Intel’s latest consumer CPU champion, Core i9-14900KS, strolls to a new frequency world record. The new desktop flagship chip has reached 9.1GHz using extreme cooling and a lot of know-how.
Not even a day has passed since the official release of the Core i9-14900KS, but we already have a new frequency world record. Offering a 6.2GHz clock out of the box – a bit more using MSI’s P-Core Beyond 6GHz+ BIOS option, the 14900KS indicates its intentions right away. Delivering the best performance possible on Intel’s LGA 1700 socket, plus the best silicon for enthusiasts to tinker with, be prepared to invest in beefy cooling.
The latter is what we have today as an overclockers team sponsored by Asus managed to claim multiple world records by hitting 9,117MHz on a single performance core. To run at such a high clock speed, the Core i9-14900KS was operating at a very high 1.85V while being held at -231°C. Alongside the frequency achievement, the team also broke three other world records in PiFast with 6.79s, SuperPi 1M with 3.768s, and PYPrime 32B with 97.596s.
To cool the chip, the team used liquid helium which reaches lower temperatures than liquid nitrogen at the cost of being more expensive and harder to store. As usual, excellent hardware accompanied this feat, namely an Asus Maximus Z790 Apex Encore motherboard, G.Skill Trident Z DDR5 memory, and a 1,200W Enermax PSU.
It took eight years to drag AMD’s FX-8370 CPU from its 8,723MHz pedestal, and now we often see new chips swiftly beating new records. Some of the notable ones being the i9-13900K at 8.8GHz combined with 11,130MT/s DDR5, and the i9-14900KF crossing the 9GHz mark.
Things should continue advancing as overclockers get used to the quirks of this new CPU. Expect higher frequency achievements in the upcoming days. Who knows, we may cross the mythical 10GHz barrier this generation.
