Do CPUs lose ability to overclock over time?

[Gimli43Orcs]

First post!

Do CPUs have trouble "keeping it up" (so to speak)as they get older?Or is it just a problem of the computers owner... :laugh:

 

[S4M33R]

interesting question, logically I don't see why but I had a 1700 xp which seemed to loose its ability to run 145 FSB later on in its career. However since I did not prime95 test it when I first got it ocing to 1900 speeds, I can't be entirely sure it was fully functional at 145 fsb in the first place.

 

[Tiamat]

Oddly enough, my DLT3C 1800+ ability to overclock increased over time. At first i required like 1.6V to run it at 2.0ghz (200x10) now i am doing fine with 1.5V. I was able to undervolt it to 1.45V up until 1950mhz (170x11.5).

Ive had this chip for 6 months. My undervolting adventure began about 3 days ago just cause i was bored and want to see if lower voltage affect temperatures.

Before: 200x10.5@1.62V yielded temps of 45C/52C
Now: 200x10@1.5V yields temps of 38C/43C

I cannot tell the difference between 2000mhz and 2100mhz, SuperPI can tho.

BTW, welcome to anandtech forums!

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

the cpu? i doubt it. the cooling? sure! dust, fans worn out, lack of airflow,etc.

 

[THUGSROOK]

Originally posted by: Gimli43Orcs
Do CPUs lose ability to overclock over time?

they can.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK

they can.

explain

 

[aka1nas]

Excessive heat can break damage the cpu over time. Electron migration due to excessive overvolting may also possibly damage transistors inside the chips, causing them to fail at lower temperatures(lower clockspeeds) than they did originally.

 

[aka1nas]

Edit Double Post

 

[THUGSROOK]

from personal experience......

if you are running hardware at its max speed or even slightly past its actual max speed, you can "burn down" its ability to OC.

this can be true for CPUs, memory, motherboards, vid cards, etc.

its one of the main reasons why we preach "stability, stability, stability" here cause you can hurt the hardware if youre not.

dont run max speed ~ back it off a little (1 or 2 fsb on the same voltage)


also ~ bios updates sometimes lower the ability to overclock. you need to retest after updating the bios.
*Abit IC7 is a good example. bios14 can go 3fsb further then bios24 on the same voltage.

 

[DaNorthface]

yeah, so basically two things can happen..

1 - it overclocks more because use of the cpu acts like a burn in.

2 - it overclocks less due to dust collecting on the heatsink and heating up. also because the cpu start to break down and develop 'holes' as you might say with the high voltage and you'll have to lower the voltage to run stable..

 

[Budman]

Overvolting a P4 can really kill it's oc ability.

 

[lenjack]

Welcome to the forms!

 

[zephyrprime]

Here's what I reckon:

CPUs all wear out even without overclocking. Electron migration happens even at normal speeds and temperatures. It's simply that overclocking accelerates circuitry aging. So as it get's older, it makes sense that a CPU will lose some of it's ability to overclock. But the thing is, the physical lifetime of a CPU is very many years. Overclockers tend to uprgade a lot so it may not matter that the processor is being used up faster.

 

[everman]

I'm not an expert, but I would assume running at a higher voltage will have the most impact. I think you can explain it in a way, like saying you're running at higher than normal pressure, if that makes sence. It can handle it, but obviously too much pressure will destroy it (too much voltage)

 

[oconnect]

On my other rig I have a p4 1.6 on a via motherboard. I used to beable to oc it at 2 ghz now I can't overclock it more then 200mhz over. How sad =(

 

[JBT]

with my CPU(see Sig) I am able to actually OC at a lower voltage then when I first got it. I had to run it at 1.75 to get it this at this speed. Now it runs fine at 1.725. I guess you would call it "burn in" but it took months to get to this point I guess I could try even lower I never have though.

I have had a system loose OCability but it wasn't due to the CPU. My old Motherboard MSI KT3 Ultra 2 stopped working at 166 FSB so I had to back it down to around 160 which actually hurt performance as AGP and PCI were under speced.