How dangerous is mining for your GPU?

[kojo23]

Check for dust!
Thats probably the most important part of the game...

[stormtide]

I'm thinking TriForce setup with water cooling 

[vm1990]

everything fails at some point most card are only suppose to have a life span of around 100,000 hours but that said most do last longer people keep saying run your card so its nice and cool but they also forget that all the small circuits and resisters and VRMs are all points of failure after time they will fail (most of the time youve upgraded cards long before this happens)  alot of fails are down to neglect and to much heat, in some way mining with a GPU can extend the life of the card as it dosnt have a cooling down period (this is where things like older GPUs, xbox360s and even PS'3 fail) without the card cooling down the metals such as solders dont expand and contract constantly so they dont crack or break causing blank sreen and 3red lights of death (xbox) or yellow light of death (PS3)

over all there are pros and cons to it but done correctly and well maintained you can get very long life spans out of GPUs

[BitFollower]

Heed all the warnings about dust. It makes a HUGE difference in temperature. My card started having its fans go crazy just from gaming. I ignored it for a while then checked the temperature one day and it was over 90 degrees! Took some compressed air to it, back to normal.

So watch temperature, and clean your card regularly.

[deadweasel]

Heed all the warnings about dust. It makes a HUGE difference in temperature. My card started having its fans go crazy just from gaming. I ignored it for a while then checked the temperature one day and it was over 90 degrees! Took some compressed air to it, back to normal.

So watch temperature, and clean your card regularly.

+1 +1 +1

Dust your PC bits once a month, especially when you are maxxing your GPU out constantly.  It will get caked in dust very quickly. 

I've been dreaming of a pc air filter... Remove the side of your case, tape air filters to it and mount fans to it.  Still a poor idea, so it stays in my head.

[vm1990]

Heed all the warnings about dust. It makes a HUGE difference in temperature. My card started having its fans go crazy just from gaming. I ignored it for a while then checked the temperature one day and it was over 90 degrees! Took some compressed air to it, back to normal.

So watch temperature, and clean your card regularly.

+1 +1 +1

Dust your PC bits once a month, especially when you are maxxing your GPU out constantly.  It will get caked in dust very quickly.  

I've been dreaming of a pc air filter... Remove the side of your case, tape air filters to it and mount fans to it.  Still a poor idea, so it stays in my head.

your not as crazy as you sound, some high end cases do come with dust filters on the front in fans reduces the amount of dust very nicely to

[blackbox]

Well I just had my fan on my GPU go.  Took it out, vaccummed it, but still makes a terrible noise when it spins.  Does not seem user replaceable...

[BitshireHashaway]

I don't see it as dangerous at all as long as you make sure that you have adequate cooling for your video card. That being said anything with moving parts that is constantly running is bound to fail one day.

[greenboy84]

There are commands you can use with cgminer to ensure your temp stays good, I use this:

 --temp-target 82 --auto-fan

[bigkillerstorm]

Yeah watch that dust its evil clean ur gpu whit high pressure air every 3-6 months specialy if u mine 24/7.

[jmfg187]

Well I just had my fan on my GPU go.  Took it out, vaccummed it, but still makes a terrible noise when it spins.  Does not seem user replaceable...

What model is your GPU, I should be able to tell you if you can replace the fan.

[mvrak]

With adequate cooling your GPUs are fine.  Fans wear out.  Running GPUs too hot increases the chance of localized temperature spikes that make kill some part of some transistor.

It only takes one weakest link to bring down the whole card.

Mining is not dangerous, overheating is dangerous.

[JohnnyBrown]

If you choose to OC badly (eg. nonsensical voltages), then you can fry the cores. If you have good temps & OC ranges, then nothing bad may happen (personal experience). If you have a good cooling solution (Like XFX's Double Dissipation or some nice aftermarket ones (eg. GELID)), then you are all set for some conservative or normal OC.

[mountaineer]

 Mining will stress components more so then regular use. As others have said, keeping everything as cool as possible will prevent things from failing.

[yugo23]

I keep all my GPUs below 75 C and they seem fine so far.

[Malawi]

If your fan looks like this, it's time to do a little cleaning.

[Catcher]

Some cards get really hot others don't, I have a HD5770 from Sapphire that wants to run at 85C. Where an nVidia gts450 is happy at 65C. Both have MSI afterburner auto controlling the fans.

My HD5770 from Sapphire runs on temperature 72 °C. No overclock.

[Kruniac]

Burning up a card is a huge concern of mine. I'm really, really curious as to how the new chips being developed will stand up to constant use.

[SimonJones]

Losing a card at this time would be a big loss! Bitcoin mining using them is not so profitable anyway.

[oddwh]

If you think the temperature is too high, just reduce the frequency. Even if your hashrate will not be the best, you will not burn your GPU 
Me, I just make my possible to stay arount 70-75°C, not more. I don't know if it's the best choice but in my opinion, it seems fine.