Safe Overclocking temps and other concerns?

Please excuse me for asking a question that has been asked an awful lot but I was unable to go back far enough to find a relevant thread.

Anyway I'm trying some overclocking on my GPU and my preliminary results have been good. I went from:
300/600(It seems as though this mem clock is too high but thats what it says), getting 2687 in 3dmark 05 to:
425/703 (I let my driver find the "optimal" clocks) getting ~3100

I have not noticed any sort of temperature increase (just using the nvidia control panel with a max of about 50C) so I'm willing to try going up a little more.
I know I should take it slow but what should I look for as far as knowing where to stop? Is there a magic temperature that a 6600 shouldn't go above?
I get about 20 FPS (from the 15 with the normal clocks) when I max out CoD2 in dx9 on my native res (1280x800) so the goal is to get it up to 30 because mannnn it looks good...

Oh yea I'm running Tweaks r us modded 91.37 driver.
Thanks for Humoring my restatement of the usual questions.

 

If you've gone from 15 to 20 FPS, then I don't know if trying to reach 30 is feasible.

One thing to look for is artifacting when you test your new clocks on games. But if you're running 3DMark05, the test will fail and give you an error message if you've reached an unstable clock setting.

Do this at your own risk!

If you want to keep pushing higher, do it slowly from where you are now and run 3DMark05 with every setting to test it. When you hit an unstable clock setting, drop back 5-10 MHz and retest. Then try it in a game to make sure it's stable.

This is what I've done to test OC capabilities. I'm sure there are others out there who can tell you more.

 

Good increase CoDnut. I don't know much about nvidia 6600, but the marks are comparable to my ati x700 128MB. Just today I benchmarked 417/434 in 3dmark03 - 6659, and 3dmark05 - 3223. In comparison to my default 2200 marks at 350/300 it is a great improvement. no heat issues either. Check my sig for some interesting info.

Ivan

 

I would agree; I tested an Alienware m5550 back in August and it had 2GB 667MHz RAM, a 256MB Go7600 and a Core 2 Duo T7600 2.33GHz, and playing at 1280x800 was bordering on unplayable. You'll have to make a compromise on your settings somewhere.

Listen to Ivan, he has great advice.

 

Yea I doubted it was feasible I have done some experimenting with other settings on dx9 although I kinda like being able to get ~60fps with everything maxed on dx7 and with the res, textures, and aa it looks really good all the same. Just thought it would be kinda fun to try (and I would have been surprised if I was able to do it with a 6600). I still think I'm going to try upping the clocks a little more I just don't want to make sure that I am not like shortening the lifespan of my computer by OCing (withing reason of course)

 

The only "safe" setting when overclocking is... stock speed.
If you go above that, there's no guarantee it'll work, and it doesn't just depend on the temperature. (The chip can easily get unstable without actually overheating)

But yeah, increase the clock speed slowly, in increments of 5MHz or something, and *carefully* test stability each time.