How safe to overclock?
 

Hi, I'd like to overclock my 2 GeForce 6800 GT's so I can get the best performance out of them. As it is, my PC appears to be hot, or at least the side of the case feels, it, but I have no noticed any problems with using my computer it runs pefectly.

If I use 'coolbits' to overclock my card, like using it's optimal overclokign thing to do it for me, would I be safe and now damage my hardware, because I do not want to buy new cards if I screw this up.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Using the "Optimal" setting is pretty safe. I overclock both my PC's video cards with coolbits and never had a problem.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Optimal is the max setting that a manufactuer will sell the card at. (aka bfg's crazy oc'd cards) If you look at my sig my 6600 is in GT territory and it is stable.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

I just used the 'detect optimal frequencies' button, and ran a CoD2 which went very well, but I noticed a slight burning smell when I exited the game.

Upon noticing this, I changed the setting back to default and I am waiting to see if the smell goes away. I am not sure if it may just be dust or something that is burning and the hardware is fine. What do you think?

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

In Coolbits, that isn't true. If you run the 'detect optimal frequencies' thing twice back to back, it will probably give you different frequencies. After I upgraded my cooling on my old 6800GT, the optimal frequencies rose 20MHz core and 40 or 50MHz memory.

About overclocking, just watch your temperatures. The nVidia driver utility (same window that you find coolbits in) will tell you the temperatures. I would consider it a safe temperature if your idle temps are 60C or below, and load temps are 85C or below, but 85C is getting a little hot (theoretically, though, the card can heat up to 127C before its damaged).

I threw an NV5 silencer on my old 6800GT (if you wan't to overclock, you might want to pick up two of these), and ran it for nearly its entire life at around 434/1180, up from the stock speeds of 350/1000. Worked fine the whole time.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Read carl's post.

Coolbits gives you the highest core and memory frequencies it can reach without detecting corrupt data in a test. If you run the check on a cold day right after booting up, you'll get higher results than if you do the same on a hot day after four hours of playing your favourite addiction.

@OP~ Burning smells always concern me, but it's very unlikely that the optimal speeds Coolbits gave you will cause damage to your card. Those speeds are often quite conservative.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Burning smell!?! Get the cat out of you PSU! Overclocking would not cause a burning smell, If it got that hot it would not work.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Looking at the "extreme" models you could easily think that ~50 MHz (both memory and core) would be a safe extra-load for the card. Is this right, especially in the case of a new GF7800 GT?

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Well, I have been running my cards at the optimal frequencies suggestion, which was.... 395 Mhz memory and 1.09Ghz clock.

I then ran Knights of the old Republic, and after playing for a while I felt the side of the case where teh graphics cards would be and it really was HOT.

Would it be safe to have run them like this? I mean it is slightly warm anyway so would this be safe?

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Take your side panel off, or buy some more fans. Good cooling is the key to Overclocking. I have 8 80mm fans in my mid range system.