Is Temp the tell-all for OC'ing?

what i mean is this, can one accurately tell if damage is being done, or more importantly, NOT being done, by temperature?

my situation, i have a BFG GT OC, tuned it up to 425/1200 and ran 3dMark05, half-life, and doom3 timedemos

im very, very satisfied with the results, and the temps are as follows:

stock OC, idle 59c, after 3dmark, 62c

high OC (435/1200), idle 61c, after 3dmark 63c

while it would seem at first that this is alls-well, i got nervous and turned it back down to 400/1100, and the temps are still in that same area

my thought are this, is it important to reduce temps when OC'ing?, or maintain?

if one wished to OC way high, is it important to DROP temps by a similar percentage?

welcome to the forums.

Temps are important but not always the best measure for how far you can overclock something.

You always want to keep lower temps. Most manufacturer's will tell you either normal operating temp range or max temp. Good stuff to know and definitely stay within their specifications.

Temps are debatable... Some consider them important... Some consider them largely misleading. I would rather look to stability - if there are no errors propagating under heavily loaded tasks, then I assume the component is well within its acceptable range of operating temperatures.

Temp readings are generally unreliable and almost impossible for one to compare with someone else's.

A temperature change like you saw is nothing as far as changes go (room temperature can change by multiple degrees C so your card could run at those new higher temps under normal circumstances at stock settings), however I don't know how you are taking those temps either.

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

Two things determine the lifespan of the chip. Voltage and heat. running a higher clock speed will not nessicarily hurt it, it will increase the heat though.

Your chip hardly got any hotter at all, push that thing even harder

A chip may or may not get an increase in clock speed from a certain drop in temperatures, you just gotta mess around and see what your chip likes.

If your stable at 435 gor for it. I think you could probably even try higher.

the cooler you can keep it the safer you will be