What you need to know
- A team of overlockers has pushed the new Intel Core i7-14900KF beyond 9GHz, which is a new world record.
- The previous record was held by the same group last year using an Intel Core i9-13900K.
- The team also hit a 9.1GHz clock speed but this could not be officially validated.
Intel has just launched its new 14th generation CPUs and with that comes people trying to push those CPUs to the limits in their attempt to set a new frequency world record. And attain this they have, using the Intel Core i9-14900KF to pass the 9GHz barrier. The ASUS ROG OC team is formed of overclocking experts known as Elmor, SkatterBencher, Bing and Shamino.
This team also held the record for last year with the i9-13900K, hitting a frequency of 8.7GHz (8734MHz). With the Core i9-14900KF they were able to hit 9.1GHz but unfortunately this couldn't be officially validated. However, this is likely to be rectified at some stage which would mean another new world record. For now, that record stands at 9043.9MHz and it took them a whole week to attain it, but I think we'll see more records come in over the coming weeks.
What is overclocking?
Overclocking a CPU is all about trying to push the clock speed past the frequency which is recommended by the manufacturer. This allows the CPU to execute more operations per second which brings increased performance.
This also causes the production of much more heat and means the overclockers need to deploy some serious cooling solutions to allow that CPU to reach its limits. Without that cooling there is potential to damage it. Overclocking can also be done with GPUs to a lesser extent.
On the flipside you can also undervolt a CPU so it uses less power. This is a fine balance to see how much energy you can save without affecting the overall performance too much. We covered this recently with our piece on undervolting the Steam Deck.
On its own, it's an excellent CPU packing tons of power without an increased power consumption over the last-gen. But it's still a mild upgrade, and 13th Gen owners probably won't rush to get one.
