Intel is clearly feeling the heat from AMD's upcoming Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 CPUs and new-year debut of its Zen4XD chips, as it's already announced a new, higher-end model of its flagship 13th-generation Raptor Lake chips. Beyond the 13900K, perhaps with a name like 13900KS, Intel has confirmed it will launch a CPU that can hit 6GHz at stock speeds.
Until now, the highest-clocked CPUs in the world were Intel's current-gen Alder Lake designs. The 13900K can boost to 5.3GHz, while the 13900KS can hit 5.5GHz when boosted. AMD's upcoming Zen 4 CPUs are expected to crest that, hitting 5.7 or even 5.8GHz before overclocking. Intel has now confirmed it's going to beat that, at least on the specs table, with a 6GHz Raptor Lake design.
Intel also confirmed in a leak, via Videocardz, that the recent 8GHz overclock leak was real, suggesting that Raptor Lake can indeed exceed that extreme frequency threshold given enough, time, golden sample status, and liquid nitrogen.
Intel is set to debut its new-gen CPUs on September 27th at its Innovation event. So expect a lot of cringy, over the top acting from technical staffers, and a whole lot of exciting CPU news. The 6GHz chip won't be coming until next year, most likely though.