Overclocking hurts sometimes..?

[dbal]

Problem is quite clear. I can't see DVD picture in PowerDVD with hware accelaration enabled, like I always did. Last 3-4 days I ve been playing with the memory clock freqs only of my Gainward GF2Ti trying to get the last fps out of it before I swap it. 3D gaming picture is not affected and although I can watch DVDs with software accelaration enabled, thanks to the modest P4@1,5 Ghz I have, I wonder if the o/cing efforts killed sth in the card and what exactly this is.
Is there a certain chip responsible for DVD picture and card features that could be..."fried" from the temporary 500Mhz setting??
Needless to say, all settings are back to normal now that is 250/450Mhz. Thanx to any answer provided

 

[Claimore]

I recently tried overclocking my GF2 MX400. Pushed the mem to 215. I found that the overclock didnt give me a great performance boost, and set it back to 200 (the Gainward's default speed). Two days later, I'm without a card and mobo. That sucks piles, but thats life. Got a new Ti4200 and still havta get a new mobo.

 

[EdipisReks]

i don't see how overclocking your vid cards memory killed your card and mobo, unless by "overclocking" you meant "spilling a can of coke all over the computer".

 

[AnAndAustin]

Yup so long as you take small steps and test thoroughly o/c'ing is VERY safe. Alterring voltages is what will really do you in and that certainly stresses any component in ways they weren't designed, produces a LOT more heat, lowers the component's lifespan and tends to only give a small extra o/c anyway. Of course components aren't checked to run at the higher speeds but they do always have a safety margin where the company producing them know that the cards could go higher but don't, either to limit the amount of rejects or even to promote the more profitable cards. SO with the likes of a GF3TI200 or GF4TI4200 there tends to be acres of o/c'ing room as these cards in particular are clocked well below their true abilities simply to promote sales of GF3TI500 and GF4TI4400/4600. If you o/c sensibly and the card fails it is most likely that there was a defect totally unrelated to the o/c which the faster speeds simply brought to light sooner, so you may want to return the card on the off chance it was actually a defect rather than you o/c'ing which caused it to expire.

Use the technique above to find the limit of your component(s) and then take it down a couple of steps to ensure long term stability and to prevent significantly ageing/stressing the card. It's always a good idea to run a few benchmarks to see what each type of o/c gets you. EG for GF2 cards raising the core makes virtually no diff while raising the RAM speed makes a big diff. Another eg is when the CPU or gfx card aren't a well-balanced match, if you have a P4 2.4ghz there's little point pushing it if it has a GF2 in there, similarly if you have a PII there's really no point o/c'ing a GF3!

 

[dbal]

Thanx for the feedback guys but now that I have described the problem well enough in the initial post I 'd like to make my question a bit more specific:
How could my card be affected by o/cing (which by the way I have exercised for quite a while so don't focus on this kind of advice) only in terms of DVD picture? I really don't get get how altering the memory chips freqs could damage ONLY the card's components that are related to DVD playback. Any ideas on that?

 

[alkemyst]

well from a technical aspect anytime you OC you introduce heat that may or not have been tested (usually manufacturers test beyond the rated capacities) so you could have fried some small components in the chain.

good luck

 

[AnAndAustin]

Another possibility is upsetting timing issues which would be more important with specific added chips like DVD decoding hw. This is often the case for Radeon AIW cards, all the extra circuitry is a factor for limiting the o/c. Dual CPU systems too!