GPU mining,is it safe to use them at full power or will last longer underclocked

[induktor]

Hello
I'm new to this forum, I setup a small mining rig to learn, with 2x Sapphire HD7850 1GDDR5.

I did the initial test at full speed but they reach 70C and I think it's too much. (255MH/s with GUIMiner)
So I used a program called trix to lower the GPU and memory Mhz.

Default for this card is GPU = 860, MEM = 900
I setup: GPU = 700, MEM = 600  (below 600, the card shut itself off and I have to restart)
now i have 200MH/s but Temperature went down to 58C with 27C ambient. (fans in auto at 40%)

My main concern is the life of the GPU cards, what happens if i run it at full power? (stock GPU Mhz)
will the VRMs die after a few months?, will they last longer if I keep it runing underclocked like i did?

any insight about this are very welcome thanks!
indtk.

[Gator-hex]

If you avoid volt mods you will be fine.

[induktor]

If you avoid volt mods you will be fine.

Thank you!
I will not touch the voltage again (anyway for some reason, i can see that in GPU-Z the voltage does not change when I modify it in trixx, perhaps some kind of protection, i only lowered it a bit, and when I saw that it was not changing, I returned it to default (1.138V)
thanks again
c'ya
indkt

[Crystallas]

I like MSI afterburner better.  Up your fan speed, it should help a lot. I really hate the low fan-speed thresholds for some cards. I would rather run at 60 degrees, but 50% fanspeed, than 70 degrees and 30% fanspeed.

[induktor]

Hello
I didn't know I can use a tool designed for another brand like MSI Afterburner.

Indeed the fan tune feature would be great!, I also hate the "LOW FAN SPEED"
I don't care about the noise, my room sounds like a datacenter anyway, 2 or 4 more noisy fan's won't be any difference hehe

I will try it as soon as I get home, thank you for the tip!

I also have a coolermaster silentpro M700 PSU and the fan is very slow, and the PSU runs quite hot and I don't like it either, that can't be good for the capacitors at all.

c'ya
Indkt.

[Gator-hex]

don't volt mod and they will be fine.

I run 2 at 1050/600 and they do 600MH/s

I always recommend the twin fan versions though for overclocking, leave the fans on Auto.

Right click your desktop, choose AMD Catalyst, choose Overdrive, and see they give you the overclock tool right there (voltage locked).

Disable the crossfire they run a little faster as two seperate cards. You might need to install AMDs OpenCL drivers though.

[induktor]

1050 GPU clock?? YIKES!!! wouldn't you fry your cards with that setup?

I have the 2 fan version, but the fans in auto are at 40%, I added a big-ass 120mm titan cooler running at 2500 RPM to lower the temperature to 58 C (without it, both cards stay at 66C)

I will try manual fan speed to see if I can lower temperature to at least 55C and increase clock to standard 860, to get 250Mh/s, I am currently only getting 200Mh/s (300 Mh/s sounds very interesting but running the card at such speed makes me uneasy, still it's good to know that the card can take it, thanks for the info!!

I had OpenCL drivers installed, will try the Catalyst tool (I didn't know it existed!), I had never installed Crossfire bridge, because it was incompatible with hashcat, which was the first usage of these cards hehe

thank you!
Indkt

[TheDarkBanker]

Anybody ever try liquid-cooling systems?