Overclocking...Good/Evil?

[Spyke]

Hi all!

I'm just curious about something. Overclocking.

The manufacturers of my Hercules GF3 card do not endorse overclocking, and doing so will invalidate my warranty, and yet on my driver disc is "Hercules Tweaker 3d"; an overclocking utility program!!

Has anybody damaged any hardware by overclocking it too much?
How much is "too much"?
Any bad experiences with manufacturers as a result?

I run my Ram at Turbo, and my 1.2 Athlon at about 1.25 (I know that's very slight overclocking) and have overclocked graphics cards before, including my Herc.

Thoughts?


Spyke:evil:

 

[uncleel]

good/evil

good :angel: -or- evil :darth: ... not good/bad & ugly?!

Yep it's bad & i've fried plenty of stuff.
I Do Not OC anymore. After you get past 1 gig I don't see the point. For what, a lil' more fps for your game play. I'd rather keep my rig nice & stable & save the $'s for the upgrade I desire. Not a replacement for a fried componet.

 

[XYZ359]

Re: good/evil

Originally posted by uncleel
good :angel: -or- evil :darth: ... not good/bad & ugly?!

Yep it's bad & i've fried plenty of stuff.
I Do Not OC anymore. After you get past 1 gig I don't see the point. For what, a lil' more fps for your game play. I'd rather keep my rig nice & stable & save the $'s for the upgrade I desire. Not a replacement for a fried componet.

He's got a very good point.
In my opinion, most overclocking just isn't worth it.
Yup, you can overclock your graphics card and get what, 2 more FPS? Then break it 3 months later? It really makes no sense. But, other things that can be overclocked dramatically and be safe yet stable, sure, I agree with that. Like the contest system they are offering that has been overclocked from 1.6 to 2.2 Ghz.

To keep it all simple, the company put it at those settings so it would not fry and go nuts on you.
They know what they're doing.
You don't, and don't think you do just because you read a little tutorial.
So, overclocking can be good or evil.
It just depends on what you do, how much you do it, and how you do it.

P.S. - Answers to questions:

1. Has anybody damaged any hardware by overclocking it too much?

Heck yes, people have fried and broke their computers.

2. How much is "too much"?

Overclocking it way past the computer component can handle.
It also depends on the computer part and company that made it.

3. Any bad experiences with manufacturers as a result?

I would think so.
If you modify it past original company settings, the company doesn't care anymore. It's now basically your card and your responsibility to fix it now. Not theirs, because you changed it up even when they said not too.

That's my opinion on overclocking altogether.
Farewell.

:grinthumb

 

[svtcobra]

I dont see any problems in moderately overclocking. Keep a very close look at temperatures and dont over do it. CPU oc'ing can be done safely.

I dont recommend oc'ing a video card. There is really no point in doing so..

 

[XYZ359]

Well, I still don't like the idea of pushing a computer component harder than it's recommended settings. I would think overclocking something would make it wear out much faster than normal. And I wouldn't want to take the risk of the component going down and result in me buying a new one for some other reason.

Hey, anything can happen out there.
It's a big world.

Those are my opinions yet again.
Farewell.

:grinthumb

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Originally posted by XYZ359
Well, I still don't like the idea of pushing a computer component harder than it's recommended settings. I would think overclocking something would make it wear out much faster than normal. And I wouldn't want to take the risk of the component going down and result in me buying a new one for some other reason.

I'll answer this thread in full later, but short:

The life of a computer component is quite long... Aprox 10 years +... So if you overclock, you'll shorten that lifespan, but chances are you'll have upgraded way before it even is a need to be concerned... (Though if you go for gold, you might notice it much sooner...)

So that's not a good reason not to oc imo...

As for the performance... What is wrong with getting 2 fps more? Or better yet, be able to increase the quality settings to max whilst still having a playable game?

Or just to show off? "I managed to squeeze another 200mhz out of this old rig"

.02$

 

[SuperCheetah]

I agree with MrGaribaldi that you'll most likely have upgraded way before your computer part has died if you overclock safely and don't over do it.

The people that fry parts are those that do so without proper experience and know how. You can't just expect to get your 1.4 gig Athlon running at 2000MH and it be stable.

On the other hand though, who is going to realize another 2 FPS? The human eye can only differenciate between so many per second anyway.

The only practical reason for me to overclock is if like in our beloved contest the P4 can be overclocked 600MH because Intel chose to underclock the chip in the first place. This overclock was done safely and effectively.

 

[XYZ359]

To keep it all simple, the company put it at those settings so it would not fry and go nuts on you.
They know what they're doing.
You don't, and don't think you do just because you read a little tutorial.
So, overclocking can be good or evil.
It just depends on what you do, how much you do it, and how you do it.

Well, as you can see this quote from my post was directed towards the unwary newbie. And as you can see the person who started this thread seemed unexperienced. So I basically focused this towards him. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.



Edited - Sorry again. I'm just not the most experienced hardware specialist to hit these forums. I'm only 14 and this is not my best topic. I just want to help the people here that need help.

 

[Spyke]

Okay, plenty of opinions offered...

When I was overclocking the Herc GF3, my 3D-Mark 2001 score went up from 5385 to 5702, but an improvement of 317 points equates to about 3 prames per second. So I have a decent system with good graphics card, and I'm making it work harder than designed for a gain of 3fps? I suppose I have to ask myself- Did I notice the difference?

Running UT an improvement of 78 to 81 wouldn't be noticable, but in Flight Simulator 2002, that would raise my 27 to 30!

I think I'll agree with Uncleel and decide the risk outweighs the benefit, for graphics cards at least, but the general opinion is that CPUs are safer to overclock and provide better net gains. The highest I had my Athlon 1.2 running at is 1.28, but I just backed it off to be on the safe side!! (specially as I have a "budget" motherboard- yeah?)

Cheers...(& Happy Easter!)

My system: ECS K7VZA, T-bird 1.2@1.25, 384mb cl2 Ram, Win98SE, Herc GFIII, LG CDR/CD-RW, SB Live!5.1 player.

 

[farmer]

I also have to ask why the big deal on OCing video cards has become so important. A great portion of review time is spent on how good a card will OC and I must be missing something because all it does for me is make images choppy or lock up ingame and mess things up in general. Plus there's all the cash I spent on extra cooling !! Tweaking for image quality is where I'm trying to go. If thats the wrong direction someone tell me.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Originally posted by farmer
Tweaking for image quality is where I'm trying to go. If thats the wrong direction someone tell me.

It's not a wrong direction, it's just your choice. I, too, prefer quality to speed. Some hardcore gamers turn the quality down just to keep frame rates up in the hardest fights.

 

[ArchVile]

no. overclocking is the best!!! just make sure you know what your doing. if ya dont then its bad.

 

[freak54]

There is a thing as "too much" - Just be careful!