# Will gfx cards degrade faster if you OC the V-RAM?



## Radeon 9800XT (Jun 7, 2022)

My mining rig consists of Asus ROG Strix RX 6700XT's. I specifically chose the Asus strix brand cards because it has the best cooling solution for the GPU and memory chips. My question is, even though I know my card can keep the memory cool (usually it will be at 65c-70c), If I OC the memory; will it degrade the V-ram faster? I want these cards to last me as long as possible and I would rather not OC the memory if it affects longevity in any way.

I know that within the AMD driver, it has an option to make the v-ram timings faster; does this affect the longevity of the card also?


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## ir_cow (Jun 7, 2022)

Unpopular opinion here. Mining degrades the GPU.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 7, 2022)

To answer your question, mining abuses and damages the cards.

If you want any card to last you, dont mine.



ir_cow said:


> Unpopular opinion here. Mining degrades the GPU.


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## Athlonite (Jun 7, 2022)

Leave it at stock clocks but under volt it you get all the perf for less watts and temperature but hey as others have said mining will kill it quicker anyways


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## joemama (Jun 7, 2022)

Since you are already mining with it, why would you even care if vram OC slightly accelerates the degradation?


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## R-T-B (Jun 7, 2022)

joemama said:


> Since you are already mining with it, why would you even care if vram OC slightly accelerates the degradation?


Do you even know how ROI works?  Of course he cares.  He wants the card to last as long as it is usable/profitable.



ir_cow said:


> Unpopular opinion here. Mining degrades the GPU.


Meh.  The fans maybe.  I don't really think a mem OC will accelerate degredation without raising volts in some form, which you should be avoiding.


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## Outback Bronze (Jun 7, 2022)

To answer your question about the OC on the Memory, I very much doubt it will degrade at all.

If your only overclocking the memory and keep it cool it will be fine.

Memory is very hard to kill hence why Memory/RAM from most manufactures have life time warranties. 

I've had memory overclocked for many years and its still going strong.


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## ExcuseMeWtf (Jun 7, 2022)

Any OC will shorten the lifespan of the affected components, however without increasing voltages it shouldn't be a very significant difference.

It is impossible to tell exactly by how much since you obviously can't have exact same piece of silicon be ran stock and overclocked side by side without existing in 2 parallel universes.


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## MarsM4N (Jun 7, 2022)

According to some reviews you can get with undervolting the same or even better performance, at lower power consumption & heat.

You basically inrease your *efficency*. Wich should be your #1 goal when it comes to mining, not overclocking.


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## Nihillim (Jun 8, 2022)

?
Unlike the gpu core, the voltage going to the memory is fixed. So if there are memory related issues, there's little that can be done beyond lowering the frequency.
Once memory errors start appearing, that's kinda it... lower the clock, it goes away for a bit, comes back, you lower the clock again, and repeat until it's no longer useable.
It's less forgiving than core clock, of which both voltage and frequency can be adjusted.

The reason undervolting/power limiting works on memory, even with its fixed voltage, is an indirect one: it reduces the heat radiating from the card, of which the memory chips soak up less of.

Mining is memory intensive, and the gpu core doesn't do much during it.
Thing is, both are necessary; so whether mining stresses the gpu's MC or gaming stresses the core/VRM, the gpu is useless when either is gone.


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## GerKNG (Jun 8, 2022)

except if the card suffers from extreme thermal stress (for example my 3080 strix runs at 450W) overclocking in any way (except for playing with high voltages) does not degrade anything in any meaninful way.
there are people out there which are still running a decade old Card overclocked to it's limit, running in the 90s on a blower fan and nothing happened.

with the extremely conservative limits on modern GPUs. don't worry. max it out and enjoy the performance increase.


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## MentalAcetylide (Jun 8, 2022)

Imo, gaming is more stressful for a GPU compared to mining if we're comparing them back to back under the same length of time and assuming the mining GPU has been optimized for its task. However, keep in mind that mining is generally done 24/7, so overall, a mining GPU is going to have a lot more "mileage", so to speak. What this means is anyone's guess in regards to gaming vs mining GPUs as the argument can be taken in either direction. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that running electricity through a GPU nonstop that is performing calculations or whatnot is going to be a lot of wear & tear.


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## Bomby569 (Jun 10, 2022)

MentalAcetylide said:


> Imo, gaming is more stressful for a GPU compared to mining if we're comparing them back to back under the same length of time and assuming the mining GPU has been optimized for its task.



That's not even remotely true, you're running the vram at max 24/7 while at the same time you undervolt the card. As the fans don't relate to vram temps you get cooking vrams.


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## Kissamies (Jun 10, 2022)

Never had any card degrade even with max overclocks, including GPU with increased voltage. Though I use mine for gaming, not for any mining nonsense.


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## Bomby569 (Jun 10, 2022)

Lenne said:


> Never had any card degrade even with max overclocks, including GPU with increased voltage. Though I use mine for gaming, not for any mining nonsense.



i think it depends on the silicon lottery, colling capacity of the card and the case, etc... 
You may OC and still get better temps then someone running the same gpu (not graphics card model)
Voltage i think it's a different game, silicon just doesn't like too much of it.


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## Outback Bronze (Jun 10, 2022)

Bomby569 said:


> That's not even remotely true, you're running the vram at max 24/7 while at the same time you undervolt the card. As the fans don't relate to vram temps you get cooking vrams.



Huh?? Miners keep there cards cool via custom fan profiles.


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## Bomby569 (Jun 10, 2022)

Outback Bronze said:


> Huh?? Miners keep there cards cool via custom fan profiles.



i really doubt that, fans are the weakest part (of all the cards i owned, i only had problems with fans dying or making weird behaviour before dying) and you hardly ever see miners discarding gpu's with broken fans, or fans strapped to it. Fans at 100%, 24/7 you'd have a deluge of cards without fans for sale in no time. It's usually other problems mostly vram related, a friend of mine got burned because of this, but i did warn him. 
Not to mention how they are used, stacked against each other and with no external cooling.


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## Mussels (Jun 10, 2022)

Guys, this IS in the mining section so at least be nice about this.
And for googles sake, dont make baseless claims about "miners do X" - every miner does something different. They aren't clones.


If you overclock the VRAM or alter its timings, it can degrade faster.

Will it? no one knows. There's no way to measure it. Keeping it cool and staying near the original specs will definitely extend that life, but even factory speed cards die from normal gaming use, mining will make that happen faster.


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## R-T-B (Jun 17, 2022)

Bomby569 said:


> or fans strapped to it.


You totally do.


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## Radeon 9800XT (Oct 14, 2022)

Thank you everyone, for the detailed answers. I decided not to overclock my rig.

sorry for the late thank you, sometimes i forget my forum password.


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