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OAP CPU

sybaris

sybaris

sybaris

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Joined
21 Jun 2010
Posts
787
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infornt of my PC
Do CPU's slow down as they age? My CPU is about 6/7 years old and runs a good 10 - 18 hours a day. I am sure it used to process faster. Cars lose hp over time so can the same happen to a CPU?
 
Yes it's not so much that the CPU's is getting slower but that the software gets more demanding therefore making evrything seem slower, a nice fresh install would probably do wonders but even then modern sofware, even web browsers etc are probaly more demanding than those of 6/7 years ago.
 
They do degrade but generally they either work at their clockspeed/voltage or dont and throw up errors and crashes, with a fine line where some are recoverable (but impacting perf) others not.
More than likely the amount of software processes running on a 6/7 yr install is quite high and are using up a significant amount of resources, whether processor time, memory, hdd access bottnecks. I would check memory, pagefile usage and hdd activity first. Do you leave a lot of software running/open, what kinds of software? What spec is your machine? Do you shutdown or use sleep/hibernate? Thermals not too high?
 
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Its pretty well maintained. I do re image it about every 6 months... not by choice though.
According to task manager I have 96 processes, 53 are hidden.

The CPU is over clocked but stable.

Football manager is my bench mark and if I left it on to run on holiday mode, it could complete a season in 45 mins. Now it takes 2 hours to do the same thing.
 
sybaris said:
Football manager is my bench mark and if I left it on to run on holiday mode, it could complete a season in 45 mins. Now it takes 2 hours to do the same thing.
Click to expand...

This will not be due to your CPU being at fault, try a reinstall of windows with the minimum of third party programs and you should be back to 45mins.

If you are still getting problems it could be a faulty harddisk.

CPUs don't slow down as they get older, but they may not be able to hit such a big overclock as they did when brand new. If a CPU can run at say 4.0ghz and do a task, 7 years later providing the CPU can still run at 4.0ghz it will take the same time to do the task.

One last thought, check to see your CPU is still properly cooled and your PC is not full of dust/poor wiring layout allowing heat to build up.
 
hmmmm, yeah even though I have a top case fan, a side case fan, 2 on the cooler in push/pull, 2 in the front and a GPU with 3 on board fans, it does get hot in the case. I last hoovered it out in Jan this year.

The thought of re building the OS brings me close to tears. I have a finely installed machine with all my applications set up and configured just so.

Maybe the answer is a faster CPU ;)
 
They degrade BUT if the chip is still running at its rated speed, then it will be exactly as fast. Degradation of the chip will simply require you to increase voltage and really only happens if you've been overclocking.
 
sybaris said:
The thought of re building the OS brings me close to tears. I have a finely installed machine with all my applications set up and configured just so.

Maybe the answer is a faster CPU ;)
Click to expand...

Installing a new CPU may need a reinstall anyway, as a Q9550 is about the fastest CPU you can get for that motherboard socket.

Just make sure you remember to back up important information (such as Documents, config files, videos, etc) and then reinstall. Stop being a wimp! :p
 
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