The Grey Area of Stability?

Given my specs below...

I can run Super Pi 1MB@34secs
I can NOT run Super Pi 32MB ("not exact in round" at 4th it.)

I can run 2 rounds of Large TFT torture tests, then it quits due to hardware error at about 4 minutes.

I ran Memtest86 for 12 hours last night, No Errors.

But...

I can game for hours and hours with no crash, symptoms, etc... Games: Halflife 2, FarCry 64, and CS.Source. I can run benchmarks like Everest, Futuremark Suite, with no crashes, symptoms. CPULoad: 42c
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So is there a "grey" area in overclocking where your not unstable, but not exactly stable? What could this slight instability cause over time?

I read someones sig that basically said the AMD 2+2= Not Exact in Round....where Intel 2+2=4. Is this basically what this person is referring to?

Thanks!

Edit: I dont know if this is the right board, oops.

If you ask me, there is no gray area. If you see a 'gray' area it means one thing, you have not done sufficient testing.

Your MemTesting for example... I have personally seen rigs giving errors after 16 hours. So while 12 hours is a good amount of time, you really need 18-24 for complete assurance.

Same goes for the cpu. Unless it passes torture testing (Prime95, etc) for a solid 24 hours, you can't say for sure that it's stable.

Good luck and keep us updated.

Are you making calculations to launch a rocket? I assume not so if everything seems alright but 69th root of Pai square is 1 and not 2 in the end it doesn't matter as long as you can blast monsters at 1600X1800 with full AF and FF. Thats just my way of looking at it.

grunjee said:

If you ask me, there is no gray area. If you see a 'gray' area it means one thing, you have not done sufficient testing.

Your MemTesting for example... I have personally seen rigs giving errors after 16 hours. So while 12 hours is a good amount of time, you really need 18-24 for complete assurance.

Same goes for the cpu. Unless it passes torture testing (Prime95, etc) for a solid 24 hours, you can't say for sure that it's stable.

Good luck and keep us updated.

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I agree, if you can't pass a 32M there is no way it is stable. Maybe your games haven't crashed yet, but they prolly will eventually. IMO the only grey area for stability is for benchers who don't care about 24/7 stability and just use their rig to get the best bench scores.

You should memtest for 24hrs strait to ensure stability.

Flip-Mode said:

Are you making calculations to launch a rocket? I assume not so if everything seems alright but 69th root of Pai square is 1 and not 2 in the end it doesn't matter as long as you can blast monsters at 1600X1800 with full AF and FF. Thats just my way of looking at it.

Click to expand...

I like the way you look at things

Do you crunch or fold? If so, you want to make sure you fully stable. or you could send in bad Work units.

if all you do is play games, if you feel your stable enough for what you do, then by all means, keep doing it.

but be very carefull. If say you want to encode a movie, or do some stuff with music, that one hint of instability could hit, and totally screw up the data.

If you feel safe with your setup, and if you don't want to change it, then don't. But if you want to be 100% sure that you are stable, then ya may want to fix it.

And to answer your question. no, there is no gray area. If you are in the " grey area " then that means you arn't stable. Stability is in black and white. one or the other. there is no middle. But there is such a thing as " Stable Enough ". just depends on what " stable enough " means for you.

Flip-Mode said:

Are you making calculations to launch a rocket? I assume not so if everything seems alright but 69th root of Pai square is 1 and not 2 in the end it doesn't matter as long as you can blast monsters at 1600X1800 with full AF and FF. Thats just my way of looking at it.

Click to expand...

lol....i love it.

It's pretty clear your o/c is not stable, but if it does what you want it to do at those specs than what makes it unstable? I don't use my computer for 24hr prime sessions, but i do use it for 1 hour of gaming, so which do you think is more important to me? I'm so sick of this "what's your 24hr prime stability" crap, who cares when i don't even run my pc 24 hours a day? If the idea of a random reboot scares you, than clock it down. Another way to go about it is to find the max freq. is will 32mpi at and then test game benchmarks at those settings compared to your current ones and see if the gain warrents the instability. I've seen 24hours memtest pass and not even boot into windows, so that aspect does not supprise me. Make your computer suit your needs above all.

Simple, lower your overclock and live with it. Your asking to much.