Temporary OverClocks?

I currently have a Sager 5791 w/ 8700m GT card and I've been interested in overclocking a bit. Is there anything wrong with clocking UP to my desired range when I actively game, then going back to Stock settings afterword? Would this help or maybe harm from constant clock switching?

Im currently ~44-50°C idling. ~60°C while running TF2//Steam games.

Whats an ideal stopping indication while OC'ing? I have 4850 3dMark06 rating at stock settings.

 

There's nothing bad about it, sure it will shorten the life of it, just not as much as if you always had the clocks high, but it will be obsolete anyways by the time it dies.

You can OC as far as you want, up until the time you start to artifact, then people usually bump the speeds down a bit to cover a harsher case. Check out this thread for more details (not with Nvidia but same idea). http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=124420

 

edit: notyou actually linked my guide...

I am sure there is some tool for Nvidia owners. Since I have Ati I cannot help you directly, but the logic behind your question is actually the same.

I can confirm that Ati tray tools for ati that does exactly what you want (and much much more). I personally UNDERCLOCK a lot (140/110) my ati x1600 gpu while in windows and then OVERCLOCK (560/460) while in games. It works perfectly. It changes automatically of course. Underclocking helps battery more than ATI PowerPlay and In games I get max performance. Once i get out the fan slows down immediately, and the notebook cools down fast.

So the point of this is that I recommend underclocking while in windows and overclock while in games. I have not seen any harm and I do it for years on many notebooks.

I hope my experience will help you do the same,

Cheers,

Ivan

 

I honestly believe that if you maintain your computer properly and keep your temps in check you will not shorten the life of your computer even if you overclock.

 

There's nothing bad about doing that, it is what I do with my desktop's 8800GTX. Your temperatures are great. I load up an overclocking profile only when I play Crysis. I use Rivatuner to store profiles - I believe it can be configured to automatically switch to an overclocking profile when you open a game and vice versa. I am sure there is a guide somewhere on how to do this.

ATI Tool is a good overclocking utility for Nvidia cards too although I am not sure about SLI setups.

 

exactly what chaz said. If powermizer is enabled (which it is by default) the card automatically goes to a lower clock if your card isn't doing anything 3d intensive.