OC'ing the 5850 and fan life span

[koaladoraemon]

Hey all.I just got a Sapphire 5850 and am now overclocking the hell out of it. Running stably at 940 Core, 1150 Mem at 1180 Mv voltage. I've set a fan profile that keeps the card running under 69 C under the Furmark extreme burning and standard stability benchmark.

My question is how aggresive do i have to be with keeping the temps in check.
I read that a good rule of thumb is to not let the core temp go beyond 85 C for an extended period of time but i see artifacts when my temps start hitting 71-73 C. My user fan profile as set in MSI's Afterburner keeps it under 69 C, as i've mentioned but the fan runs at 65-70% of max rpm.

My question is, what is this doing to the lifespan of the fan? I know it's going to kill the fan faster, but just how much faster exactly. Any guidelines regarding a better speed to run the fan at? Of course keeping GPU temps in check are the number one priority; i could'nt care less about the noise, i game with a good pair of headphones.

Any info about the reference 5850 design fan? Thanks.

[Olin Coles]

The blower motor fans on these units are built for hundreds of thousands of hours of use, so it's unlikely that the motor ever burns out during the lifetime of the product. More likely is that you upgrade in a few years, but if the fan does burn out you'll be covered by warranty.

[raiciseaddise]

If your willing to put the money out just go straight for a Thermalright Ultra 120 Rev C and buy a good Noctua fan to slap on it. Youll be set for a VERY long time.

[Austin Downing]

GPU's are a bit different then CPU's for they can take heat a little better, just look at the old stock 4850's or even the new GTX 4xx series, if your going to over clock make sure your VRAM is being kept cool along with the VRM's because that may be causing the artifacts at such a low temp.