Core i7-4790K Overclocked to 7003.38 MHz on ASRock Z97 OC Formula

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Nick Shih has set a new overclocking record using an ASRock motherboard and an Intel CPU.

Overclocker Nick Shih has set a new world record for overclocking the Intel Core i7-4790K processor. To do this, he has used the Z97 OC Formula motherboard from ASRock.

The overclocker has brought the CPU up to a frequency of 7003.38 MHz, with two CPU cores enabled and hyper-threading disabled. The core voltage was brought up to a staggering 1.792 V, and to cool this, we can only assume that a lot of liquid nitrogen was consumed.

Of course, such overclocks are not sustainable on a day-to-day basis, but it's always nice to see how close the hardware can be pushed before reaching its breaking point, which seems to be quite high here.

So, when you buy a new motherboard, does this kind of information sway you in favor of the motherboard itself, the vendor, or does it not affect your buying decision at all?

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

45 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jabuscus
    wow. :O
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Sustainable or not, there is not much point in overclocking an i7 to 7GHz if you are going to have to disable half of its core and HT to get there... you basically have a very expensive Pentium-K at this point.
    Reply
  • gsxrme
    Unless it's water who cares. And I have my 2600k 1.5v @ 5.1ghz with hyper-junk disabled and it eats through anything. Ram is 2400mhz cas10. All on a maximus 4 extreme. Koolance block, Koolance 240 and DD pump. 64c load temps. For this exact reason I think Intel is holding back.
    Reply
  • ajcroteau
    WOW the 1.792v is pretty insane... I'm curious how stable this chip is running @ 7Ghz... Would love to see some benchmarks...
    Reply
  • Unless it's water who cares. And I have my 2600k 1.5v @ 5.1ghz with hyper-junk disabled and it eats through anything. Ram is 2400mhz cas10. All on a maximus 4 extreme. Koolance block, Koolance 240 and DD pump. 64c load temps. For this exact reason I think Intel is holding back.

    I wouldn't call it holding back, but it degrades the chip and shortens the life of the CPU. Not exactly a good thing..
    Reply
  • CaptainTom
    Unless it's water who cares. And I have my 2600k 1.5v @ 5.1ghz with hyper-junk disabled and it eats through anything. Ram is 2400mhz cas10. All on a maximus 4 extreme. Koolance block, Koolance 240 and DD pump. 64c load temps. For this exact reason I think Intel is holding back.

    LOL that "Hyper-Junk" would allow a stock i7-2600K to outperform yours in some games.
    Reply
  • 13530380 said:
    Unless it's water who cares. And I have my 2600k 1.5v @ 5.1ghz with hyper-junk disabled and it eats through anything. Ram is 2400mhz cas10. All on a maximus 4 extreme. Koolance block, Koolance 240 and DD pump. 64c load temps. For this exact reason I think Intel is holding back.

    LOL that "Hyper-Junk" would allow a stock i7-2600K to outperform yours in some games.

    What game(s) utilize more than 4 cores efficiently?
    Reply
  • MANOFKRYPTONAK
    Unless it's water who cares. And I have my 2600k 1.5v @ 5.1ghz with hyper-junk disabled and it eats through anything. Ram is 2400mhz cas10. All on a maximus 4 extreme. Koolance block, Koolance 240 and DD pump. 64c load temps. For this exact reason I think Intel is holding back.

    LOL that "Hyper-Junk" would allow a stock i7-2600K to outperform yours in some games.

    I would like to see a stock i7 compete against an OC i7 lol. Even with Hyper Threading disabled. I have a 2600 too @ 4.3 and I really don't see any reason to upgrade.

    And this overclock to 7ghz, who cares, its not stable, you can't use it. If it were 5.5 or 6ghz and underwater and stable for daily use with low temps, I would be very excited. I like practicality and usability, those are most important IMHO.
    Reply
  • slykrysis
    Unless it's water who cares. And I have my 2600k 1.5v @ 5.1ghz with hyper-junk disabled and it eats through anything. Ram is 2400mhz cas10. All on a maximus 4 extreme. Koolance block, Koolance 240 and DD pump. 64c load temps. For this exact reason I think Intel is holding back.

    LOL that "Hyper-Junk" would allow a stock i7-2600K to outperform yours in some games.

    You do know that hyper-threading actually decreases FPS in games, right? Look it up before commenting...
    Reply
  • vmem
    13530380 said:
    Unless it's water who cares. And I have my 2600k 1.5v @ 5.1ghz with hyper-junk disabled and it eats through anything. Ram is 2400mhz cas10. All on a maximus 4 extreme. Koolance block, Koolance 240 and DD pump. 64c load temps. For this exact reason I think Intel is holding back.

    LOL that "Hyper-Junk" would allow a stock i7-2600K to outperform yours in some games.

    What game(s) utilize more than 4 cores efficiently?

    Guild Wars 2 is the big one here... my friend upgraded his i5 to an i7 3770k, and running that at stock speeds against my i5 2500k (4.4 Ghz), he gets about 30% more FPS than I do. Sure that shows that the game has some coding inefficiencies, but still, I just wanna play my game
    Reply