O/C MX card only when needed?

[dugr]

Hopefully this isnt a dumb question.....I have a Hercules Prophet II MX card o/c to 220/210...I was thinking about the standard warning you receive about the potential of burning up your o/c card. That led me to think,while not in use, would it benefit the card to revert back to the default clock settings and only o/c when needed?
thanks

 

[MustangSVT]

i belive that ocing video card will give u no problems. People dont underclock (back to original speeds ) when they browse web and overclock when they play games or need more performance, they just keep it overclocked. And with video card u dont change voltage so there is even less reason to fear it going bad or somthing. And looking at that u dont have TNT or older cards mean u will upgrade your video card within 2.5 years anyways so it'll last during that time for sure.

 

[Arschloch]

Actually, the exact thought crossed my mind.

So, I've made it a habit to do just what you said: When I play any games, I overclock my MX. When I go back to Windows and am performing non-gaming activities, I "Restore Defaults".

I don't know if it will actually help anything, but I figure that it can't hurt, and it MIGHT help, so why not?

--Arschloch

 

[MustangSVT]

lol do u underclock your processor too? hey what ever u say.. its your system and your style

 

[Arschloch]

Hey, hey, easy there.

If I could easily underclock, I would! Just kidding.

Actually, I have a Duron 700, and it isn't overclocked because I have one of those 'neat' FIC AZ11 motherboards... *ahem*.

--Arschloch

 

[MustangSVT]

dang... at least u have mucho faster cpu then my cel 450. im thinking about selling this and buying a new cel 633 or something. that should make my system live longer.

 

[vss1980]

Actually, changing between two extremes could be damaging.
One of the most damaging cycles for any chip that runs hot is the continued heating and cooling when being switched on and off.

For example, in this case you want to overclock the card while playing games (making it run in effect at its max limit, thus max temp.) then when not playing games, reduce its speed to standard (no work load, runs at low temp.). This will cause the same type of heating and cooling.

Most people just run their cards at an overclocked speed and dont worry about it (including me) and while prolonged overclocking (and over-heating) can be bad, no-one is sure yet what effect constant heating and cooling have on chip life cycles.

 

[Mustanggt]

This is what i did also i tried my radeon at 190/200 and ran 3d2000 and then did it at default and it was same score.

 

[MustangSVT]

u ran it at 166/166 and at 190/200 and it gave u same scores?! that's odd...

 

[Mustanggt]

yea it sure is odd it was 1024/768 32 bit both test and first test was default score was 3581 and overclocked was 3583