The answer is yes and no respectively by taking different things into consideration. How much do you push your CPU to overclock and Are you correctly overclocking it or not? The answer to these questions will make difference absolutely.
There is a limit on how much you can overclock your CPU and ask yourself “Am I pushing it beyond its limit?” Overclocking will make your CPU performance great and extend its limit. Rather than reducing its lifespan, the CPU will work even more effectively but that is when you do it correctly.
What is overclocking?
Every CPU has a designed clock speed that you can see in the specifications. It comes in Ghz and it implies how many instructions or cycles your CPU can do every second. There are numerous commands in every cycle or phase and in each second, numerous cycles will be executed. That means your CPU completes hundreds of or even thousands of commands in a second.
When you want to increase the commands to be done every second, that’s when overclocking comes. The name itself says to increase the clock speed by increasing the electricity demand. That way your CPU will work more each second increasing its effectiveness. In short, the CPU will run faster than its designated clock rate.
How does overclocking help a CPU?
Overclocking is pushing the CPU to higher speeds than the speed it was designed to. You have to send a certain amount of electricity or voltage through your CPU to get to the stable overclocking speed. Now you should know that overclocking is easy and safe but it can be the worst nightmare for you if you didn’t know how to do it in the proper way. Because if it is not done correctly, you may lose your CPU or GPU faster than before or even burn it.
Let’s see a comparison. What will take you less time to reach a destination? Walking or running? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? One would push himself to run rather than walk when they want to go faster. That’s the same with overclocking. Overclocking your CPU will push itself to run at a higher speed and complete the commands in a jiffy. Most people do it on their old system or if their system runs slow.
For example, you will be able to run applications or play games easily that you could not do before overclocking.
What things should be taken into consideration to overclock?
Overclocking requires more energy and voltage than the normal stage. Consuming energy and making the job done makes a lot of heat. Heat is the main problem while dealing with overclocking. The excess temperature will only kill the components and even burn them down. A good cooler and thermal paste are something one should have before overclocking their CPU. If your CPU has pre-applied thermal paste and can endure the heat better, you would have no problem for some time. But you should consider getting a good aftermarket cooler matching the CPU.
Your CPU may have pre-installed fan and cooling options. However, you should take a stable cooler for the aftermath of overclocking a CPU or GPU. Keeping the temperature low is a must or else your system is in trouble.
Another thing is that don’t be surprised by the electricity bill. As we stated overclocking requires lots of voltage which increases the power consumption and that will reflect on your bill.
Does Overclocking Damage the hardware?
Simply answering, Yes. It does damage the hardware. The drastic change in power consumption and heat will make an impact on the hardware. Your cooler will play an important role by not letting the impact go deeper. You are putting your hardware through a higher voltage than the designated one, so it will act surely. The solution is to make the damage as little as possible.
Your hardware has a specific voltage run and it will be safe to run it that way. However, overclocking increases the voltage run and your hardware has to push itself to keep state with it. As a result, your hardware will have a hard time and be damaged little by little.
Does overclocking reduce CPU lifespan?
As we said, the answer is not simple. It depends on what type of overclocking you are doing or how much you are pushing it. And do you have the countermeasures for the excess heat and power consumption?
If your system can cover up for the high temperature and energy, overclocking won’t reduce CPU lifespan. Also, since there are light, modular, and hard overclock systems, the answer varies.
For example, if you are doing extreme overclocking on a daily basis, then the longevity of your CPU will reduce. But the question is how much? The thing is most of us don’t use the same CPU or system for 10 years or so because it will be too slow by that time. So if your CPU or system has that much longevity and reduces its lifespan by 1 year or so, it does not make an effect that much.
In short, the reduced lifespan will be way short that you would not notice. Overclocking only can kill your CPU because of one reason and that is overheating. If you can’t cool down the excessive heat, you won’t have to worry about reduced lifespan as it will be the end of it.
Conclusion
Overclocked CPU consumes way more power than normal and gets the temperature higher. The higher voltage will, of course, cause damage to the system making it wither day by day. The pace of overclocking varies so does the damage. If you have a good cooler to lower the temperature, there will hardly be any damage. That is the condition you should fulfill to save your CPU. That way overclocking won’t reduce CPU lifespan. Even if it does, the amount will be decided on how much you are pushing your CPU and the measures you are taking to counter it.
