Overclocking my monitor

[Vehementi]

Hello all,

Is it safe to use a monitor with it's refresh rate higher than what it's limited to? This monitor, a 21" NEC MultiSync P1150, is limited to 70Hz at 1600x1200 - but I'm running it now at 85Hz. Is this ok? Can I really damage my monitor, or is it like overclocking your CPU in that it's mostly fine? Could I even do it higher?

Thanks in advance

 

[LNCPapa]

Veh - I have the same monitor and I've always run it at that setting - only thing is you have to use default monitor for the monitor profile but it's worked fine for me for a couple years now. No probs yet.

LNCPapa

 

[Vehementi]

You've run it at 85Hz? Oh good then!

 

[Justin]

It's just like any other device - They rate it for a specific setting. Doesn't mean it will work only at that and no higher. Just be warned that a monitor is much more sensitive about its timing then, say, a video card is about its memory clock. You may get away with 85hz no problem, but then again 6 months down the road your monitor may suddenly stop working.

I have a beautiful 19" monitor a while back that was rated for 1280x1024 @ 70hz, I had it at 75hz. It worked fine for about 4 months, then one day all of a sudden the picture started sliding to the bottom left of the screen and squishing. Turning it off and back on fixed it, it did it again later, turning it off then resulted in a huge POP and then a dead monitor. The cause? The refresh rate was too high.

 

[Phantasm66]

soul has a point,

at work, our store room is FULL of monitors that once had nice displays but now are faded and dull, fussy text, etc...

why?

because despite being told not to, people ran them at higher settings than they were rated for. It was fine for a while but 6 months down the line things started to go wrong.

different people have different ways of doing things, and its your kit so run it like that if you want, but if I had paid several hundred dollars for a 21" monitor, I would NOT be running it too hard.

fair enough LNCPapa says he had this monitor and its running fine. maybe yours will too. Could be nothing will ever go wrong....

but where motherboards, chips, HDDs, etc come and go, a good monitor can last for YEARS. you really want to take the chance?

that's a beautiful monitor you have there, which you probably don't deserve . I would be taking good care of it unless you have disgustingly rich parents who buy you anything you want whenever you want just to make you go away....

 

[Vehementi]

Yeah, there are some good points. I bought this monitor a few months ago for $150, and it's 4 years old :stickout:

Who knows what previous owners did to it, but it was "remanufactured".

You can get a good 17" for $150. I think I would deserve that.

 

[Phantasm66]

oh, a recon! i won't go driving that too hard....

 

[Vehementi]

Which I'm not anymore :dead: I don't want to have to buy a new monitor...ever...

Although this one is permanently stained it seems.

 

[Vehementi]

Although I could go for a nice 34" Princeton Arcadia CRT...

 

[Nick]

when u first buy a monitor brand new... for the first week before it starts getting dirty and crap, its like a massage for your eyes D:

 

[Vehementi]

Originally posted by Nick
when u first buy a monitor brand new... for the first week before it starts getting dirty and crap, its like a massage for your eyes

Gotta love the nice clean feeling. Windex does pretty good for after you've had it for awhile.

Heh I've never bought a monitor brand new. Next one should/might be, however.

 

[LNCPapa]

Good points Phant - I didn't even think about that. If this monitor goes POP then I'll have an excuse to go buy a really nice new flat spiffly clean eye-massaging monitor. Veh, I suggest you run it at spec and no higher.

LNCPapa