Intel Core i7-7740K Sets Kaby Lake CPU Frequency And RAM World Records

Update: 6/18/2017, 10:00pm PT:It came to our attention that Der8auer holds the Kaby Lake frequency record with a Core i7-7740K that he clocked to 7562.25 MHz with liquid helium on an ASUS X299 ROG Rampage VI Apex motherboard. The record did not appear in the user-based overall rankings due to a higher frequency record he achieved with an AMD processor.

Several motherboard vendors held overclocking events at Computex 2017 to highlight the performance of Intel’s new X-Series Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors. Gigabyte bucked that trend and instead held a fly-in to the company’s private Gigabyte OC Lab. The team consisted of five overclockers, including Dinos22, Youngpro, SniperOZ, and Gigabyte’s own HiCookie and Sofos.

The team set out on a mission to smash a few records using Gigabyte’s X299 Aorus motherboards (which we covered here), Aorus graphics cards, and G.Skill memory. They employed liquid helium to lower the chips to a frosty -250°C, and Team AU broke the Kaby Lake CPU frequency record with a Kaby Lake-X Core i7-7740K clocked at 7.5GHz on an Gigabyte X299-SOC Champion. The team also broke the 3DMark03 and 3DMark06 world records, followed by taking the Aquamark world record. The team employed a mix of Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DIMMs at 4333MHz and G.Skill Trident-Z memory at DDR4-3600.

Speaking of G.Skill, the company also announced that it set the DDR4 frequency world record at 5.5GHz (in a separate effort). Taiwanese overclocker Toppc used a G.Skill kit with Samsung 8Gb ICs on the MSI X299 Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard along with an Intel Core i7-7740K. Toppc broke his own record of 5 GHz he set last year, and was able to push past the existing record with liquid nitrogen.

The new Kaby Lake-X models are very overclocking friendly when paired with liquid nitrogen and helium, but we aren't sure of overclocking ceilings with more accessible air or water cooling just yet. The chips are poised for release soon, and one would imagine that reviews are well underway, so we should know more details soon.

EDIT: 5:00 PM PT, June 5, 2017 - Clarified clock speed record

Paul Alcorn
Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.

  • WildCard999
    "The new Kaby Lake-X models are very overclocking friendly when paired with liquid nitrogen and helium"

    I'm pretty sure anything is overclocking friendly with liquid nitrogen.
    Reply
  • DerekA_C
    yea lets see some practical overclocking that the average consumer could do with water cooling.
    Reply
  • Aspiring techie
    Pity that we cannot run our CPUs at those frequencies for everyday use.
    Reply
  • chriz78
    It just seems so pointless when you have to disable cores to get to that speed.
    Reply
  • derekullo
    You could install windows updates at ludicrous speed (sadfully single threaded).
    Reply
  • killerchickens
    Only overclocking friendly when you delid it.
    Reply
  • utroz
    What cpu frequency record?? The Intel Kabylake-X record?? WOW they broke the record on something that very very few people have at this point due to ES status of the cpu's.. Even old intel celerons have clocked higher as well as a few types of AMD cpu's.. JS..
    Reply
  • chaosmassive
    1 cores/2 threads?
    SHAME..
    Reply
  • mamasan2000
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nKQ5uDA8TM
    AMD 8.4 Ghz in 2011.
    7 Ghz, is it even worth mentioning?
    Reply
  • Thom457
    At what cost did this improve the scores in PACMAN by how much? Does this void the warranty?
    Reply