how does voltage play in gpu overclocking when using air cooling?

[sophiadasy]

I’ve been tinkering with MSI Afterburner to get a few extra frames, but I’m terrified of frying my card. Can someone explain how does voltage play in gpu overclocking in terms of the relationship between the power limit and the clock frequency? I want to understand if increasing the millivolts actually provides stability at higher speeds or if it just generates excess heat that eventually leads to thermal throttling.

 

[Avika]

Voltage is a factor that is crucial in accessing stability and performance in GPU overclocking particularly under air cooling. The higher voltage can be used to allow the GPU to run at higher clock speeds, but this also consumes much more heat and power. Due to the limitation of cooling air over liquid cooling, increased voltage can frequently cause thermal throttling which decreases performance. Consequently, air-cooled overclocking often aims at locating the minimum stable voltage in which a higher clock speed can be used instead of raising the voltage more vigorously.