CPU OC lifetime degradation?

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Andy0432

Andy0432

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Hello,

So I have a FX 8320 which is currently sitting at 4.5ghz @ ~1.44v. It has been like this pretty much since day 1 which was a bit more than 2 years ago. I have not seen any performance degradation or anything wrong yet however I want to know whether having this OC will effect CPU lifetime greatly or not and if so by roughly how many years months days etc.?

Thanks.
 
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Terrorsquad1990


You'll have to do the testing over again; new CPU cooler means new paste and new temps.
But in the end, if we indeed are talking about a small increase untill 55C on 100% load, you're 100% safe.

Mine goes up untill...
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Terrorsquad1990

Terrorsquad1990

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Hello,

It all depends if the CPU doesn't ge too much voltage.
If you're sure you got a steady OC, it should not really have a shorter lifespan (AMD FX CPU's are beasts).

You can test with Prime95 software to see if your OC is stable.
If the software keeps running (testing with slaves) for atleast 2 hours, you can assume there won't be any lifespan issues.

However, do keep an eye on your temps. If your temps get too high, it means you got to lower the voltage by a tad and re-do the test.

Cheers
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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You have 3 years, 201 days, 5 hours, 23 minutes and 9 seconds left on it :)))
Joking aside, it's heat that kills components not teh verclock itself, so, if your temps are decent that CPu will become obsolete looong before it fails. We're talking tens of years here.
 
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synphul

synphul

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There's no real way to answer that, not all cpu's are the same. Each will have slight variations so while they have the same part or model number they're not identical when it comes to overclocking. No way to say 'at this overclock this cpu will last this long' and it would take so many years and a large number of oc'd cpu's all oc'd the same to come up with any meaningful results.

In general it shouldn't affect the longevity of the cpu unless your overclock is too high, you're running too much voltage or running it too hot all the time. You'll probably have upgraded to something else before overclocking kills your cpu.
 
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Andy0432

Andy0432

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Haha, good to hear, temps are well below max temperatures, ~24C on Idle and it never goes above 50C on 100% load. I've heard the "CPU will become obsolete before it fails" before, but I just wanted to confirm.

Thanks!
 
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neblogai

neblogai

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My old Athlon XP 2000 ran in PCs overclocked and at near thermal limit for ~10 years, only then overclocking on it became difficult. Many other CPUs did not experience any OC performance loss, although those were used shorter time. It takes time to know if modern smaller node CPUs are as resilient as old ones, but as I don't hear about CPUs dying/I would guess all is still good. And AMD even has FX models that run 220W out of the box- further confirming it.
Edit: Overclock is usually more likely to brake motherboard or graphics card PCB, and not the CPU/GPU chip itself.
 
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Andy0432

Andy0432

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Would it make any difference if say I went up to 4.7ghz at roughly 1.47 volts? I've been up there before (stable) but my h55 couldn't take the heat. I have a new cooler now which I think should do just fine. Would it make any difference if the temperatures were the same or a little higher, i.e 55C at 100% load?
 
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Terrorsquad1990

Terrorsquad1990

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You'll have to do the testing over again; new CPU cooler means new paste and new temps.
But in the end, if we indeed are talking about a small increase untill 55C on 100% load, you're 100% safe.

Mine goes up untill 70-80C on 100% load but is stable and no issues.
 
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TJ Hooker

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I agree that it's basically about not pushing voltage too high and watching temps, but I disagree with what you said about stability. I don't think being able to run P95 for a couple hours says anything about the longevity of your chip. Although stress testing is obviously still useful for the sake of establishing stability of an overclock.
 
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Terrorsquad1990

Terrorsquad1990

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I agree, I didn't mean running P95 just for the sake of longevity. I meant it as a third party to software to stress your CPU 100% while you watch your temps and adjust the voltage to ensure the longevity. Can be any software for all I care :)
 
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Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163

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Higher voltage is much worse than higher temps.

Lower temps but high voltage is worse than higher temps and low voltage, much worse.


It can be difficult to understand exactly why this is even a common question. The main reason for that is the amount of misinformation about a CPU's temperature. First of, the measurement programs don't measure Tcase, and they don't really measure Tjunction either, but they have their own standard.

People far too often are confusing the word safe with throttling. "Not safe at 90 C" is something I've seen far too many times, and it's 100% false. The reason you don't want to run it at high temperatures is because the performance drops, not because it harms the CPU.



All the best!
 
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Andy0432

Andy0432

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So what would be the highest voltage you would recommend?
 
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