An overclocker has destroyed a couple of CPU performance records with a heavily overclocked Intel Core i9-7900X, which they pushed up to a massive 6.016GHz using liquid cooling and a vCore as high as 1.6v.
Part of the new X-range of Skylake processors, the i9-7900X is a beast even at stock settings. It packs 10 cores, with 20 threads thanks to hyperthreading, and a massive 13.75MB of cache. Its base frequency is 3.3GHz, but that Turbos up to 4.5GHz with Turbo Boost 3.0 enabled. However, when you push it well beyond that using high-end cooling like liquid nitrogen, it becomes a different beast entirely (thanks PCGamer).
That overclock in and of itself is a record for the chip, pushing the boundaries of what high-core-count CPUs can do, but it's what overclocker Sofos1990 achieved with it that's so impressive. They secured the number one HWBOT Prime Score in the Elite League, beating out the competition by a few points to take the top spot. While there are higher scores, those were all achieved with multiple Intel XEON CPUs. Sofos1990's record is the top spot for a single CPU and will need quite an effort from the competition to take down.
They'll need deep pockets too. Not even counting the cost of the X299 motherboard and 1,500W PSU that the benchmark was run with, nor the liquid nitrogen cooling setup and the liquid itself, the i9-7900X CPU costs a whopping $1,000, so you won't find many people playing games with hardware like this.
This isn't the highest overclock Sophos1990 has ever achieved though. They also previously overclocked an Intel Core i7-7700k to 7.2GHz and went even further with a liquid nitrogen cooled Intel Celeron D352, which they pushed to a ridiculous 7.896GHz.
Image source: Sophos1990/HWBOT