Underclock - Risky? (GTX 660)

[vitorfhc]

Is there any risk in putting my GPU Core -40 MHz and Fan speed at 70-80% (auto mode make it around 60% while playing)? I am doing this because is the only way I can play Overwatch without getting "Rendering device has been lost" error.
Using afterburn for underclock and updating/downgrading video cards or other fixes didn't work for me so really the only solution for not making 60 dollars I spent in the game wasted.
Specs:
Intel i5 - 4430 3.00 GHz
NVIDIA GTX 660
8 GB RAM
Windows 10 64 Bits

 

[basroil]

It's a sign that your GPU is dying on you, so it's not "risky", rather goddamn stupid. Just RMA the card already before it full on dies on you

 

[PatrioticPickle]

It's a sign that your GPU is dying on you, so it's not "risky", rather goddamn stupid. Just RMA the card already before it full on dies on you

Doubt he can RMA the card now considering the 660 was released 3/4 ago. Depends when the OP purchased the card and how much warranty it had/has

 

[vitorfhc]

It's a sign that your GPU is dying on you, so it's not "risky", rather goddamn stupid. Just RMA the card already before it full on dies on you

Doubt he can RMA the card now considering the 660 was released 3/4 ago. Depends when the OP purchased the card and how much warranty it had/has

Nope, no way I can RMA, I bought it when launched so pretty old. But not risky for the rest of the hardware? Can I just keep doing it when going to play until buy a new one?

 

[basroil]

Doubt he can RMA the card now considering the 660 was released 3/4 ago. Depends when the OP purchased the card and how much warranty it had/has

Depends, the 660 was sold new up to about a year an a half ago, and some companies have fairly long warranties (the evga cards ending in kr are 3 years, so just barely plausible )

Either way, he has hardware failure and needs to get it fixed (either RMA if possible or outright replacement) or else he will continue to have issues, each time at lower and lower clocks (until even a 750ti is much faster)

 

[Low Profile Gamer]

It's a sign that your GPU is dying on you, so it's not "risky", rather goddamn stupid. Just RMA the card already before it full on dies on you

Doubt he can RMA the card now considering the 660 was released 3/4 ago. Depends when the OP purchased the card and how much warranty it had/has

Nope, no way I can RMA, I bought it when launched so pretty old. But not risky for the rest of the hardware? Can I just keep doing it when going to play until buy a new one?

yeah sure

 

[dudeman509]

Eh, keep doing it til it quits. Won't harm anything else.

That said, how old and what model is your PSU? IT could potentially be the root cause.

 

[basroil]

Nope, no way I can RMA, I bought it when launched so pretty old. But not risky for the rest of the hardware? Can I just keep doing it when going to play until buy a new one?

You can, but you are risking other components to some degree. Depends on what type of failure the card is having, if VRMs are unable to deal with the current load, they could short out the PSU and fry your other components too.

As long as you think the likelihood of catastrophic failure is lower than the threshold you would need to justify a purchase, then go ahead and keep using it. Most likely it'll just keep slowly failing until you're at a slideshow presentation

 

[vitorfhc]

Eh, keep doing it til it quits. Won't harm anything else.

That said, how old and what model is your PSU? IT could potentially be the root cause.

Well my PSU is a Corsair CX 600, it was bought with the whole computer which was in 2013. Seeing my specs it is reasonable to admit that it is time to change some parts as the video card, but don't think the problem is my PSU. What is your opinion since I am a hardware noob?

 

[dudeman509]

Eh, keep doing it til it quits. Won't harm anything else.

That said, how old and what model is your PSU? IT could potentially be the root cause.

Well my PSU is a Corsair CX 600, it was bought with the whole computer which was in 2013. Seeing my specs it is reasonable to admit that it is time to change some parts as the video card, but don't think the problem is my PSU. What is your opinion since I am a hardware noob?

I think you should buy and try another PSU. If that doesn't work out, return it.

The Corsair CX are not known for quality or frankly, stable power, and it is possible it has degraded with time. Unstable power could cause issues with your card at its stock speeds.

 

[basroil]

The Corsair CX are not known for quality or frankly, stable power, and it is possible it has degraded with time. Unstable power could cause issues with your card at its stock speeds.

Not very likely from the information posted, generally PSU issues will cause either audible noise (in terms of coil whine or audio jack buzzing) or outright crash the entire system. His issue seems to be heat related, especially since he has the fans cranked up to >60%

 

[vitorfhc]

The Corsair CX are not known for quality or frankly, stable power, and it is possible it has degraded with time. Unstable power could cause issues with your card at its stock speeds.

Not very likely from the information posted, generally PSU issues will cause either audible noise (in terms of coil whine or audio jack buzzing) or outright crash the entire system. His issue seems to be heat related, especially since he has the fans cranked up to >60%

Playing now stable at 50 degrees and -48 MHz GPU Core, cpu fan stable at 50-55, dont think it is overheat but video card

 

[basroil]

Playing now stable at 50 degrees and -48 MHz GPU Core, cpu fan stable at 50-55, dont think it is overheat but video card

VRM temps? Memory temps? Unfortunately the only thing you can check without an IR thermometer is the gpu core.

Regardless though, I would not recommend keeping broken components in a computer