Core i9 14900KF processor breaks the 9.12 GHz world record and proves that Intel chips are still good at something

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There is a fresh king of the HWBot overclocking hill and it is the Intel Core i9 14900KF. In fact, the 14900KF previously held the CPU frequency record. However, a Chinese overclocker nicknamed “wytiwx” has just upped the ante to: a fresh world record for any processor in history of 9.12161 GHz.

Yes, once again it is an older Intel Raptor Lake processor, which is slightly larger compared to the previous record, 9.11775 GHz achieved by 14900KS in March last year. In other words, Intel’s latest Arrow Lake processors, including the Core Ultra 9 285K, are nowhere to be found at the forefront of overclocking.

Is it because of Arrow Lake’s architecture? Or maybe TSMC’s 3N silicon used in Arrow Lake processor cores isn’t actually as good at overclocking as Intel’s 7 Raptor Lake node (a node formerly known as 10nm)?

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It’s probably a little bit of both. However, despite Intel’s well-publicized problems in recent years with its chipmaking technology, there is no doubt that Big Blue has a great track record when it comes to hitting the highest frequencies.

Intel is set to return to its own 18A node for producing high-performance desktop processors using Panther Lake. So it will be compelling to see if Intel’s fresh 18A desktop processors can outperform the aged Raptor Lake chips and get us closer to the magic 10 GHz.

Either way, wytiwx used an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Apex motherboard and, inevitably, liquid helium for cooling to achieve -258 degrees C. Chilly.

In case you’re wondering, AMD’s fastest ever processor is the bulldozer-based AMD FX 8370 processor, which reached 8.7228 GHz over 10 years ago. It is also worth noting that the maximum frequency achieved by a PC processor has remained constant in recent years.

Between 1996 and 2007, the frequency increased from just 233 MHz to just over 8 GHz. However, it took another 15 years from then to the peak of 9 GHz in 2022, and another two years to go from 9.008 GHz to today’s 9.12 and bit GHz.

Already in 2000, Intel predicted it would reach 10 GHz by 2005. Of course, at that time, Intel was primarily interested in clock speed. Pentium 4 netburst chips were designed primarily for raw frequency, and it was assumed that improvements in CPU performance depended largely on increases in operating frequencies.

Soon after, Intel hit something of a clock speed barrier and the entire industry changed course in favor of more cores running slower than 10 GHz. On the other hand, as improvements in transistor density level off, perhaps we will see a return to an emphasis on frequency and perhaps the 10 GHz barrier will finally be broken. Watch this space, people.

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