I have always wondered

[Oakmeal]

Does running games at max setting eventually hurt your pc in anyway i have always wanted to know. 

[Windows7ge]

No.

 

Assuming you keep it adequately cooled.

[suchamoneypit]

Technically yes. Just like how driving your car on a racetrack hurts your car. Is your car rated to make its max horsepower? Yes. Will it eventually affect the car from running so hard all the time? Yup. In the case of GPUs, it should run just fine for years and years no issues though. And when you're playing games, the GPU usually isn't always at 100%. Too little to really be concerned about in the case of computer components playing games and stuff.

[Taja]

Let me rephrase the question: " Does running your hardware at maximum power eventually hurt your pc in anyway i have always wanted to know. "

 

the answer is yes and no.

yes - because everything dies, and running at max 24/7 will make stuff die sooner.

no - because hardware lasts a loooong time. if you are using proper voltages/cooling, you can run stuff at max for many hours every day for years and years and probably your hwardware will become obsolete BEFORE it dies. ofc it depends on the parts, but processors for example last FOREVER. other eletronic components have a rated life, like mosfets and capacitors, and they are rated for a specific temperature, so if temps are higher their life spam lowers significantly.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Using hardware causes it to heat up. The mechanism for heating and cooling repeatedly can cause thermal mechanical stress. But this is already accounted for so that's not really a problem. However higher heat does lead to degradation of the electronics. Except since we don't really know what the life span of any given part is, we can't really make an educated guess on how long any part will last.

 

So basically, the answer is yes running your hardware hard will kill it faster, but we don't know how long it's supposed to last anyway.