Overclocking in computer language means that you increase the speed of a component so that it runs faster than its default configuration. GPUs are one of the most common components to overclock, but there are some questions regarding overclocking GPUs that we should take a look at.
A lot of people are hesitant to overclock their GPU because they think that their GPU will either break or be damaged. So, is there any merit to this? Can overclocking your GPU damage it?
If you overclock your GPU in a correct manner with the right methodology, the GPU should be safe. Overclocking can damage the GPU if you let the GPU run at unreasonable temperatures for too long while having increased voltages. Every GPU is unique and requires different safe temperatures. Do your research before overclocking.
There are a bunch of things to consider when overclocking a GPU. Please read through this article if you want more information about the potential risks of overclocking, how it works, and much more.
Can Overclocking Your GPU Damage It?
As I stated before, there are some risks with overclocking your GPU, but in general, those risks shouldn’t be fulfilled if you’re careful and follow a guide. For example, semiconductors will deteriorate faster over time because of the additional heat.
Something else to keep in mind is that you can easily shorten the lifespan of your GPU by overclocking it. This can be a very non-significant period of time, however, and it can depend on the GPU in question and the cooling provided.
Users have also reported that Windows can become unstable after overclocking their computers. For example, things such as Windows and driver updates have caused some users’ OC’ed computers to become unstable, causing BSOD and other annoyances.
Performing the overclocking procedure can, as I touched on earlier, cause some damage to the GPU and other components, for example, if you increase the voltage way too much. As you can tell, many of the risks with overclocking lie with yourself.
The increased cost is another thing to take into consideration, although granted, it has nothing to do with damaging the GPU. Your computer will naturally draw more power with an overclocked GPU and increase the cost of running the system.
How Does Overclocking Work?
As I mentioned earlier, overclocking is when you increase the default clock speed for one or more of your components. The results of this are, hopefully, that you can run games and other demanding applications with better performance.
In the case of GPUs, this can usually be done through different software. Some examples of overclocking software are MSI Afterburner (pair MSI Kombustor with the Afterburner for stress tests), RivaTuner, Precision, and Zotac Firestorm.
These days, it’s very easy to overclock your GPU compared to what it used to be. Most of these programs simply let you overclock it by turning some sliders on a menu.
This is a bit oversimplified, of course, you don’t want to crank the settings up to max immediately. Overclocking your GPU involves slowly and successively increasing the speed of the GPU, and then running a benchmark program like Prime95, while at the same time carefully looking at the temperatures for your GPU, which is usually done through something like RealTemp.
To reach higher and still stable clock speeds for your GPU, you will want to increase the voltage. Increased voltage is what makes the heat go up a lot, so you need to be very careful with this. Here, it becomes very important to research your card beforehand and see what its limitations are when it comes to max voltages.
Does Overclocking Shorten the Life of Your GPU?
As I stated earlier, much of this will depend on what type of GPU you have, but naturally, the raised heat from the overclock will generally shorten the lifespan of any given component that’s overclocked.
Whether or not you notice any real difference in lifespan depends on how much you’re overclocking the component, as well. If you use an extreme overclock daily for a GPU, constantly bringing it up to 80-85 degrees, you can shorten the lifespan of the GPU quite significantly.
Here’s another thing to consider when considering the lifespans of GPUs: most GPUs become non-functional or non-desirable by the virtue of new games and new GPUs, not because of deterioration.
Most people upgrade their GPUs long before they would actually fail, and if you are one of the people that switch GPU every 2-3 years, overclocking might actually be a good idea, since you would have switched GPU anyways by the time it would fail due to voltage and heat from the overclock.
Even if you want to have your GPU for a longer period of time, you can still overclock it, just don’t max out the overclock where you have increased the voltage a bunch of times and constantly run the GPU at high temperatures.
Another thing to take into consideration is how hot it is in your room. This obviously depends on where you live, the time of year, and so forth. If it’s really hot where you live, your components will be hotter, especially with an overclock.
How Much Can You Overclock Your GPU Safely?
How much you can overclock your card before things become risky depends a lot on your circumstances. I mentioned how the temperature in your room matters, and that also helps dictate how much you can overclock your GPU safely without doing any damage over time to it.
There are more things to consider here. For example, if you don’t clean out your PC very often, then you won’t be able to overclock your PC as much because it’ll get hotter faster. Heat does not dissipate through the dust. Remember to always clean your PC every once in a while using canned air.
Another thing to think about is what components you have in your PC, more specifically the quality of the components. If you bought a lot of budget stuff because you wanted a nice GPU, then you might not want to overclock your GPU as much.
Low-quality components deteriorate faster over time, as you might imagine. Having said all that, is there a safe limit even considering those things? How do you do it?
How Do You Overclock Your GPU Without Damaging It?
First of all, let’s counter-act all of the points that I mentioned make your computer warmer. You should clean your computer once in a while. Take it out into an open space, preferably outside, then clean it with canned air.
Secondly, if possible, don’t put your computer in a room where you know it’s particularly warm. This might be difficult to achieve depending on where you live and other circumstances, but I’m mentioning it because, in the long term, this can help the computer keep a lower temperature.
Furthermore, you need to research your specific GPU to see what temperatures it can reach safely, and then take slow steps forward. I recommend going 20MHz at a time and checking that your system is stable when beginning to overclock your GPU. That’s not all you need to take into account, however.
I strongly recommend checking a guide for how to do it and then following along with the steps. Follow the steps very carefully. This video does a good job showing you exactly what you need to do when overclocking your GPU. Make sure that you take the points I’ve brought up into consideration before overclocking the GPU.
Does Overclocking a GPU Void Warranty?
A lot of people are worried that if they overclock their GPU, their warranty will be void. This would mean that their warranty is no longer valid, and they would not be able to return it or have it switched out per their warranty.
However, generally, overclocking the GPU does not void the warranty on your GPU. This is if you only use programs such as MSI Afterburner to overclock it. Some people flash their BIOS so that they can crank up the voltages beyond what is recommended, and if the GPU gets damaged or destroyed as a result of this, then the warranty will be void.
I don’t recommend doing this, and it’s impossible to do it by accident using the programs provided in this article, so you’re safe. This goes for GPUs in general. For CPUs, it’s generally a bit different.
Is It Best to Overclock GPU, CPU, or RAM?
It’s very difficult to say what component is best to overclock since it depends a lot on your specific components. Generally, however, prioritize overclocking the CPU and GPU before the RAM.
Between the GPU and CPU, I would recommend overclocking your GPU first. This is if you only want to try to overclock one of the parts. Of course, you can do both, but you need to take precautions before doing this. Overclocking both the CPU and GPU will naturally produce more heat.
Most good CPUs nowadays are multi-core, so in general, overclocking the GPU will give you the best performance boost while still being the safest component for overclocking of the two.
Can You Undo an Overclocked GPU?
Yes, you can quite easily undo overclocking on a GPU. As I have mentioned previously, the GPU is in most cases overclocked through software like MSI Afterburner and all you have to do to undo the overclock is to turn the settings back to where they were before.
It’s advisable to assign profiles in your overclocking software so you can easily swap between them. This way, you won’t have to adjust sliders when you want to increase or decrease the overclock speed, instead you can just select a different profile.