How to tell if a CPU/Video card is damaged

[DasSmoof]

Just curious if there is anyway to tell. I had my Athlon X2 4200+ overclocked and my GeForce 6800GS overclocked as well. The CPU had slightly upped voltage to support a 220MHZ bus speed (as opposed to 200) and the video card was upped to about 535MHZ core (original 485) and 1.3GHZ memory clock. Both were at acceptable heat levels. However, I noticed after DECREASING the overclock on the CPU and setting it back to normal, I got improved performance. In addition, performance didn't seem to change much from overclocking/stock on the video card.

My main question lies in the fact that when I first built this PC a few months ago, Oblivion ran really great. But now, attempting to play it yields subpar FPS levels and really degraded performance. No settings have been changed, aside from the fact that some modifications have been added.

Is it possible I damaged one of the two, even though they were both are acceptable heat levels? (Around 45*C on the processor under load and 80*C under load on the video card) I also have some rather OLD ram in this PC, clocked at a mere 333MHZ, is it possible that it was damaged due to it's age and speed from overclocking the processor?

In december, I'm going to be upgrading the video card and buying newer ram, just because they both need an upgrade, but I'm curious if any of it could be damaged.

Thanks.

 

[bennny]

It could be damaged. Could also be that your processor degraded over time, or due to the oc. Doesnt look like you are pushing anything to its limits. Have you tried reformatting your hard drive? How are your installations setup? Is everything on the same hd? If you lowered your voltage back to stock, are you stable? What mods have you done between now and when you started with this comp? I am not a oblivion fan, but have there been updates that affected how the game runs?

 

[DasSmoof]

Have no tried reformatting, yet. My install setup? What do you mean by that? Between everything being on the same HD, Windows and my games are on my 7200RPM 80gig drive and music/applications are on my older 80gig drive. The voltage is back to stock and all is normal. No mods have been done and Oblivion has not been updated.

 

[betasub]

Just a comment on your Oblivion performance: with time, the addition of mods & other data, your hard-drive becomes fragmented. Oblivion makes a lot of calls to the hard-drive, especially as it requires virtual memory. Regularly defragmenting your hard-drive(s) may help a little...

 

[Macattak1]

How full are your drives compared to when it was running better? HDs still have an issue with speed once they get to about 50% to 60% full. 50gigs on an 80gig drive is going to show noticible slowness compared to say 30 gigs on an 80gig HD.

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