Sandy Bridge Degradation Cause: Voltage or Frequency

[Skakruk]

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[CedricFP]

I would argue that there enough people who haven't experienced degradation, despite running high frequencies AND voltage, that it surpasses the margin of error of the sample size of those who have experienced degradation...

But for what it is worth, frequency and voltage often share a positive causal relationship. As frequency goes up, it becomes necessary to increase voltage etc. Since the two are inextricably tied in one direction (frequency leads to voltage), you're only able to actually test the effects of voltage as a single variable (and this is assuming you keep temperatures the same between both tests - unlikely), but with frequency you are not able to, unless you count increasing the frequency to the max the a single voltage point will allow for, but then that may not be high enough to cause degradation. With that said, it may be impossible to know if frequency causes it.

But I would hazard that at stock voltage @ 4GHz, your proc will likely outlast your need for it.