Newbie2009

Hi guys,

Just wondering if folding can damage cards in some way. I had a gtx275 a while back which I overclocked. Fine for games and was not a massive overclock either.
Then I folded a little on it and started to have some issues. Eventually the card would only run on Stock settings, no overclock allowed, to run games, fold etc.

At the time I did not think anything of it, I just assumed the card was not a great overclocker.
Recently I seen someone selling 2 x gtx275s bfg OCC editions. Now he said they were only ever used for folding.
He was selling them pretty cheap, as he said for some reason the cards would only run on stock settings, eg settings lower than this cards OC.

I have a 275 now again and was going to start folding(my motherboard took a dump too a few weeks after so took a while)

Thinking about the above, I am having 2nd thoughts. Anyone have any views/experience on the above?

JorgyBaby

I suppose if your folding 24/7 for months at 100% load it could get damaged, but otherwise i don't think it should be a problem. If your only OC a little bit, just fold at stock anyway to be sure as there will hardly be any difference at all unless its a hefty overclock.

Just give your card breaks every now and then and you should be fine theres always RMA if it does break.

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ENTERPRISE

No. Not at all.

GPU's and CPU's alike are designed to be worked at 100% for as long as they need to be.

The concern you should have is the Temps at which hardware runs when being used. If you can keep it to a temp with acceptable parameters then it does not matter how long you run that component for at 100%

I have been Folding for a long while now and stress the crap out of my GPU all the time. Its been fine for a long time.

The killer of components is NOT the use, its the temps in which they run at !

Remember a GPU/CPU are designed to be stressed ! Otherwise there would be no point in something we could not use to its full capabilities.

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DEVAST8

The only thing I can think of is heat. Possibly if you have overheated the GPU for too long, maybe it damaged the GPU? No idea, have you been monitoring the GPU temps while you were folding?

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lemans81

Is using a card going to wear it out...yes. How much can a gpu take, for how long...who knows. I folded on my 8800GS and 8800GTS 512 for 6 months, my 260 for 4 months and never had any issues, they were all overclocked to the hilt. I have folded on my E8400(that I just sold) for almost 20 months, no issues.

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Newbie2009

No my temps were grand at the time.(75c if my memory serves me) I sold it to a friend who had no interest in overclocking and it is working fine to this day.

Newbie2009

And they worked fine for games etc after? Good to hear, I might have more luck this time around then.

ENTERPRISE

Sorry I was just saying that Folding will not kill the hardware but what may would be the temps from the stress of Folding. If you keep your temps to the 70C range your fine.

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mike87

what is folding? *noob*

nckid4u

You could search or read posts, but I'll spoonfeed a little here...

folding is a program where you compute how many times you can fold a piece of paper. Quite fascinating...

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