Used old CPU - do they just go drop dead one day, or do they deteriorate and get slower and slower?

[GundamF91]

Wondering about old CPUs, do they get worse and slower over time, and then finally quit, or would they chug along at original speed and capability until one day it just quits completely?

Please note this does not include overclocking the CPU to the max and frying it.

 

[Tarindel]

My CPUs have always just gone poof. Usually either in a puff of smoke, or I'll turn them off and they never work again.

That said, most CPUs I've used have gone obsolete and been decommisioned before they ever had a chance to die of natural causes.

 

[pugster]

Chances your other components will die first before your CPU, like your motherboard. By then, it is probably better to just replace the whole thing. However, these solid state capacitors motherboards might change that.

 

[WildHorse]

I've seen a gradual, but very small, lessening of a cpu's ability to OC over time, yet it continues to keep on working just fine. I mean a long time, say a year.

Merely, its high OC limit slows a little bit, while still being clocked high, just not quite as high. Say it slows by less than 100 MHz or so. No big deal.

I've never fried a cpu, even though I've made pretty big mistakes and run them way too hot. CPUs have been very forgiving of my OC mistakes.

In the end, , at least for me it's never mattered because obsolescence happens before a cpu has degraded significantly from overclocking. YMMV.

But I only OC with air cooling, and don't know the situation for guys who use liquid or dry ice or phase change cooling and radically high OCs. I suspect they do fry CPUs sometimes.



edit: typo fix