Yes, a CPU can experience a decline in performance with age or heavy use.
Yes, a CPU can experience a decline in performance with age or heavy use.
I push the limits of my 45nm cores and they hold up well, no signs of wear. I’ve tried dual-voltage and even got into Windows 7 with two Vs, but it’s still working fine—just a slight wear at most.
Eventually all electronic devices fail, but usually they stop deteriorating noticeably before that happens. However, your CPU might lose performance gradually due to other reasons: dust in heatsinks, air coolers, or radiators; programs running in the background using CPU power; and forced obsolescence—though most PC manufacturers don’t do this with BIOS updates, Apple does. Other factors include wear from accumulated transistors, shorts, heat stress, and risks from overclocking. These issues add up over time and together with the ones mentioned above.
45nm CPU... which one exactly? I've tried running it at double voltage and can confidently say most mid to low-end boards don't reach that level. Once it stops working, it's likely the motherboard failed early. — Then it's "still not degraded" But "It doesn’t look like" Then "Just a small drop" I’m doubtful you’ve ever pushed it to double speed. The cooler should have cut it down immediately, especially at 1.7x.
I believe this was my first attempt at spamming the del to bypass the BIOS, so my board kept running at 2v or maybe 2.03v, which surprised me because I thought around 1.9v was the limit for these 45nm CPUs. I panicked thinking it might shut down, but I remember somewhere near 1.9v is when things start to fail. I wasn’t sure if I just unplugged it or something went wrong. The second time it happened, I thought I was at 1.7v, but when I checked the CPU-Z it was actually running at about 2.01v and then it shut off. That CPU was my Pentium E6700, and it still works fine. It seems like it only stopped at 1.9v, which is a bit low. My motherboard has an auto-shutdown feature at 1.9v and a warning for high voltage at 1.6v—those can be disabled in the BIOS. I’m using a P5Q Pro with a turbo BIOS, and since this is completely accidental, I was running a budget tower cooler. I have nothing better to do. Right now I’m using a G31M S2C because my P5Q boards tend to damage the 500W OEM PSUs I bought locally for just $3. This board only goes up to 1.6v, so overvoltage isn’t an issue. I’m mainly worried about what looks like a 3-phase VRM issue, but I’ve added heatsinks and run it at 4.2GHz with 1.4v—so far it seems fine.