You are not pushing hard then. I go back to GPU day's and I would push mine hard as GPU companies had amazing RMA policy's back then. I was about making as much as possible, and granted a few times I pushed to far... puff of smoke. But overall I gained more doing this as I was pushing all my rigs.
The thing today about GPU's is you just don't make enough off of them to ROI. You are going to have to sell to get money back. You might make a small profit but you will not make ROI these day's GPU mining.
Huhh, so i would push them hard actually and they would crash. No damage done, lower clock by 5mhz step until it stop crashing. I keep them at 65-75C, i never had a problem. Sound to me like the GPU's VRM must of overheated. Happens if the heatsink doesnt cool them down.
It was not overheat trust me. I remember one GPU as soon as I set it up on intensity to high... instant smoke out of cap on it. I kept them all cool so was not a issue there, but I pushed them hard.
It was directly related to intensity of GPU settings. They might have made it harder to do now I have not kept up with mining with GPU software, I'm would guess it has changed some in past few years. I had all the proper risers to get more space and spread them out, there was great cooling. So no issues on heat did not cheap out when making the rigs back then.