is overclocking really harmful?

just curious on opinions of how harmful it is to overclock. i only run mine OC'd when im playing certain games such as cod4.

any info appreciated - thanks

 

Overclocking = more heat = shorter lifespans for any and all electronic equipment. How short the lifespan depends on the temperatures reached after overclocking.

 

yeah, it can shorten the lifespan of your gpu but if you have a good notebook cooler it will help keep it cool when oc'd

 

That depends. Some times the people that build the machine purposely underclock the graphic card, so if you OC it would only perform as it should and not like it can.

 

Overclocking is not harmful, the heat caused by overclocking is, if common sense is used overclocking can be done safely, albeit in a limited fashion (primarilally graphics) on todays notebooks. Options and results with desktop overclocking are far greater as more options are available and heat is much more easily handled.

 

If you dont mess it up. Then it is alright. Overclocking voids your warranty. Some vendors could refuse to fixed your laptop if they find out, whether or not the problem is due to overclocking.

 

Depends on how much you overclock and your definition of "safe". There are two problems of overclocking.

1. Overclocking without voltage increase=Your device probably will get heated up more because its running faster. And there is a limit to how much your HSF can pull out from your hardware. If its cooled well, probably no big deal.
2. Overclocking with higher voltage=Usually your manufacturer makes your device with what they perceive will be safe operation voltage. Setting that higher than stock means "possibly" you'll get lower operational times. But modern hardware usually has headroom for safety and is probably good enough to stand extra voltages unless you set it ridiculously high. Which no cooling will help you.

 

I don't even use my Overclock anymore tbh. It crashes with cod4 multiplayer, the screen tears with Oblivion, makes no real difference in HL2. It's overrated IMO.

Damage, not if you have it set at safe speeds. So what if the temperature goes up 10 degrees.... You'd probably upgrade your GPU/Laptop by the time your GPU dies, if ever.

 

Doesn't really make any difference unless it fries your hardware
Heat dissipates. It doesn't really matter that it gets a bit hotter while running.

It's only harmful if it gets so hot that it takes physical damage. Which is always a risk, of course, but then it's something that happens suddenly, not like the hardware just gets "worn" faster.

 

It really harmful=

Not really as long as you make sure it stays at the safe temp ranges. I have a permanent overclock setup and I do not have any heat related issues.

 

Increased voltage=increased heat, say you pumped up the cpu voltage, but left the clock speed alone, you would see a significant rise in heat even through the clocks are the same, thats why a lot of notebook users "undervolt", to run cooler and slightly extend battery life. The extra voltage allows for stability at higher clocks, my destop for example runs at 3.0ghz stock, I can OC to 3.6 at stock voltage settings, but any higher it wont even post, bump up the core voltage, and voilia, I'm crusing above 4ghz.

 

Things on the CPU and the GPu, like the video RAM for example are pretty sensitive and OCing will sooner or later kill them. It`s a matter of when, not if.

 

it generally depends on what temperature your GPU or CPU will hit

if you have good enough cooling, you can overclock constantly without any risk of damage or shorter life generally. for instance, my friend runs his 2.8ghz quad core, at 3.8ghz constantly because he has water cooling, and his processor is still under dangerous temperatures so it doesnt get damaged, he can evcen push to beyond 4ghz if he wants, altho not sure if it gets damaged there.

 

You can also check your temps at idle and at full load. If there is a significant difference then try to downclock a little bit.

As for me at idle at 0.95 GHZ my temps are at 54 C which is the same as .8 GHZ.

Full load?? I havent tested it yet.

 

Overclocking raises the heat on internal components which over time can degrade the internal signals of the chip thus reducing the lifespan faster than the normal use does.

The physical components of your computer are quite resilient to heat and provided the other components of your computer continue to function they are designed to last 10-15 years... it can last longer with more careful use, but like most components made on this planet, they WILL break down eventually even if you treat it perfectly.

Your computer will NOT be useful in 15 years.
(Ask yourself how useful that 486DX33 from 15 years ago would be now)

On a laptop it is even MORE likely that other components fails before even the most sensitive chips in the laptop do.
Overlocking or not the most likely piece to fall apart are the ones with motion on them... (AC plug goes the most often here at the office... we have a boneyard of dead laptops and the absolute most liklely cause is the AC plug jack breaking and related problems)
Most of our laptops rarely make it to 5 years, but we have a few that live longer. Any that do make it to 10 years are almost completely useless in even business applications.

Who really cares if you are burning the candle a little faster (you are, don't kid yourself) on a 15-year lifespan when the computer will be nigh pointless in 5 years and a museum piece in 10 years?

Another fun twist... people who overclock tend to monitor heat and clean their laptop more often... which generally leads to LONGER lifespans in comparison to those who just normally use their laptop and do less (or no) maintenance.

 

What is the reasonable temperature range? When I overclock my Quadro NVS 140M the temp goes up to 80-81C (according to NVIDIA Monitor) and stabilizes there. Is that too hot? (I believe the card has passive cooling)

 

80C is still fine. Just don`t go over 85C for the GPu and 75-80C for the CPU.

 

Mine just sits below 79c OC'd

 

I've OC'd to 600mhz core and no problems...just 3C increase...although i think it was cuz of the 174.74 driver that made my temps go up

 

It can be, I think it was a factor in the frying of my HP DV600Z motherboard, but then again I didn't have a cooler, so with a cooler you should be fine.

 

Ignoring all the other posts to post my own opinion...

I've been overclocking my laptop's ATI Mobility X1600 256mb when gaming for two years now and I have not encountered any problems, its not a major overclock but it does help to improve gaming performance.

 

That's actually incorrect. Voltage does not cause heat, current does. CPU/GPU's require power to run.

Power = Voltage x Current

Which means by increasing the voltage you're effectively needing less current to reach the same result (power required).

 

That's as silly as saying cigarettes don't cause cancer because someone you know that smokes doesn't have cancer.

It's a proven fact that overclocking not only diminishes the life of the hardware but also voids the warranty. Every electronic component has a finite life cycle, overclocking and increasing heat diminish the life cycle of your hardware (more clocks per second means it'll die prematurely, higher heat reduces max number of cycles).

It all comes down to how you overclocked, the quality of components, your environment, etc.

Regardless the bottom line is that it isn't healthy for your hardware.

Personally, I overclock to stress test my new system, then return it to default values after testing. Then I will spend the next 1-2 years at standard clock speeds. Once my computer system gets sluggish and I'm nearing a replacement I OC for the next 6-12months to stretch out the useful life of my computer.

 

My acer aspire 5680 has an overclocked GPU at 410/410 (Default at 350/350) for nearly one year. So far from my personal experience it has been perfect. Today I managed to clock it down to factory settings, before selling it off. But to be fair I lowered its clocks to default when I'm not gaming. The only time when I increased its clocks for not only gaming but while rendering a 3d max file.

As far as possible, if you know what you're really doing and know that you're willing to take all consequences when a failure happens. Some are lucky with their overclocks, some aren't. That's why I overclocked the GPU when an application's graphics are essential and you really need to make full use of it. In casual uses, I put it to be default factory settings. But yes, in the bottom line, it ain't healthy for your lappy. Heat will always be your nemesis. Your components won't last very long if you continue to use overclocked numerical figures constantly. So give your components a rest they deserve.

Errors and instability may not even happen while running a 5 or 48 hour stress tests - Instability happens in the long run... maybe weeks or months later.

And it's easier to have a good feeling and a thrill of a ride than to understand the side effects and consequences.

 

KernalPanic is the most correct post in the thread. Listen to him.

 

Many notebooks will be running at beyond these temps at STOCK CLOCKS whilst gaming.

 

While I agree it diminishes the life, overclocking does NOT always void warranty as quite frankly the people enforcing the warranty don't often know what to look for to track down the wear overclocking places on a piece of equipment. Indeed it is some of the SAME wear placed by normal usage and thus is quite hard to notice.

if you say "yeah I was overclocking by 400% and the computer stopped working" you are correct... the warranty will be broken.

if you say "I was playing a game one day on my desk and the computer locked up and wouldn't reboot" (the truth, you just left out the overclock) I bet you would get it repaired.

This depends on the overclock and what you consider healthy.
You understand that all of these different timing-rated chips (within a family) come from the same place and don't have the same number of flaws in them. Some of them will run faster, other slower as their flaws cause issues that require lower clock speeds.

Because manufacturing standards are often set LOW for that release of the chip and stays that way through the cycle, the chips created near the middle or end of that cycle will often be perfectly healthy (by that chip's standards) throughout their life even when moderately overclocked.

Note this does not remove the limitation that says you are reducing the lifespan... but it means that such chips will likely live way beyond usefulness and be just as "healthy" as one of the lesser chips would be at the standard clock speed.

Overclocking requires reading, understanding, patience, and vigilance, but with those things is not harmful in any way that will matter. Note that just using a computer right requires the above.

 

One phrase to sum everything 'bout overclocking.

 

Actually on my notebook I overclocked my notebook to reach the standard speeds of many other notebooks which have the stock clocks set as my OC'ed clocks.

I've stress tested my system for long periods and the fans rarely even kick in to high gear, I think I am safe.

I'm not expecting my computer to last for an infinite amount time anyways, might as well milk out every bit of performance.

Warranty? Well I've been out of warranty for nearly 10 months now...

 

We are talking digital circuts here Increasing Voltage will increase you clock frequency which then consumes more power.

If these things worked like HV transmission lines, then yes.

 

Increasing your voltage wont automatically increase your clock speeds, they are changed seperately

So a more accurate statement would be "The higher clock speed the more voltage it requires to operate stabily" If it doesnt have enough voltage being fed it will cause instability.

 

I'd agree that overl****ing can be healthy, but healthy is a relative term. Let's just put it this way, it's healthier to run at stock speeds. Apart from this I'd have to disagree. When you say overclocking will not harm the hardware in any way that matters you're assuming you know the lifespan of the parts. Fact is you don't. It's a safe bet that if the part has a 1 year warranty that the manfuacturer designed it with enough quality to last 1 year. But the time frame for how long the manufacturer thinks the part will last is under normal use and under ideal temperatures. When you start piling up higher clock speeds with higher heat you could be reducing the life of the part by a significant amount. Parts that were meant to last 5 years suddenly only last 1-2. If you upgrade your computer every 1-2 years then sure, overclocking may not matter much, but a lot of people i know upgrade every 3-4 years. In that kind of time frame overclocking will mean the difference between the part lasting the duration of the computers life or failing prematurely.

And yes, you can lie or choose to leave out information when your hardware does eventually fail to have the manufacturer replace the part. But that would be unethical.


edit: rofl I got sensored on a typo.

 

Isnt it common sense that if it voids your manufacturer warranty then it must be bad for the gpu? I mean geez, they only made the GPU card what would they know about it?

Wouldnt have they increased the clock by standard themselves if it was really safe to do so?

The OC clock speeds that we get is the margin of safety they purposely put to make sure a regular card live its full stable life.

Saying its healthy is one of the most incorrect statements

 

If it wasnt harmful why wouldnt the manufacturer make the chips oc'd stock?

 

A GPU's stock speed is going to be determined by how many the process can yield. The better quality the GPU is coming out of manufacturing, the higher it will clock. In order to maximize yield, and therefore sales and revenue, it is convenient to set stock speeds and quality standards relatively low so that the majority of chips coming off the process meet the quality requirements. The likelihood is that most of the chips produced are actually perfectly capable of running at higher than stock speeds. Running at a higher speed alone is not going to kill the chip.

Heat, however, can and does shorten the lifespan of any computer component. However, if you're only talking an increase in 2 or 3C it's likely that the GPU will become useless before it reaches the end of its life. Increases at about 10C+ will probably noticeably shorten the lifespan of the GPU. It just depends on how much the temperature increases. I know for my video card, that overclocking doesn't seem to change the temperature at all. I think if you know what you're doing and are reasonable with expectations and thermal management that overclocking is minimally harmful.

 

Voiding warranty is a very relative term. Put it this way, if the components , like the gpu and cpu burn out due to OCing and that`s not hard to figure out, then the warranty is of.
Sure , you may be under the temp threshold ,you may even have a cool system. But OCing will still decrease the lifespan of the laptop.
Put it this way : You make a horse run faster,feed him better,take care of him and so on,but eventually he`ll run out of energy. And age faster.
Everything has a lifespan. Pushing the nominal values will decrease that regardless of the temps. But if you take care of the laptop ,clean the dust,run maintenance,reapply AS5 every now and then,buy a notebook cooler and so on,you will reduce the damage produced.
But the fact of the matter is that an OCed system will die faster.

 

Nevermind the fact that I went to school as a computer engineer and took way too many thermodynamics and mat/sci courses...let's move to the practical.

I have a drawer full of laptop parts not 10 feet from my desk taken from over 100 different laptops that proves beyond a doubt that pretty much anything in silicon is designed for much longer than 1 year and barring extremes of heat not usually present in common terran conditions, indeed 10-15 yea
rs of service is likely a very conservative estimate. Now this does not account for the cooling systems or electrical setup, but there are standards assigned to those for manufacturers. Once again most of those standards are insanely high in comparison to how long the device will be useful.

What breaks pretty much EVERY TIME is the electrical hookup to AC power and the consequences.
We have a few in which the AC power was fixed that had meltdowns, but in every single case overclocking was not the problem... it was cooling failure (due to lack of maintenance)
Screen failure, peripheral failure, everything BUT the main CPU and GPU fail except in cases of extreme stupidity.
(beer + laptop = bad)

Yes, heat is the enemy... but moderate overclocking only raises the heat by small amounts. My 30-40%+ overclocks raise my laptop GPU by 5 degrees C.
People running lesser GPUs which are at stocks speed who do not clean out their fans often and who do not take care of the laptop run four or 5 times more heat than a massive overclock will.

The manufacturers are counting on the users being complete idiots... THAT is why the warranty is for 1 year. The materials will indeed last a lot longer.
Human stupidity is the limiting reagent, not the silicon.

Remember, I am not refuting that overclocking reduces lifespan... but I am refuting that it does not harm USEFUL lifespan or apparent health if done correctly.

I bet you drive along at exactly the speed limit because it is "what the car is designed for and anything else shortens its lifespan" and when you do get pulled over tell the police officer exactly how fast you were going when he asks.

To do anything less would be "unethical" wouldn't it?
(and if you don't you are guilty of hypocisy)


I have not once had the manufacturer replace a part due to overclocking.
Not once.
The point was the "damage" is not discernable from normal use as normal use does the same thing, you are just doing it faster as the heat is higher.

Do NOT let anyone tell you that overclocking doesn't have risks... but if you think the manufacturers are not counting on enthusiasts pushing their standards, ask yourself why Nvidia and their partners do not lock their GPUs at a certain clock... then ask yourself why nvidia provides overclocking tools on their website. The GPU designers know the users are overclocking. They also know the GPUs aren't the limiting factor in most cases.