Overclocking GX660 (ATi 5870)

Hey guys,

I'm kinda new to some of this stuff and have a few questions. First my specs:
MSi GX660-053us
i5-450M
ATi Radeon HD5870
8GB RAM (just upgraded)

-I have a stable overclock for my 5870. 765 GPU/1010 Mem.....I think I can go higher but don't feel it's necessary. The highest temp I've seen so far is 56 degrees C. That doesn't seem to be very high. I get up to ten fps better on BF3 with my overclock and would like to enable it when I am playing but I want to know the risks.

-Is overclocking dangerous if my temps stay that low?
-Am I doing any slight damage to my chip that would cause it to last say 3 years instead of maybe 7? (all hypothetical)
-Is it even worth it to overclock at all....basically...what do you guys (especially guys with the 5870 or GX660) do?

Thanks for any help

 

Overclocking always carries a risk to some degree or another. Some people can run with stable and high overclocks, more so than other people. Depends how good your chips core and memory are etc..

Bios modding can help if its boosts the power to the gpu, there are two types of cooler on the GX660 so I believe. One is better than the other.

Also the quality of heatsink goop and application can have an effect on temperatures and how well you can overclock.

If you want to test an overclock dont rely on a game to tell you, you need to download and test using something a bit more specific like furmark. Then you'll see how hot and stable the gpu is.

General rule of thumb is small progressive steps and testing thoroughly each time. Then once you've found the ceiling of stability with no sparklies, lockups, BSOD. Then back it off a notch and enjoy your overclock. You will lower the life expectancy of your gpu, but so many factors have a bearing on whether this drops to weeks/months or years. Or you go in heavy handed (or just unlucky) and fry it permanently!

I used to be heavily into overclocking, sub zero peltier crap with watercooling blah blah blah, obviously not on a laptop But nowadays everything is fast enough and affordable enough!

Oh btw my 5870 is mildly overclocked to 800/1050 without me doing diddly squat to my laptop! It'll do me, cant be arsed to go tinkering. Think it runs around 70C on furmark.

Mick

 

Thanks man.....that's exactly the kind of first hand experience and knowledge I was looking for. Plus the information on your 5870 is useful. Thanks again.

If anyone else has two cents on the subject I'd be glad to hear it. Especially any first hand info on the GX660-053 (or any GX660 with the 5870) being overclocked.

 

Furmark does not always pick everything up. Use it as a rough guide, then check your clocks on a decent DX11 game (such as dirt3) I've also found strangely that Counterstrike source is amazingly good at picking up instability (artefacts on screen)