Will Overclocking Without Voltage Tweak Reduce Card Life?

[rlg5150]

By reduce card life, I mean by any significant amount. I've searched Google, but I see some answers that say "Yeah that should last at least two years."

I have AMD 7950s and I can run them at 1050+ all day with temps ~60C and 50% fan. I haven't done any kind of voltage tweaking. I simply set the core clock higher in Radeon Pro (I don't even have to use +20 Power Slider either).

Is this okay to do without any significant wearing out of the card beyond what's normal? I'm not looking to make them last 5 years, but how about another 2? Is it okay to overclock like this with no voltage tweaking and good temps?

Also, I think my Sapphire card has a higher voltage out of the box than my MSI card. Sapphire is stock voltage 1.25 whereas the MSI is like 1.070 or something close to that (I haven't checked in a while).

I really appreciate any input!!! Thanks!

 

[Ubrales]

If you can OC without tweaking (raising) the voltage you are doing great! In any case the board life will not be significantly reduced.

 

[rlg5150]

I admit I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to extreme overclocking. But I'm assuming voltage tweaking is something I'd have to deliberately do, correct? Just increasing core clock and checking stability is fine? That won't affect voltage at all?

Thanks!


Edit: What I'm trying to ask is, Radeon Pro or Afterburner don't increase voltages automatically do they? I'd have to deliberately do something like that?

Thanks!

 

[Ubrales]

I admit I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to extreme overclocking. But I'm assuming voltage tweaking is something I'd have to deliberately do, correct? Just increasing core clock and checking stability is fine? That won't affect voltage at all?

Thanks!

Right! The voltage must be raised by small increments (0.1 V to be safe) at a time and the temps must be monitored. Your CPU voltage can be gradually raised to 1.275 V without sacrificing CPU or board longevity.

Please follow the OC guide at this site. That's the one I used to OC my i7 920 to 3.82 GHz..

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/263043-29-1156-core-core-overclocking-guide

 

[rlg5150]

I admit I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to extreme overclocking. But I'm assuming voltage tweaking is something I'd have to deliberately do, correct? Just increasing core clock and checking stability is fine? That won't affect voltage at all?

Thanks!

Right! The voltage must be raised by small increments (0.1 V to be safe) at a time and the temps must be monitored. Your CPU voltage can be gradually raised to 1.275 V without sacrificing CPU or board longevity.

Please follow the OC guide at this site. That's the one I used to OC my i7 920 to 3.82 GHz..

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/263043-29-1156-core-core-overclocking-guide

I'm talking about overclocking Radeon 7950 GPUs, not processors.

 

[Ubrales]

Graphics cards are usually set at high performance specs at the factory and I personally do not like overclocking them even though it is feasible to OC slightly over and beyond factory standards.

The same with RAM; the benefits of changing the frequencies are not that great.