I recently found I can over clock my GPU using Precision X. It is a GeForce 9800GT "I know a couple years old" and the program will allow me to over clock. The program says right now my "GPU Clock" is at 550MHz and my "Memory Clock" is at 400Mhz. Fan speed 100% running at 51C. It will not allow me to change the voltage. Last night while playing with it I over clocked it apparently to far and crashed the computer. I read I should be able to overclock this card as far as I can assuming I stay at safe temps "apparently not" So my question now is what should I set these at? If I set them at the maximum "That you recommend" will I notice a performance increase that I can see or is it pointless trying to over clock this card at all? Suggestions? Comments? Concerns? 

I'm no expert on hard ware, but it sounds like there's no point in overclocking a card that "old". 

It is a GeForce 9800GT "I know a couple years old"

Try half a decade. Best of luck dude, I'd call it a waste of time and a potential death sentence for the card since that particular series runs extremely hot as it is. 100 degrees Celsius is not unusual for those 8000 and 9000 series cards running at stock clock speeds, and the shutoff point is 114 Celsius. 100 Celsius is about the boiling point of water. My advice: Get a new video card.

What Are you Specs? From CPU to GPU and you Ram and what Kind of Cooling you have

 

My NovaBench Result

Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz running at 3353 MHz

Try half a decade. Best of luck dude, I'd call it a waste of time and a potential death sentence for the card since that particular series runs extremely hot as it is. 100 degrees Celsius is not unusual for those 8000 and 9000 series cards running at stock clock speeds, and the shutoff point is 114 Celsius. 100 Celsius is about the boiling point of water. My advice: Get a new video card.

 

My card has never gotten that hot. Right now it is running at 49C. At its peak I have seen it hit 74-75 while gaming. 

What Are you Specs? From CPU to GPU and you Ram and what Kind of Cooling you have

 

My NovaBench Result

Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20GHz running at 3353 MHz

The whole system is old, I am putting a new one together soon but just want to get every bit I can from this one. GeForce 9800GT with 1 gig of ram, 4 gigs on the mb and a funny old Pentium D 2.8GHz processor. As far as cooling I have 4 case fans. 2 blowing in and 2 out and on the CPU I have a massive Arctic Cooling heatsynk and fan. The fan on my GPU burned up earlier this year so I have an aftermarket heatsynk and fan there as well.  One thing that I know is biting me in the butt is Vista Home Prem. It came on this computer when I purchased it though I like Vista but the next computer will not have it. 

For what it's worth I just noticed I made a booboo, it's a 9400GT not a 9800GT. I also just got the following that might help. 

My card has never gotten that hot. Right now it is running at 49C. At its peak I have seen it hit 74-75 while gaming. For what it's worth I just noticed I made a booboo, it's a 9400GT not a 9800GT.

You just explained your own temperatures.

The 9400 looks like this

 

 

The 9800 looks like this:

Way less silicon, was less transistors and GPU cores, less stuff to cool. Regardless, this is even less worth it. The 9400 is a card that came stock in retail computers that were intended for "multimedia" use, it's not for gaming. Your OC will be show negligible difference, if it works at all.

Edited October 31, 201312 yr by unr3al

This is the exact card I have

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4588147

I wish it were that inexpensive when I got it lol According to the software the GPU clock stock is 550 and the memory is 400. I got the GPU up to 650 and the memory to 450. I am sure I can go higher but worry about exactly how high I can go. Right now with ETS2 "settings on high" it is running at 75C, I was wandering so I set the clocks back to the way they were and it ran at 74C in the same game so the over clocking did not cause but 1 degree temp difference with the card. Upgrading the card at this point is not going to happen as any week the new system will start getting put together, Just trying to squeeze every bit of performance I can out of this one before handing it down. 

 

P.S. The fan on my card burned out early this year, I could not get it replaced so had to settle for an aftermarket one with new heat sync which is going out now as well. I wander if there is a half way decent fan and heat sync I can get for this card that will last more than a few months. 

Just to add a giggle here is a part of the description. HD gaming huh? 

 

"The PNY NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400 GT 1024MB graphics card offers a powerfully immersive entertainment experience designed for high-definition gaming and video playback. Play the hottest Microsoft® DirectX® 10 games with awesome speed and watch the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc® movies with brilliant clarity"

Just to add a giggle here is a part of the description. HD gaming huh?

The "games" they are talking about are really old, and plus, it never says at what framerate! :P

This is the exact card I have

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4588147

I wish it were that inexpensive when I got it lol According to the software the GPU clock stock is 550 and the memory is 400. I got the GPU up to 650 and the memory to 450. I am sure I can go higher but worry about exactly how high I can go. Right now with ETS2 "settings on high" it is running at 75C, I was wandering so I set the clocks back to the way they were and it ran at 74C in the same game so the over clocking did not cause but 1 degree temp difference with the card. Upgrading the card at this point is not going to happen as any week the new system will start getting put together, Just trying to squeeze every bit of performance I can out of this one before handing it down.

P.S. The fan on my card burned out early this year, I could not get it replaced so had to settle for an aftermarket one with new heat sync which is going out now as well. I wander if there is a half way decent fan and heat sync I can get for this card that will last more than a few months.

Those temps are already so high they are probably going to damage the card in the long run, and your poor little heatsink can't cope with those speeds, which is probably making the fan run at or close to 100% most of the time, which is risking the fan failing. What you could try to do is clean out your computer (I use a vacuum and those compressed air cans to get out the dust, and I've found using a used anti-static dryer sheet works wonderfully at getting the dust off the fan blades). Your computer can't cool if it can't inhale cool air and breath out hot air.