Yes, a CPU can experience partial damage. It may still function with some components affected.
Yes, a CPU can experience partial damage. It may still function with some components affected.
It's conceivable for a CPU to experience damage that causes glitches or BSODs without total failure, though it's less common than with GPUs. Some systems can run with minor issues while still being unstable, similar to what happens with certain GPU problems.
Consider boosting a CPU's speed might seem fine initially, but it can become unstable when stress is applied. Similarly, a chip can lose performance even at its default voltage.
My Ryzen 7 3700X isn't functioning properly when I adjust the base clock speed to 4.1 GHz. The ASUS TUF motherboard normally sets it to 4.05 GHz, so I tried increasing it a bit. It worked initially, but after turning off the PC, I couldn't restart it and had to reset the CMOS to get it back up.
This OC seems unstable and likely didn’t cause any harm. Voltage is usually what damages chips.