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I'm not using a mining-dedicated videocard, i'm using my only video card (Radeon 6850) and i'm getting around 0.11 btc/24h.
My concern is about reducing the lifespan of (or even burning) my video card with this.
Bitcoin mining may reduce the lifespan of my video card?
Answers
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Heavy usage will certainly decrease the lifetime, but I think it's not incredibly much as long as it's not overclocked. You will probably even buy a new card (because the current becomes too outdated/slow) before the current one breaks down.
Keep an eye on the temperature for a few hours (or as long as it's not stable/maxed out), it shouldn't exceed about 75-80 °C. Otherwise you may want to invest on cooling, regardless of bitcoin mining (games also make the card warm). If it's at an okay temperature, you should be good.
Currently (after 5h of mining) the GPU is at 98% load, with temperatures around 71ºc – Thiago Belem – 2012-08-18T21:46:06.107
@TiuTalk I think that is quite fine. I usually like my hardware cooler, but I also know people who run around with cards of 70 degrees when idle. They seem to have a normal lifespan too. – Luc – 2012-08-18T22:54:32.583