Can multi-boxing on one pc fry your graphics card?

[scrypps]

So I'm playing three accounts on one machine, intel wolfdale 2 core chip and a 8800 gts 768mb, 4gs ram.

It plays fine for a while, then I get to a point in my multiboxing leveling where sometimes I get lag, the cpu usage is at 100%, even if I exit wow on all three accounts the cpu usage will be at %100. I assume it is just some sort of glitch.
Then later I'm playing on a 70 in kharazan and I notice little clear lines across the screen, with occasional lag, this is when I'm playing one account.

So long story short, I have a new, sweet ATI graphics card with 800 streaming pixel processors. I haven't multi-boxed on it yet because I"m afraid I might mess it up. So do you think that it is multi-boxing that is causing the problems. Have you ever heard of frying a card just from playing 3 accounts at once?

[mikekim]

yes multiboxing can "fry" your graphics card, as you would be running multiple instances and therefore running the card that much harder. your best bet would be to look at improving your case cooling (extra fans and better airflow)

[Alienenduro]

yes it can
also I experienced these same problems a while back ( a part from the lines) It turned out to the quest helper mod that was causing my problem

[skinart]

To be honest, the video card "should" be built to run at full capacity and be able to keep its core cool if its a high end card (in the right enviroment ex: a well cooled case). But that being said, it deffenatly cannot hurt to have extra cooling in your machine. The cheapeast way to do this without phase change cooling or water cooling, would be to get cross flow air through your whole pc. The best way to do this is have intake fans on the front lower end of the case as cooler air is always at the bottom and then have some rear exhaust fans that are mounted in the rear upper section of the case, or even better have a couple of exhaust fans at the top of your case as you know hot air rises.

If you have a few bucks to spend, DIY water cooling for CPU and Video card can work extremely well, and is also fun to build. And im sure alot of you guys omn this forum and pushing machines to there limits

Hope this helps.

Chad

[magwo]

Heh, this is ridiculous. You can't fry your card more with multiboxing than you can with a single instance of a GPU demanding game.

To clarify: Basically only if there's a manufacturing defect or similar with your card. Not under any normal circumstances.

[Sarduci]

That's like saying running full screen video on two monitors with "fry" your video card.....

If your case cooling is not good, then you have issues. Fix your issues.

[gamemaster000]

Yes, cooling is especially important now days with these super hot video cards. I hear that the 4xxx series ATI cards are running super hot (80C+) and I know my GTX260 does (75C). As a test, you can take the side off your case and blow a box fan into it to see if that helps. If so, I'd really look at adding a case fan or two (or even switching cases to one with better air flow). It's better than cooking a video card every 6 months (a friend of mine went through two of them before finally upgrading his case). By the way, once you start to see artifacts, it just gets worse over time...

[Bigdady92]

Yes.

Heavy load on an electrical device can cause a 'short' or failure. It happens from time to time, rare in this day and age but it can, and does happen.

[zanthor]

Wait a damn second here...

To all those who said yes it can...

BULLSHIT.

Driving a car on the freeway can cause your car stereo to fail.

The fact is that ANY video card under a big load can get thermal damage and fail. Multiboxing puts a big load on your system, but if you keep your system maintained, clean and FUNCTIONAL fans, clean airflow, dry conditions, etc, and the system isn't flawed by design (shitty heatsync, etc) then multiboxing wont break shit.

[Bigdady92]

Wait a damn second here...

To all those who said yes it can...

BULLSHIT.

Driving a car on the freeway can cause your car stereo to fail.

The fact is that ANY video card under a big load can get thermal damage and fail. Multiboxing puts a big load on your system, but if you keep your system maintained, clean and FUNCTIONAL fans, clean airflow, dry conditions, etc, and the system isn't flawed by design (shitty heatsync, etc) then multiboxing wont break shit.

I'll use your example to explain how it's possible.

If you were to drive down the freeway with the windows up every day with the sun shining then you are right. There's no way for it to happen.

But what bout the time you said "You know what, screw it, it's nice let's roll the windows down." then you go cruising like you normally do and it rains, shorts your system right out when water gets on it.

Sometimes, shit happens, that the facts of computer life. Sometimes fans fail, sometimes, electronics fail, sometimes resistors, transistors, fail. Sometimes your PSU overheats due to brown out and power surges (it's bad in old homes). Everything will fail at one point or another, the best thing one can hope to do is prevent that mean failure from occuring by doing exaclty what you are saying: keep your computer dust free, keep a surge protector on the power, and keeping it nice and cool.


I can't tell you how many times in my long career I've seen tech guys swear up and down they run the hottest Shite on the face of gods green earth and their air intake fan is clogged with dust or have a Powerstrip instead ofa battery backup on their gear. Let's not count normal users who keep their computers in closets or under desks with no air circulation.