overclocking

[HFC]

well i got my new nvidia asus 8600 gts silent,and i am very happy with it,but i would like to know more about overclocking it.I would like to know if there is any prevention i should take before doing it,which troubles can appear for overclocking it,how much should i overclock it and in which way it imporved the performance of the games.If someone could explain me a bit about overclocking and the pros and cons about it.
Thanks
HFC.

[[Jett]-Dsru]

Word of advise........... Dont do it!

[[Jett]-Tank]

-Dsru;4059']Word of advise........... Dont do it!

Haha...DSRU and I are on the same page on this one...anti-overclocking. :)

Btw, that's a silent card? Does that mean it has no fan? If so, I'd definitely not over clock it...imho.

-=Tank=-

[[Jett]-Willow]

If you don't know how to do it, and ESPECIALLY if you have a fanless video card, don't do it.
If you have to ask, don't do it.

[[Jett-CC]-Mr_Yellow]

Is it silent because theres no fan or because its replaced with liquid cooling?

[HFC]

this is my videocard: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/asus_en8600gts_silent/
i dont know wether it has or has not a fan,i guess it should have one but it also has some silent techonology,i dont know well about it,u can see it in the link,its exactly as the one i have.
I would like to know why does having or not having a fan,influences on overclocking it.
Thanks.
HFC

[[Jett]-XgrinderX]

I believe its because overclocking usually requires a push in voltage, and a push in voltage is going increase the heat load.

I really think you should take D, Tank, and Willows advice and forget about it. That card should be fine for the games you want to play.

[[Jett]-Liqdfire]

That kind of raw of you all to just blatantly tell him not to do it. Like most things you do there are some inherit risks involved, as long as you understand them, and are willing to replace your equipment if you destroy it, then there is nothing wrong with overclocking. Some of the things you may experience when overclocking a video card include: screen tearing, artifacts in renderings, overheating, locking up, failure to boot, and destroyed card. You will need to do a lot of reading before ever changing a setting, not only learning the mechanics of overclocking, but also reading up on the limits your your particular device. Personally I do not overclock, as I prefer to just pay a little more and get the faster hardware, but I have friends that do oc, and are very good at it; keep in mind though that they spend a lot of time getting their systems stable.
If you are still interested in overclocking your card, here are some links that can get you started in the right direction. just remember you are ultimately responsible for any damage to your hardware, and overclocking it voids the warranty, and yes a manufacture can tell if it has been OC'd.

http://www.overclockers.com/
http://www.overclockercafe.com/
http://www.hardocp.com/ - Really good forums, with a lot of really smart overclockers.

[[Jett]-RollingRock]

it's not voltage increase that causes heat. when you overclock something you are increasing the frequency of the clock which draws more current. more current equals more heat.

If you have to come on here and ask if you should overclock something then you need to do a lot more reading to understand what it is you are doing. why do you want to overclock your vid card? do you even know if that is where your bottleneck exists? you must realize you can make your vid card as fast as you want and might only see small performance gains because that is not where you need to optimize.

[[Jett]-XgrinderX]

Liqd and Rock gave really the best, most complete answers. I think the rest of us, were just channeling our inner "I wouldn't do it" toward HFC :)

[[Jett]-Willow]

I wouldn't say it's "Raw" to tell him not to do it, it's advisable and responsible.

I overclock every bit of hardware I have or had in the past, I've never burnt out a component, unless it was done on purpose of course. However be aware overclocking will most certainly lower component life, require re-application of thermal compound on a somewhat regular basis, require upgrading of cooling, and can AND WILL lead to random crashes and/or artifacts, system stalls and much more.

As for your video card, it has a heatsink and heatpipe solution for dissipation of heat, this works well under stock conditions, however before you even try to bump up the frequencies you need to find out what is your current Idle temperature of your video card and what is the FULL LOAD temperature after an hour or so of full load.

The 8600GTS uses the G84 GPU, has a GPU core clock of 675mhz and a memory clock of 1000mhz effective. As for overclocking googling shows people hitting a good 949/1280 clock speeds, can you expect this, probably not, but you never know.

The G84 is so so on heat, before you even overclock i'd look into getting a new Video card cooler, then go from there. You're going to crash your computer a ton trying to get to the right clocks, so be ready. If you want to carry on look at the links liqd posted and look into getting

nTune from Nvidia
http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

nTune lets you OC vid card with their own utility, it will still void your warranty but has tons of goodies.

Or you can check out
Rivatuner
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

The OG way of ocing and unlocking Nvidia cards. Before you use either program make sure you read and learn up your shit, because one little mess up can fry your shit.

[[Jett]-Liqdfire]

-RollingRock;4074']it's not voltage increase that causes heat. when you overclock something you are increasing the frequency of the clock which draws more current. more current equals more heat.


This statement is only half true, the operating frequency of a chip does not "cause it to draw more current"; if we look at the equation V=I/R it states that Voltage = Current / Resistance as measured in volts, amps and ohms respectively. You are correct in stating that the current or amperage is directly related to the heat output, which in turn is caused by an increase in voltage. You can up the voltage on the chip and remain at the same frequency, and it will just produce more heat, provided the frequency is within a normal operating frequency of the chip. Additionally, if you up the frequency of a chip and do no increase the voltage, then the chip may still run, though more than likely will not be very stable, causing reboots and crashes.

[[Jett]-Dsru]

-Willow;4062']If you have to ask, don't do it.

This is the only reason I made my comment.

[[Jett]-RollingRock]

liqd sorry but you're missing a great deal. the current increases mostly because of increased frequencies. understand how CMOS technology works. if you were not running a clock and just applied a voltage you would find that the current drawn on the device is very small...this is because ideally no current is drawn through the part in a CMOS device when the transistors are not switching. however there is some "leakage" current that does get drawn. This represents the base IR drop on the device and if you increased the voltage then yes you're right with your equation.

Now let's apply a clock and you'll see as the transistors switch the power demand on the supply goes up and then settles on each clock edge. the faster it switches the more power is demanded. this happens regardless of if you change the voltage. the simple fact is all things remaining constant the faster you run a device the more current it will draw over time even if you keep the voltage the same. thus the part will run hotter when you overclock the device and voltage had nothing to do with it.

[[Jett]-Willow]

RR makes the bucks being a EE on this kind of shit all the time :D

[HFC]

Ok thanks for the info,i wont do it.I just wanted to know the risks and in which way it would imporve my performance,but according to what u guys said its not worth doing it,so i wont do it.
Thanks.
HFC

[[Jett]-rush2049]

Well also, unless you have a really fast system and that video card, I prety much say from experience that overclocking your cpu/ram/fsb would yield a better result, as they are more commonly the bottleneck.


Oh and on a side note, I always wondered whats the heat threshold for heat pipes, would they burst at a certain temperature? Is it possible to hit that temp with hardware without frying the chips? If so, I wanna see the warenty claim on that...

[[Jett]-Willow]

Well also, unless you have a really fast system and that video card, I prety much say from experience that overclocking your cpu/ram/fsb would yield a better result, as they are more commonly the bottleneck.


Oh and on a side note, I always wondered whats the heat threshold for heat pipes, would they burst at a certain temperature? Is it possible to hit that temp with hardware without frying the chips? If so, I wanna see the warenty claim on that...

The problem isn't the "threshhold" seeing how if temp got to high the coolant would completely vaporize, and it won't conduct heat any longer. So it'd be just like not having a cooler on it at all.

[[Jett]-rush2049]

Yes I know the coolant would vaporize, but that also increases the pressor inside the heat pipe, so eventually after continual heating wouldn't it be too much pressure to hold and explode?

[[Jett]-Willow]

Yes I know the coolant would vaporize, but that also increases the pressor inside the heat pipe, so eventually after continual heating wouldn't it be too much pressure to hold and explode?

Assuming it could get that hot over time before the GPU failing, I would guess so.

[[Jett-CC]-Krish the Fish]

um, i know i'm a bit late on this discussion, but if anyone has eVGA video cards, unless there is physical damage to your cards, you don't void your warranty (see here (http://www.evga.com/support/lifetime/default.asp)):

There is no physical damage to the PCB, GPU/chipset, or components that are caused by: Damage due to improper installation, damage during modification of any kind, damage during any type of Aftermarket cooling installation, and water damage of any kind.

i had my video cards RMA'd after i overclocked them, and i received new ones just like that, no questions asked. There was no physical damage, and i didn't RMA them because of the OC-ing, but they have pretty much the best policy i've seen around...

just for future reference if you're looking into buying vid cards :)

[[Jett]-RollingRock]

actually killing your video card by overclocking is physical damage. i'm surprised they let you do that. good to know they dont' care though

[[Jett-CC]-Krish the Fish]

well i turned my cards back down to stock afterwards (my computer was running too too hot), and i forgot why i had to RMA them, but I was quite sure that it wasn't anything to do with the RMA. but i recall it had nothing to do with burning, or overheating or anything. it might've been a power surge... i don't recall though.