Comment by userbinator

Reminds me of Sudden Northwood Death Syndrome, 2002.

Looks like history may be repeating itself, or at least rhyming somewhat.

Back then, CPUs ran on fixed voltages and frequencies and only overclockers discovered the limits. Even then, it was rare to find reports of CPUs killed via overvolting, unless it was to an extreme extent --- thermal throttling, instability, and shutdown (THERMTRIP) seemed to occur before actual damage, preventing the latter from happening.

Now, with CPU manufacturers attempting to squeeze all the performance they can, they are essentially doing this overclocking/overvolting automatically and dynamically in firmware (microcode), and it's not surprising that some bug or (deliberate?) ignorance that overlooked reliability may have pushed things too far. Intel may have been more conservative with the absolute maximum voltages until recently, and of course small process sizes with higher potential for electromigration are a source of increased fragility.

Also anecdotal, but I have an 8th-gen mobile CPU that has been running hard against the thermal limits (100C) 24/7 for over 5 years (stock voltage, but with power limits all unlocked), and it is still 100% stable. This and other stories of CPUs in use for many years with clogged or even detached heatsinks seem to contribute to the evidence that high voltage is what kills CPUs, and neither heat nor frequency.

Edit: I just looked up the VCore maximum for the 13th/14th processors - the datasheet says 1.72V! That is far more than I expected for a 10nm process. For comparison, a 1st-gen i7 (45nm) was specified at 1.55V absolute maximum, and in the 32nm version they reduced that to 1.4V; then for the 22nm version it went up slightly to 1.52V.