Lifespan of CPUs, GPUs. Varies or not?

itsakjt · Jan 21, 2013, 04:27 PM

I have seen that say a CPU when overclocked and it exceeds its stability point at stock voltage(e.g. A 3.0 GHz CPU max stable at 3.7 GHz at stock volts) malfunctions the way an aged(dying) CPU does. Does this mean that a CPU having more overclocking headroom(space between the failure start frequency and stock frequency) has a greater lifespan(MTBF) than the same CPU having a less overclocking headroom at stock voltage considering both operate at stock freq and voltages?

cadaveca · Jan 21, 2013, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itsakjt

I have seen that say a CPU when overclocked and it exceeds its stability point at stock voltage(e.g. A 3.0 GHz CPU max stable at 3.7 GHz at stock volts) malfunctions the way an aged(dying) CPU does. Does this mean that a CPU having more overclocking headroom(space between the failure start frequency and stock frequency) has a greater lifespan(MTBF) than the same CPU having a less overclocking headroom at stock voltage considering both operate at stock freq and voltages?

Technically, yes, a better chip will last longer.

At stock, current chips should last 3x the warranty period, or about 10 years or more. I think a board would fail first, might take the CPU with it.

MOSFETs/Capacitors are the most likely thing to fail, IMHO.

itsakjt · Jan 21, 2013, 04:33 PM

Yeah.

Or maybe the PSU taking everything with it.

cadaveca · Jan 21, 2013, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itsakjt

Yeah.

Or maybe the PSU taking everything with it.

Exactly. These IVB chips are pretty tough, I must say, 1.15V stock, and I push 1.4 V on air no problem. That's like a what...25% voltage boost? Power draw goes from ~~70 W to 120W...near double...and only a 25% boost in clocks.

W1zzard · Jan 21, 2013, 04:42 PM

in theory the lifespan will be shorter, i have never seen any evidence of it in real life.

silicon processors will be obsolete long before they fail from old age

itsakjt · Jan 21, 2013, 04:46 PM

LOL yes.

Actually the thing is the maximum overclocking efficiency is there when you are at stock volts only but push clocks at the max. That way you are actually getting more speed without using more power.

For me, it was even better. I clocked my Phenom II X4 955 at 3.7 GHz using 1.375V(undervolted

1.4V stock) and never had a problem. However just for a mere 200 MHz more that is 3.9 GHz I had to set the voltage to 1.45V or 1.378 V LLC on as in my specs. For another 100 MHz, I need greater than 1.5 V even(less when LLC on).

itsakjt · Jan 21, 2013, 04:48 PM

@W1zzard-That's true. But I know some people here in Kolkata, India who still uses 478 pin Pentium 4.

brandonwh64 · Jan 21, 2013, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itsakjt

@W1zzard-That's true. But I know some people here in Kolkata, India who still uses 478 pin Pentium 4.

I still have a pentium 4 that is on a motherboard with 4 busted caps (yes stuff oozing out the top) but it still works 24/7 as my home router.

de.das.dude · Jan 21, 2013, 06:08 PM

i have seen some scaringly old processors! they just dont die! i know an old sempron and motherboard in a cousins PC thats 9 years old!

erocker · Jan 21, 2013, 06:15 PM

I have a 80386 in my alignment machine at work still kicking.

Frick · Jan 21, 2013, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by de.das.dude

i have seen some scaringly old processors! they just dont die! i know an old sempron and motherboard in a cousins PC thats 9 years old!

9 years is NOTHING for a CPU, especially not when it's a PC. They idle most of the time.

McSteel · Jan 21, 2013, 08:44 PM

CPU lifetime is calculated at continuous full load, at a stock voltage range and at a certain temperature (varies by CPU type). Lower any of the three, and you get quite an extension of that predicted life. CPU warranty period is the absolute worst-case scenario of all parameters. As it has been said, in a typical usage scenario, a CPU will be long obsolete before it dies.

On the other hand, LN2 and > 50% overvolting + ~100% overclocking will usually bring the lifetime down quite considerably. I've seen actual examples of this, though it was just certain parts of the CPU failing (just one of the cores, or the L3 cache), never seen an entire CPU outright stop working. It is worth noting that going sub-zero is as bad as going over 50°C, because you increase the electrical conductivity of the P-N junctions, which makes electromigration danage spike to problematic levels.

james888 · Jan 21, 2013, 09:43 PM

I thought the lifespan had to do with electromagnetic mitigation that increased with temps, so that if you had lower temps it would increase the lifespan. I do not have a source for this, I just remember from something I read quite some time ago.

Jan 21, 2013, 04:27 PM	#1
itsakjt Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Kolkata Posts: 421 (0.44/day) Thanks: 267 Thanked 106 Times in 76 Posts System Specs	Lifespan of CPUs, GPUs. Varies or not? I have seen that say a CPU when overclocked and it exceeds its stability point at stock voltage(e.g. A 3.0 GHz CPU max stable at 3.7 GHz at stock volts) malfunctions the way an aged(dying) CPU does. Does this mean that a CPU having more overclocking headroom(space between the failure start frequency and stock frequency) has a greater lifespan(MTBF) than the same CPU having a less overclocking headroom at stock voltage considering both operate at stock freq and voltages?

System Name:	Phenom
Processor:	AMD Phenom II X4 955 running at 3.833 GHz 1.3375V and NB at 2.847 GHz 1.3125V 24*7 LLC on
Motherboard:	Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3
Cooling:	Stock AMD copper base 4 heatpipe cooler
Memory:	2*2 GB Kingston DDR3 1333 MHz RAM running at 1752 MHz 8-9-8-24
Video Card:	Sapphire Radeon HD6770 1GB DDR5 copper base cooler-core 970MHz and mem 1295MHz
Hard Disk:	Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA II-WD10EARS-22Y5B1, Seagate 80 GB SATA I-ST380817AS
Optical Drive:	LG GH22N-S50
CRT/LCD Model:	LG-E2042TC 20" wide screen LCD-1600*900
Case:	I-Ball Grabit(somewhat uncommon but average case)
Sound Card:	Realtek ALC892 8 channel audio onboard
PSU:	Zebronics Platinum series 600W Power Supply
Software:	Windows 7 Ultimate x64 sp1 with all latest updates
Benchmarks:	Intel Burn Test - 52 GFlops. 3D Mark Vantage - 12000+ 3D Mark 11 - 3080

System Name:	Eyefinity Gamer
Processor:	Intel i5 3570K @ 4.6 GHz
Motherboard:	ASUS Maximmus V Formula
Cooling:	Corsair H100
Memory:	16 GB G.Skill F3-2666C11Q-16GTXD
Video Card:	AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB x2 w/AMD Catalyst 12.10
Hard Disk:	OCZ Nocti 60GB mSATA, Crucial M4 120GB x2
Optical Drive:	LG BluRay/HD-DVD
CRT/LCD Model:	3x Dell U2412M
Case:	LianLi T60
Sound Card:	N/A
PSU:	Silverstone Strider 750W GOLD
Software:	Windows 8 Pro
Benchmarks:	Benchmarking is for suckers. ;)

System Name:	Phenom
Processor:	AMD Phenom II X4 955 running at 3.833 GHz 1.3375V and NB at 2.847 GHz 1.3125V 24*7 LLC on
Motherboard:	Asus M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3
Cooling:	Stock AMD copper base 4 heatpipe cooler
Memory:	2*2 GB Kingston DDR3 1333 MHz RAM running at 1752 MHz 8-9-8-24
Video Card:	Sapphire Radeon HD6770 1GB DDR5 copper base cooler-core 970MHz and mem 1295MHz
Hard Disk:	Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA II-WD10EARS-22Y5B1, Seagate 80 GB SATA I-ST380817AS
Optical Drive:	LG GH22N-S50
CRT/LCD Model:	LG-E2042TC 20" wide screen LCD-1600*900
Case:	I-Ball Grabit(somewhat uncommon but average case)
Sound Card:	Realtek ALC892 8 channel audio onboard
PSU:	Zebronics Platinum series 600W Power Supply
Software:	Windows 7 Ultimate x64 sp1 with all latest updates
Benchmarks:	Intel Burn Test - 52 GFlops. 3D Mark Vantage - 12000+ 3D Mark 11 - 3080

System Name:	Eyefinity Gamer
Processor:	Intel i5 3570K @ 4.6 GHz
Motherboard:	ASUS Maximmus V Formula
Cooling:	Corsair H100
Memory:	16 GB G.Skill F3-2666C11Q-16GTXD
Video Card:	AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB x2 w/AMD Catalyst 12.10
Hard Disk:	OCZ Nocti 60GB mSATA, Crucial M4 120GB x2
Optical Drive:	LG BluRay/HD-DVD
CRT/LCD Model:	3x Dell U2412M
Case:	LianLi T60
Sound Card:	N/A
PSU:	Silverstone Strider 750W GOLD
Software:	Windows 8 Pro
Benchmarks:	Benchmarking is for suckers. ;)

Jan 21, 2013, 04:33 PM	#3
itsakjt Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Kolkata Posts: 421 (0.44/day) Thanks: 267 Thanked 106 Times in 76 Posts System Specs	Yeah. Or maybe the PSU taking everything with it.

Jan 21, 2013, 04:42 PM	#5
W1zzard Benevolent Dictator Join Date: May 2004 Location: Stuttgart, Germany Posts: 13,793 (4.18/day) Thanks: 184 Thanked 10,293 Times in 3,176 Posts System Specs	in theory the lifespan will be shorter, i have never seen any evidence of it in real life. silicon processors will be obsolete long before they fail from old age

Processor:	Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.4 GHz
Motherboard:	ASUS P8Z68-V Pro
Memory:	3x 2048 MB Mushkin DDR3
Video Card:	ASUS GeForce GTX 670 Direct CU II TOP
Hard Disk:	Crucial C300 128 GB, WD6400AAKS 640 GB, WD15EADS 1.5 TB
Optical Drive:	BenQ DW1640
CRT/LCD Model:	Dell U3011 30", 2560x1600 + 19" 1280x1024
Case:	NZXT H2
Sound Card:	On-board Realtek HD
PSU:	Kingwin Absolute Platinum 550 W
Software:	Windows 7 64-bit

Jan 21, 2013, 04:46 PM	#6
itsakjt Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Kolkata Posts: 421 (0.44/day) Thanks: 267 Thanked 106 Times in 76 Posts System Specs	LOL yes. Actually the thing is the maximum overclocking efficiency is there when you are at stock volts only but push clocks at the max. That way you are actually getting more speed without using more power. For me, it was even better. I clocked my Phenom II X4 955 at 3.7 GHz using 1.375V(undervolted 1.4V stock) and never had a problem. However just for a mere 200 MHz more that is 3.9 GHz I had to set the voltage to 1.45V or 1.378 V LLC on as in my specs. For another 100 MHz, I need greater than 1.5 V even(less when LLC on).

Jan 21, 2013, 04:48 PM	#7
itsakjt Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Kolkata Posts: 421 (0.44/day) Thanks: 267 Thanked 106 Times in 76 Posts System Specs	@W1zzard-That's true. But I know some people here in Kolkata, India who still uses 478 pin Pentium 4. Last edited by itsakjt; Jan 21, 2013 at 04:48 PM. Reason: Spelling mistake

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Cooling:	Corsair A70 Push/Pull
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Video Card:	Gigabyte 7970 3GB Reference Card at boost clocks
Hard Disk:	2x 500GB WD Blue Raid 0 / 1TB WD Black
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Jan 21, 2013, 06:08 PM	#9
de.das.dude Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Wild Wild East Posts: 4,612 (4.28/day) Thanks: 2,340 Thanked 1,344 Times in 921 Posts System Specs	i have seen some scaringly old processors! they just dont die! i know an old sempron and motherboard in a cousins PC thats 9 years old! __________________ my wallet isnt hashwell compatiple sad face

System Name:	SuperDuperUberComputer
Processor:	AMD Phenom II 945 X4 3.0Ghz
Motherboard:	ASRock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling:	CM Hyper 212 EVO push:pull+ 1 panaflow 113CFM + 2 x 120mm NZXTs
Memory:	2x4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz CL9
Video Card:	GIGABYTE GTS450 OC2
Hard Disk:	SATA II 80GB Hitachi 7200RPM,W.D 500GB Green \|\| 4GB int + random SD cards
Optical Drive:	ASUS DVD drive
CRT/LCD Model:	Samsung Sync Master 793s CRT\|
Case:	NZXT Guardian 921RB
Sound Card:	Realtek ALC892 with THX True Studio
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Software:	Windows 7 64bit
Benchmarks:	real men dont need to bench :p

Jan 21, 2013, 06:15 PM	#10
erocker Senior Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Milwaukee, WI. Posts: 31,961 (12.77/day) Thanks: 2,793 Thanked 12,321 Times in 7,832 Posts System Specs	I have a 80386 in my alignment machine at work still kicking.

Processor:	Intel i7 3770K @ 4.6ghz 1.256v
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Optical Drive:	None
CRT/LCD Model:	Acheiva Shimian 27" IPS 2560x1440
Case:	Corsair 500R White
Sound Card:	Onboard
PSU:	NZXT Hale90 1Kw
Software:	Windows 8 x64

System Name:	Ongoing scavanging
Processor:	Sempron 140
Motherboard:	MSI 760GM-P23 (FX)
Cooling:	Yes
Memory:	2GB DDR3
Video Card:	Something
Hard Disk:	160GB + 1TB
Optical Drive:	Yes
CRT/LCD Model:	19" 1280 x 1024
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Sound Card:	Creative Audigy 2 ZS with front panel
PSU:	FSP400-60APN
Software:	Windows 7 Pro

Jan 21, 2013, 08:44 PM	#12
McSteel Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: North Disturbia Posts: 263 (1.40/day) Thanks: 5 Thanked 122 Times in 87 Posts System Specs	CPU lifetime is calculated at continuous full load, at a stock voltage range and at a certain temperature (varies by CPU type). Lower any of the three, and you get quite an extension of that predicted life. CPU warranty period is the absolute worst-case scenario of all parameters. As it has been said, in a typical usage scenario, a CPU will be long obsolete before it dies. On the other hand, LN2 and > 50% overvolting + ~100% overclocking will usually bring the lifetime down quite considerably. I've seen actual examples of this, though it was just certain parts of the CPU failing (just one of the cores, or the L3 cache), never seen an entire CPU outright stop working. It is worth noting that going sub-zero is as bad as going over 50°C, because you increase the electrical conductivity of the P-N junctions, which makes electromigration danage spike to problematic levels. __________________ Careful what you wish for... You just might get it.

System Name:	Chaos
Processor:	Intel Core i5 3570K @ 4.0 GHz / 1.0625 V
Motherboard:	MSI Z77 MPower
Cooling:	Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 + MX4
Memory:	2x4 GB Kingston HyperX Beast 2400 GT/s CL11
Video Card:	MSI GTX465 1 GB @ stock
Hard Disk:	256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD + 320 GB Samsung SP F3 + 320 GB WD Blue + 200 GB Hitachi DeskStar 7200
Optical Drive:	None
CRT/LCD Model:	Acer V223HQ
Case:	Fractal Design Define R3
Sound Card:	Onboard
PSU:	Seasonic SS-380GB

Jan 21, 2013, 09:43 PM	#13
james888 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Idaho Posts: 2,288 (3.27/day) Thanks: 457 Thanked 431 Times in 321 Posts System Specs	I thought the lifespan had to do with electromagnetic mitigation that increased with temps, so that if you had lower temps it would increase the lifespan. I do not have a source for this, I just remember from something I read quite some time ago.

Processor:	Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.5GHz
Motherboard:	MSI P67A-GD53
Cooling:	Alphacool Monta 240mm
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