Do graphics cards degrade in performance over time?

I have a 7600Go on my laptop and I was wondering if graphics cards lose their performance or is the performance the same over say, a four year period. Also, when I play games, should I put the power level at maximum? I leave it at "balanced" (in the middle) and when I set it at max the temperature goes up by 8 celsius.

Do graphics cards degrade in performance over time?
No the performance doesn't degrade if nothing is wrong with you video card. It will always work the same. If you put the power to 100% I think it will be faster but will use more battery power too. I had Dell 9100 Inspiron with 9800 Ati Mobility and it would cut the video card performance in half when not plugged in power plug to save power. Once you utilize it 100% the battery power time decreased. Don't worry about this if it's connected to power outlet.
Reply:All computer hardware perform the same in all times it is the software what slows them down when you install and remove softwares a lot your computer will slow down. And also among time you could feel you graphic card becoming slower but in reality the games are becoming harder to compute and other new faster graphic cards make it lock slower.
Reply:The hardware itself won't lose it's performance due to time. It will always be the software that require more hardware performance later on. That video card you got there is very nice, so you wont have to worry about being outdated.





And it's always better to leave the setting on medium. Unless you really care about the graphic of the game you are playing.