Quick and dirty question re: CPU longevity under thermal stress

[Turbonium]

Assume a modern CPU runs at full load, nonstop, at or near its recommended thermal maximum. How much of its expected lifespan will be lost? Years? Decades? Assume the CPU throttles almost constantly, but is almost always thermally stressed, regardless.

Ignore the usefulness of the CPU in the future (in terms of PPW in comparison to other CPUs). Only consider the lifespan before it "breaks" or shows any signs of wear, in terms of stability and performance.

For those following my other threads, you will know why I'm asking this.

 

[AtenRa]

If it will not overcome the Voltage/Current and Thermal limits it will operate at the maximum lifespan set by the manufacturer/designer

 

[Turbonium]

Does anyone have a link to the article by AT from a few years back regarding CPU degradation over time? I believe it had Intel-specific graphs and such.

EDIT: found it...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2468/6

Seems like your statement agrees with that. Thanks.

I'm therefore not entirely sure why people were stating that my processors would die prematurely when throttling constantly, or when operating at or near thermal max (in this thread).

 

[aigomorla]

Me having killed more CPU's then what some people here go though in a life time... here is my results...

Not Overclocked... under Stock Cooling... No thermal Throttling.. 100% load...
I believe the cpu can probably last longer then the motherboard will.
You will most likely encounter motherboard problems down the road, or memory issues before you run into a cpu error.

Moderate Overclocked... With Aftermarket Cooling...
Again... the stress accumulated on the motherboard will bring about board failure before you really notice your cpu dying. Moderate overclock typically means no more then +.1 Vcore on stock value.... being if the cpu is 1.225 a Moderate Overclock would mean no greater then 1.325V with a Overclock no greater then 4.2ghz (todays processor taking .2ghz down every generation)
You probably wont even notice cpu degradation if u can maintain a good check on the processor heat during load. (Ie.. After market sink of moderate quality)

Medium / High Overclocking (what haswell is limited to)
This is Vcore greater then 1.4Vcore... under heavy load with aftermarket sink... ur best expectency is most likely 6 months before u need to up your vcore... another 6 months for another Vcore increase.. and then your board can never undergo a bios reset as your cpu probably wont be able to post under stock voltages anymore....

Also each cpu and class are different... for example... i expect the -E series to last 2x longer then a non -E series due to the fact -E also denotes its a enterprise class CPU as well as a Enthusiast class.


And OP each 10C u can effectively reduce CPU heat... you effectively double the life on your processor, so my statement most likely can only apply to people of near catigory in hardware i did those testing at.... which is the mid tier budget class with large tower sink.