Underclocking totally safe?

[PrayForDeath]

Yesterday I underclocked my "Pro" from its stock settings (380/340) to 200 core/200mem, everything was stable, then I tried 100/100, and artifacts were all over the screen, I tried to set it back to its normal clocks, but the artifacts didn't go. After a restart everything went back to normal. So my question is, does underclocking damage the video card? In RivaTuner when going to clocks below 300Mhz a "!" mark appears on the clocks window, does that mean it's unsafe to underclock this low?
By the way, I was underclocking to let my card run cooler, since I am moving away and I don't want my parents to face heat problems, and they use the computer only for Internet and office applications.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Underclocking shouldn't damage the card but you should not underclock those cards much, if at all. Certainly not more than about 20-25% on the core and memory.

If you want the card to run cooler, buy a VGA silencer for it. It will run WAY cooler and quieter (your parents will love you).

Heck, if it's for the parents' rig, why not sell the 9800 and buy something cheaper, like a 9600 or an 8500 ?

 

[Matthias99]

I got the same thing on my 9800Pro, and others have reported similar results. My best guess is that parts of the GPU are built for a certain range of operating speeds, and don't function properly if underclocked too much (but that's just speculation). It shouldn't damage anything, but drastically underclocking R3XX GPUs does not seem to work reliably.

 

[Appledrop]

lol i UC'd my XT PE to like 75/100 or somethign like that 😀

 

[PrayForDeath]

Originally posted by: Azzy64
lol i UC'd my XT PE to like 75/100 or somethign like that 😀

You're serious? Did it work with these clocks?

I am not thinking of selling my card, Jiffy, because it's an SE softmoded to Pro, used for more than 6 months, it's worth like a hundred bucks, so it's not worth it to sell it and get a WAY slower card for a little less. And I'll be visiting my parents every once in a while too, so it's good to find a gaming machine waiting for me when I come back 😀
Your VGA Silencer idea seems cool, thanks for the replies guys 🙂

edit: I am still curious though how an underclock would cause artifacts 😕

 

[TStep]

my 9800 does the same thing when drastically underclocked. I use the AtiTool to run it at lower than stock in 2D, then bump it up in 3D, using the automatic settings.