MSI 6850, is this overclock too much?

N11Ckk123472

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May 13, 2012
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I recently bought a MSI R6850 oc/Power Edition with the cyclone cooler (which I've read is the best cooler for the 6850)

I've overclocked to 950 core, 1200 mem, and stock voltage, 1.149. With around an hour on MSI Kombuster the highest it went was 72c, with fan on auto (80ish% speed I believe)

I've read mixed reviews on this overclock, some say its too much, some say I can push it farther, and others say this is max but I want to be sure as after I'm done building my pc there is no way in hell i'll have enough money to replace a graphics card that I ruined. But at the same time I want to squeeze out as much juice as possible.

So what do you guys think? Is this stable? Is this as high as it can go? Can it go higher? If so, I'd appreciate if you tell me, including if I have to raise voltages or not.

My specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 OC @ 4.ghz
Corsair H60 w/ Push/Pull
8 120 mm fans always @ 100% speed
MSI 6850 PE/OC
OCZ ModXTreme 600w Modular PSU
4 7200 RPM HDD, not in raid
Asus M5A97 970 AM3+ Motherboard
4gb wintec 1600 DDR3 Ram
 
Over locking is more of a preference game. If its high enough for you, then you can leave it. No over lock is too high unless it is not stable. As it seems that the overclock is stable at decent temps, you can either go higher or leave it.