It's not quite a clock speed record, but the new 6.5GHz overclock of Intel's upcoming Rocket Lake Core i9-11900K is likely to break some performance benchmarks. The eight core CPU was pushed well beyond its typical 5.3GHz boost clock to a blistering 6.5GHz, but it took a full 1.7v to do it and liquid nitrogen cooling to help keep it stable enough to hit Windows and take a few screenshots.
Performance numbers haven't been released, as Intel is keeping everything about the new CPU under wraps until it launches on March 30, but it's expected to be quick — if hot and power demanding.
The overclock took place on the ASUS ROG Maximus XIII HERO motherboard, for which the overclocking team at PC Wale were given a custom BIOS to help push voltages to the new extreme heights, enabling the even more extreme overclock.
As WCCFTech reports, this is unlikely to be the limits of what the new CPU can do, with fellow overclocker ROG Fisher managing to take the 11900K to 7GHz using over 1.87v — and a likely even more heavily modified BIOS.
Set to launch alongside other Rocket Lake CPUs on March 30, the 11900K features the newly backported Cypress Cove architecture (previously Willow Cove in the Ice Lake range of CPUs) built on a 14nm process. It's going to be a powerful chip, but loses out 2 cores to 10900K.
