Overclocking video card tips?

[superme1]

Hey Hardforum

I'm new to overclocking, and I decided to start with my video card. I'm using EVGA precision, and furmark.

First question: When you run furmark, do you just leave the stability test running until it reaches a constant temperature?

2nd : what should the maximum temperature be, of both the PCB and GPU

3rd: is there any harm in ramping up the fan speed

4th : should I leave the core clock and shader clock linked, or OC them seperately

5th: any other programs I should run to test stability etc?

If there are any other tips, they would be much appreciated

Thanks Hardforum!

 

[Jakalwarrior]

1: Furmark is sort of a beyond worst case scenario thing. I usually just loop 3dmark06 or play some games

2: This depends on the GPU and most of us overclockers draw the line pretty far bellow the danger zone. Most of us start fussing around 70-80*C. Some cards that should be the limit, some can go well over 100* with no problem. Again, google your cards name plus "maximum safe temperature"

3: The fins fill up with dust faster and the fan wears out faster. Neither are considered big problems since the fan "should" last longer than you would want the card and the dust can be cleaned out

4: Seperately

5: 3dmark06 can be good. On my card, if I go up just one or two more mhz the firefly test starts going wonky. When I am clocking I run ATItool on artifact scanning mode plus furmark running in windowed mode to crank up the heat and start sliding the clock speeds up until it makes some errors or crashes.

 

[superme1]

I have 3Dmark vantage, should that be sufficient to test the GPU. Is there a difference between the tests in vantage vs 06?