does overclocking/underclocking continuously damage the GPU?

[dragnandy]

Im new at overclocking the gpu and it seems that my HD4870 512mb version is alittle picky. On some games, OC at 790/1100 will work fine, nothing wrong using CCC. But on others, ill get artifacts, blinking squares, and such all over the place. So i have to reclock my clock speeds back to stock to run games without any problems (except lower framerate).

Anyways, my question is, is it harmful to the gpu to keep switching my clock speeds back and forth every time i play a game? Before i boot up a game, i go on CCC, increase the clockspeeds and such, and when im done, i move it back down. Or sometimes After overclocking, i go back to stock for some games, and overclock it again when im done playing.

 

[BillParrish]

IMO no, dont see how it would. It is the temp and voltage increases that would damage something and so it would depend on what you are doing to voltages and what temps occur when you make adjustments. Also issues (tearing, artifacts etc.) will appear after the card warms up completely if it is on the edge of stablity. However I have several games that there is something about the game programming (fancy light effects I think) where the rest of the game is fine but if I go to a certain place in the game, stuff happens but then quits if I can manage to get out of that area. So several things could be causing what you are seeing.

Different games typically use different game engines and implement graphics effects in different ways that do not stress the GPU in the same way. So some games will tolerate a higher OC while others will use circuitry in the GPU or stress a functional part of the GPU more and will not tolerate a high OC or any OC at all.

ATI tool has profiles that will automatically reset clocks (or it used to anyway) based on the program run. Some software that does that would eliminate your need to manually adjust from game to game once you determined stable settings for a particular game.


The same thing is seen in CPUs where stress tests that do mainly integer math will give one stable OC speed but another stress test that uses floating point numbers will crash or vice versa.

It is difficult (read - I know of none) to find a program for either GPU or CPU that excercises the entire processor outside of the manufacturing test bed and even then that may not be a good test either depending on what purpose the processor is intended for.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Im new at overclocking the gpu and it seems that my HD4870 512mb version is alittle picky. On some games, OC at 790/1100 will work fine, nothing wrong using CCC. But on others, ill get artifacts, blinking squares, and such all over the place. So i have to reclock my clock speeds back to stock to run games without any problems (except lower framerate).

Anyways, my question is, is it harmful to the gpu to keep switching my clock speeds back and forth every time i play a game? Before i boot up a game, i go on CCC, increase the clockspeeds and such, and when im done, i move it back down. Or sometimes After overclocking, i go back to stock for some games, and overclock it again when im done playing.

use afterburner.. i believe it has a profile option so that when you load a specific game it will change the overclock that you have set for that game.. for example my GTX 260 is stable at 648/1458/1200 in almost every game but in crysis its only stable at 608/1404/1188.. and in BFBC2 its stable at 648/1404/1200.. so im running seporate profiles for my games so the overclocks change in rivatuner.. though afterburner's GUI is more newbie friendly then rivatuner..

 

[cbliss1000]

use afterburner.. i believe it has a profile option so that when you load a specific game it will change the overclock that you have set for that game.. for example my GTX 260 is stable at 648/1458/1200 in almost every game but in crysis its only stable at 608/1404/1188.. and in BFBC2 its stable at 648/1404/1200.. so im running seporate profiles for my games so the overclocks change in rivatuner.. though afterburner's GUI is more newbie friendly then rivatuner..

That's funny- my gtx 260 is the exact same way, with nearly identical numbers. I can push it a bit higher - like around 700+ on the core clock - with a few select games, but most don't like it far past 648ish.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

That's funny- my gtx 260 is the exact same way, with nearly identical numbers. I can push it a bit higher - like around 700+ on the core clock - with a few select games, but most don't like it far past 648ish.

good to know mine is not the only one.. cards are suppose to overclock a heck of a lot better then this.. especially since its a 55nm gpu..

 

[dragnandy]

Thanks guys, (especially you, BillParrish, for your extensive and in depth response)! i appreciate your quick responses and i will look into afterburner.