The Intel Core 11000s recently went on sale and there are already people who are pushing them to the maximum possible in terms of clock speed through extreme overclocking. The last hurdle to overcome? They managed to exceed the 7 GHz speed, although for this they had to perform some traps.
Exceeds 7 GHz with an Intel 11900K
The famous overclocker Hicookie managed to achieve a clock speed of 7.314 GHz in one of the cores of the Intel Core i9-11900K, which was achieved by using LN2 cooling and mounting the processor on a motherboard. top of the range GIGABYTE Aorus. Which is designed for extreme overclocking and which GIGABYTE himself gave it.
To achieve this, he had to deactivate 5 of the 8 cores that the processor has, leaving only 3 active cores. This has reduced the power cost, to the point where it can achieve said clock speed operating with a voltage of 1305 V, which is a low enough voltage for the clock speed of over 7 GHz achieved with the i9 – 11900K.
However, it cannot be forgotten that it was necessary to use liquid nitrogen refrigeration to achieve said clock speed and that it is still impossible to achieve such high speeds using refrigeration systems. conventional. We also can’t forget that Intel Gen 11 processors have the huge downside of being made with a less advanced node than the rest, Intel’s 14nm.
Is this the first time that the 7 GHz record has been broken?
Not really, since if we look at the list of CPU-Z results, we can see that with Comet Lake, the previous architecture, 7 GHz was also exceeded and with clock speeds of over 7.7 GHz. At the moment it’s unclear what clock speeds can reach Rocket Lake-S using extreme overclocking, but it’s clear that the node it’s built on and the power limitations of the LGA1200 socket used weigh on the new one. processor.
It is striking that unlike the 11900K, to achieve this clock speed in an Intel Comet Lake it would not be necessary to disable more than half of the cores and reduce the clock speed to 2 of the remaining 3, but they were able to reach maximum speed with all cores active.
The Rocket Lake-S architecture therefore does not seem as energy efficient as its direct predecessor. A situation we should see resolved with the launch of Alder Lake-based Gen 12, although this is something we cannot guarantee if it looks like it will have greater efficiency in power consumption. . In any case, we cannot forget that HiCookie’s experience in exceeding 7 GHz with a 11900K is nothing more than something promoted by GIGABYTE to sell its Aorus motherboards.
