abbiecaroline
New member
What does overclocking 3d cards do? Could it damage something?
What does overclocking 3d cards do? Could it damage something?
- Thread starter abbiecaroline
- Start date
alpenwasser
New member
Hi there, and welcome to the forums.
In very rough terms:
Overclocking itself does not damage anything afaik, but it can lead to instability. What can
damage your components however is overvolting. Overvolting is relevant because it allows
for higher overclocks while maintaining stability (so basically: you can overclock to some degree
on stock voltages, you encounter instability, you up the voltages, and if you've increased voltage
enough you will get a "stable overclock"). Depending on what GPU card you have, overvolting
may be disabled by the manufacturer (current Nvidia chips afaik, not sure about AMD).
I once read a very nice article a few years ago which explained how overclocking works with a
few nice pictures; I'll see if I can find that again.
In very rough terms:
Overclocking itself does not damage anything afaik, but it can lead to instability. What can
damage your components however is overvolting. Overvolting is relevant because it allows
for higher overclocks while maintaining stability (so basically: you can overclock to some degree
on stock voltages, you encounter instability, you up the voltages, and if you've increased voltage
enough you will get a "stable overclock"). Depending on what GPU card you have, overvolting
may be disabled by the manufacturer (current Nvidia chips afaik, not sure about AMD).
I once read a very nice article a few years ago which explained how overclocking works with a
few nice pictures; I'll see if I can find that again.
KING_OF_SAND
New member
Most has already been said. Overclocking is simply taking the core clock rate and making it higher. Overclocking does not hurt anything, but raising the core clock WILL increase heat. Heat is the number one killer of overclocking anything.
Overvolting as mentioned can and is generally dangerous. When you put more electricity through what the manufacturer specified you run frying the chip/ram whether or not you are in temp threshold. If you are new to overclocking DO NOT overvolt!
I myself have hit 5ghz on my 2500k (see sig) and it was no easy task. Along with said above, for minor overclocks you just need to monitor temps and a simple cooling solution will suffice. I'm talking overclocks of only 200 - 300 and sometimes 400mhz.
If you want to go higher you will need much better cooling and will need to learn how to overvolt. When overcolting you will need to monitor precisely temps, voltage fluctuation (droop), vrm (GPU), and clock speed in relation to applied voltages. You should NOT overvolt unless you have a motherboard with a good power structure. You will also need to learn how and what to use to properly benchmark for stability. And finally score in any of the major benching applications.
Also do it in the BIOS!
And have fun.
Overvolting as mentioned can and is generally dangerous. When you put more electricity through what the manufacturer specified you run frying the chip/ram whether or not you are in temp threshold. If you are new to overclocking DO NOT overvolt!
I myself have hit 5ghz on my 2500k (see sig) and it was no easy task. Along with said above, for minor overclocks you just need to monitor temps and a simple cooling solution will suffice. I'm talking overclocks of only 200 - 300 and sometimes 400mhz.
If you want to go higher you will need much better cooling and will need to learn how to overvolt. When overcolting you will need to monitor precisely temps, voltage fluctuation (droop), vrm (GPU), and clock speed in relation to applied voltages. You should NOT overvolt unless you have a motherboard with a good power structure. You will also need to learn how and what to use to properly benchmark for stability. And finally score in any of the major benching applications.
Also do it in the BIOS!
And have fun.
