Overclocking - how much is too much?

[Zoinks]

How can you tell if it is your memory or your GPU that is too far overclocked when you start getting crashes?

Is there any sort of testing program to see which one is over overclocked?

 

[AnAndAustin]

Only o/c one component at a time wherever possible and when you start to get instability is when you should back off a few notches, don't leave things too close to the absolute edge. So long as you take small steps and test thoroughly o/c'ing is as close to risk free as anything gets. I;d advise against anything other than very gentle voltage increases as they produce a lot more heat, stress the component far more and tend to yield very little true perf gains anyway. To stress test try running a game or bm like 3Dmark where all your parts will be put under the kind of stress you'll be putting them through. For testing try:

Prime95 http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
Seti @ Home
Hot CPU tester Lite
Mem tester (eg memtest 86)

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

You'll start noticing visual distortions long before you actually burn the card OCing. Stuff like "artifacting" which are little different colored squares appearing on the screen (I think), tearing, other weird stuff, possibly crashing too.

If you see any of that crap turn the OC down until you don't and your games all run stable then keep it there.

 

[xSauronx]

on my sapphire 8500le the clock/mem will do just over 280 each before artifacting, some games it does, some it doesnt, so i keep them both at 275 (stock for an le is 250/250)

like they said, up it a few mhz at a time, run some games or 3dmark. go for it again, just a few mhz...repeat until artifacting/crashing, then lower it to the last stabel setting and leave it alone