Is overclocking safe?

[Mun0425]

I have a gtx 660 superclocked which I heard is a killer when overclocked. I have the choice to OVERCLOCK IT by 1.01 whole GHz! But I was wondering if it was safe to do that, I dont know if it will overheat or if I even need to mess with the power.

 

[rolli59]

It is safe as long it is done responsibly, that is temps monitored and voltages not run sky high.

 

[DonQuixoteMC]

Adding on to what rolli59 said, you can almost guarantee the process will be safe by taking precautionary measures. For example, buy motherboards that are designed to handle the extra stress of Overclocking. The same goes for CPU coolers. Finally, never make large changes all at once. Change the core frequency and voltage only a little bit at a time, and get familiar with your hardware's max temperatures and voltage.

If you do it right, you'll have a nice, safe, stable overclock.

 

[Mun0425]

It is safe as long it is done responsibly, that is temps monitored and voltages not run sky high.

I am new to overclocking and im wondering if i have to manually alter the voltage or will that throttle up itself?

 

[theonerm2]

Well... There was a time when I first started messing around with computers that I caught the vrms on fire. Scared me a lot. But I've learned a lot over the past 11 years about computers. Overclocking is not safe and it never will be safe. It's definitely safer these days though. The worst thing that usually happens these days is that Windows will crash if your overclock isn't stable. Also you can corrupt your data from an unstable overclock. Prime95 is an excellent way to see if you have stability. I'm assuming you know how to overclock.

 

[theonerm2]

It is safe as long it is done responsibly, that is temps monitored and voltages not run sky high.

I am new to overclocking and im wondering if i have to manually alter the voltage or will that throttle up itself?

You do have to manually adjust the voltage until it's stable but you also have to worry about heat. You need to find a sweet spot where it's not too hot and has a higher clock rate.

 

[rolli59]

It is safe as long it is done responsibly, that is temps monitored and voltages not run sky high.

I am new to overclocking and im wondering if i have to manually alter the voltage or will that throttle up itself?

You do have to manually adjust the voltage until it's stable but you also have to worry about heat. You need to find a sweet spot where it's not too hot and has a higher clock rate.

Correct but then again OC will yield a few FPS but no game changing and maybe you can get some of them with conservative OC on stock Voltage.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Unless you have a custom water loop to cool the GPU, you shouldn't overclock beyond 20% of the GPU's standard clock speed; so 1200Mhz should be the limit for a 1000Mhz standard clock. Side intake fans will help, but only up to a point.

In theory, if you ensure that the GPU has sufficient power and you keep the temperature low, you can overclock it as much as you like. In reality, your motherboard probably won't take the strain and games will freeze or BSOD.

 

[Mun0425]

Well... There was a time when I first started messing around with computers that I caught the vrms on fire. Scared me a lot. But I've learned a lot over the past 11 years about computers. Overclocking is not safe and it never will be safe. It's definitely safer these days though. The worst thing that usually happens these days is that Windows will crash if your overclock isn't stable. Also you can corrupt your data from an unstable overclock. Prime95 is an excellent way to see if you ha
ve stability. I'm assuming you know how to overclock.

I have run prime 95 and i do monthly to check my thermals, and card, i just dont know too much about overclocking but i want 10 extra frames in bf4 to hit 60.

 

[Mun0425]

Thank you all for your support, but just one more thing. I was wondering how much voltage I need to add for ever 10 or so MHz, and also if I can fry my card by overloading voltage if I use its factory overclocking software. My card is a gtx 660 sc.