600m gt. I've been messing around with rivatuner, but I want to be sure I don't damage my graphics card. Everything I've read online says that all the recent cards have built-in safeguards against heat damage that make it almost impossible to damage the card, but i still see people post here and elsewhere about not overclocking "too much".

Anyway, I got the memory clock high enough where 3dmark had some major artifacts, but the temp was still only around 68 celsius on maximum load. Is it safe to get artifacts while testing the stability of high clock speeds? What do I need to watch out for? Thanks.

 

Wow, my g1s with the 8600m gt idles at 70 and peaks at 90 at stock clock!!

 

wow. Mine idles at 55!

 

Mine's the same, has reached 94 degrees.

 

Same here. Dell's cooling on the 1520 is very efficient.

 

mine idles at 47

 

if you are getting artifacts, you should lower the clocks

 

If you start to see artifacts, you MUST downclock the card. I'd bet the temp sensor is just not set properly and isn't detecting core heat if you see artifacts at such a low temperature. Regardless, if you continue to play with artifacts, eventually your card WILL incurr permanent damage. This happened to my Clevo D900T, and I didn't even overclock it, the videocard fan had just stopped operating at full speed. I didn't know what I was seeing were artifacts so I just ignored them. Sure enough, a couple months later the card just stopped playing 3D games all together.

 

It's not always caused by heat, you know. Voltage comes into account, too. Some cores may need more voltage to reach a speed than others, and if they aren't getting the required voltage, they'll freeze or error.

 

what drivers should i use for overclocking my 8600m gt in xp-32...
i have a vostro 1500.