Intel Raptor Lake flagship CPU sets world record with astonishing 8.8GHz overclock
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Intel’s Raptor Lake processors have been unleashed and impressed everywhere, with the flagship getting a glowing review from us – and now the Core i9-13900K has set the world record for fastest desktop CPU overclock ever.
Yes, the long-held title AMD proudly captured some eight years ago – with its FX 8370 processor – has fallen, with expert overclocker Elmor managing to push the 13900K to a staggering 8812.85 MHz.
The AMD FX 8370’s world record (courtesy of The Stilt) was 8722.78 MHz meaning the 13900K was 1% faster (this goes by the HWBOT Ranking (opens in new tab)as indicated by VideoCardz (opens in new tab)).
Of course, this overclocking used liquid nitrogen cooling, as all record-breaking efforts do (or an equivalent exotic method of temporarily warming up the CPU so it can be pushed ridiculously hard). The 13900K was in an Asus ROG Z790 Apex motherboard (Shamino from Asus ROG was involved in the record-setting overclock you can watch here (opens in new tab)).
Analysis: the best is yet to come?
Well, we kind of suspected this was coming after the Core i9-13900K did so well in leaked pre-release overclocking (which hit the 8GHz mark and then 8.2GHz more recently). What we honestly didn’t expect is that Raptor Lake’s flagship would immediately place the AMD FX 8370 at the top of the fastest ever ranking on HWBOT.
It usually takes more time to realize such impressive overclocking gains, so this is a seriously eye-opening result from the 13900K. In fact, as time goes on, overclockers will inevitably get more out of any given processor, so we can anticipate that the 13900K will be even closer to the magical 9GHz mark.
What does this mean for the average PC user? Or at least the average PC user looking at the high-end of the processor market who can afford to splash out on flagship silicon?
Well, obviously these folks don’t see anything like closing at 9GHz speeds, which can only be achieved through exotic cooling. But what this represents is an indication that the 13900K will offer good overclocking potential at all levels, and indeed the entire Raptor Lake range apparently.
We’ve heard elsewhere that there’s plenty of room for overclocking (for the average user) with the 13700K – the more affordable Raptor Lake high-end (Core i7) option – so all of this bodes well for gamers or enthusiasts who want to get get the most out of their 13th-generation chip, even with air cooling (and certainly a good liquid cooler).
In short, liquid nitrogen is not necessary to really feel the benefit of Raptor Lake’s overclocking chops, by no means – and these are exciting times for those who like to tinker with their CPU and tweak it to get the best performance.