This is digital logic, ones and zeros, not some esoteric analog or RF circuit. Either it works or it doesn't, period. The CPU is driven by a clock oscillator and executes instructions and transfers data in lockstep with the oscillator. Apples to apples (excuse the pun) the *only* variable affecting the speed of the CPU is the clock speed. Bad connections may cause the system to be flaky and suffer random glitches and crashes, but if everything is in good enough shape to run reliably, it will run just as fast as if everything was made of fancy gold plated oxygen free copper and whatever other ridiculously expensive exotic materials you could find.