AMD's Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) processors will be out soon, but the chipmaker has wasted no time showing off the Ryzen 9 7950X's overclocking prowess. Famed hardware detective Tum_Apisak has dug up some hidden CPU-Z submissions that showcase the Ryzen 9 7950X under liquid nitrogen (LN2), and the results are simply remarkable.
Leading AMD's Ryzen 7000 army and potentially one of the best CPUs, the Ryzen 9 7950X wields 16 Zen 4 cores, 32 threads, and a 4.5 GHz base clock. The 16-core flagship has a boost clock speed up to 5.7 GHz. However, under the right thermal conditions, the Ryzen 9 7950X can boost up to 5.85 GHz since that's the Fmax (maximum frequency limit) that AMD programmed into the chip.
The first of the two submissions showed the Ryzen 9 7950X attaining a single-core boost clock up of 7,247 MHz at 1.506V. It's a spectacular feat no doubt, but it's still leagues away from breaking the world record. The FX-8370 is the current world record holder with a clock speed of 8,722 MHz.
For comparison, the Ryzen 9 5950X only got to 6,350 MHz, so the Ryzen 9 7950X posted a 14% higher clock speed than the Zen 3 flagship. Of course, we cannot judge a whole microarchitecture based on a single sample, but Zen 4 appears to be a good overclocker. However, the Ryzen 9 7950X still lagged behind Intel's Core i9-12900K by 5% as the Alder Lake hit 7,600 MHz.
The second CPU-Z submission showed the Ryzen 9 7950X at 6.5 GHz across all 16 cores with a 1.465V voltage. Sadly, we have screenshots with no performance data to show how much of an uplift a 16-core chip can provide at 6.5 GHz. Then again, this is extreme overclocking where getting the highest clock speed is more important than everything else.
Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake processors have good overclocking headroom too. For example, a Bilibili user has overclocked the Core i9-13900KF to 6.1 GHz with conventional liquid cooling. Of course, extreme overclockers will have much fun with Zen 4 and Raptor Lake, so we expect to see more results when the next-generation chips launch.
