What kills a GPU when overclocking?

[RadiatingLight]

Hello good sir,

I was wondering why overvolting a GPU is dangerous if the GPU is properly cooled. - is it only heat that can kill a GPU?

as far as i understand, overvolting a GPU gives more power to the core, and subsequently generates more heat. good aftermarket coolers keep cards below 70c at full load, so could I overvolt as much as I wanted with basically no chance of ruining my card?

 

I know that the GPU core has a maximum overclock, and that i wont be able to exceed it, no matter how much volts I pump into the card, but I'm wondering if i could get to that maximum overclock with no fear of killing my GPU. 

[ForsakenLive]

what GPU do you want to OC?

[aisle9]

Heat is the immediate killer, but over time pumping more voltage down those pathways than they're designed to carry will degrade them.

 

Overclocking applications like Afterburner or PrecisionX are pretty safe. Generally speaking, they're designed in such a way that it's difficult to fry your card. It's when people start screwing around with custom BIOSes without understanding the ramifications of cranking it to 11 that they cook things.

[RadiatingLight]

Just now, ForsakenLive said:

what GPU do you want to OC?

I was asking about GPUs in general, but if you want a specific one, the ASUS STRIX 1070

[Moonzy]

other than heat that can cause several ways for your gpu to fail, is probably a bad psu if you're using one

[RadiatingLight]

Just now, aisle9 said:

Heat is the immediate killer, but over time pumping more voltage down those pathways than they're designed to carry will degrade them.

 

Overclocking applications like Afterburner or PrecisionX are pretty safe. Generally speaking, they're designed in such a way that it's difficult to fry your card. It's when people start screwing around with custom BIOSes without understanding the ramifications of cranking it to 11 that they cook things.

over how much time do the pathways degrade?

if I plan to keep my GPU (strix 1070) for 4 years, would overclocking it right when i get it kill the GPU before it becomes obsolete?

[SageOfSpice]

Just because we can cool things doesn't mean they don't get hot in the first place.

[i_build_nanosuits]

3 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

over how much time do the pathways degrade?

if I plan to keep my GPU (strix 1070) for 4 years, would overclocking it right when i get it kill the GPU before it becomes obsolete?

no..like the other guy said, so long as you don't load a custom bios that will allow you to put too much voltage through the core you won't be able to fry the card in 4 years.

There is a max power limit and a max voltage limit that is loaded into the current bios of your card that is considered 100% safe...you can push the sliders all the way and it will not have any noticeable impact.

Also, 4 years is a very long time...i bet in 2 years you'll want a new card.

[ForsakenLive]

5 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

I was asking about GPUs in general, but if you want a specific one, the ASUS STRIX 1070

That GPU has a voltage lock, so you can't go into dangerous territory. Basically a slider on software that can't go up to a GPU-killing range.

If you add a custom bios you can keep cranking up the voltage, which doesn't mean it will keep on scaling with core speed. More power doesn't mean better core clocks, part of the silicon lottery is that the chips can only go so much.