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.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Don't go by how your computer smells or feels, just go straight to the source. Look at the temperatures in the nVidia driver. But just as a precaution, I tried never to use the actual recommended clock speeds. For some reason your computer is giving you reccommendations about 40MHz lower than mine did, but I always lowered the speed a little after detecting my optimal frequencies.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

I can't find any temperature monitors. I even downloaded nTune and I got no temperature reading.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

right click your desktop, click "properties", click "settings", "advanced", your gfx adapter, select temp from the pop out side menu

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

I have no temperature settings option. It just is not there.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Use coolbits to get the temp

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=815

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Do you have MSI cards, by any chance?

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

My card is MSI and I have Temp monitoring.

I suggest you download nTune.

If you have an nforce motherboard, it should have came with it. I think it is only compatible with nforce motherboards, but you could give it a shot.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_2.00.23.html

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

He has no temperature reading. He downloaded nTune, and using Coolbits wont work since it only unlocks another part of the menu the temperature should already be displayed in.

Just a wild guess, but is it possible that you using SLI is causing a problem? Maybe if you remove one card you'll get a reading? Or just buy one of these. It's pretty accurate but inexpensive. I have one and I just throw it in a drawer and pull it out when I need it. It's backlit, has an alarm and plugs into a molex connecter. I think it might fit in a 3.5" drive bay, but I have no idea.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

do you have current drivers? the only reason i dount overclock and unlock my 6800 is because i have a warrenty and if something happens i dount want to void it.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

I do have the current nvidia drivers, and I've left it off over night, and booted it up today, left it running for a while and it was cool. I think the way I have my PC positioned may have something to do with the case being hot, because it does not have very good airflow, and when I actually follow the flower of the air I just end up seeing that it's sucking in the hot air it's just expelled out the front.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

If you are at a table, stick the PC under the Table if possible... It works well with mine.

Hot Air Rises. ;)

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Well, I'm at a desk, but my PC puts the hot air out the front and is supposed to suck cool air in through the back, but... because it's in a cabinet with a the back sealed off, the hot air coming out the front rises hits the top of the cabinet, and while some leaves, some of it goes back and gets sucked in, and it doesn't really get cool air. So, I'm trying to come up with a way of getting a good airflow going.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Place a Fan at the back possibly...Or turn it around, but that would be too inconvieniant.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

ATX cases are designed with the intent that front, bottom and most side fans are to be used for intake, while rear and top fans are meant for exhaust.

It's also (for obvious reasons seen here) a bad idea to put a computer into an enclosed cabinet or hutch, and and equally bad idea to put it on the floor.

Re: How safe to overclock?
 

Take the computer out of the cabinet or cut the back out of the cabinet. You simply can't safely run a computer in a closed space like that.