Extreme Overclocking: 10 Ryzen CPUs Under LN2

OC: Ryzen 5 1500X & 1400

Ryzen 5 1500X: 5030 MHz

We won't drag things out on you. As we dropped down AMD's Ryzen stack, the maximum frequencies continued to fall. Despite starting off great with a Ryzen 7 1800X that exceeded 5.3 GHz, our 1500X barely crossed the 5 GHz mark. It managed to complete Cinebench successfully at 5030 MHz and a voltage of 1.85V.

Ryzen 5 1400: 5000 MHz

The last of our 10 processors is the worst of all. It simply doesn't like high voltages, and it stops progressing at 1.8V. Under these conditions, 5 GHz was the limit for Cinebench R15.

This is a disappointment for the enthusiasts who hoped lower core-count Ryzens might be capable of higher clock rates. But it's a logical outcome, given the way AMD bins its dies. The best performers naturally turn into 1800Xes, with all of their cores activated and operating at the highest frequencies.

At least this chip's IMC isn't terrible. It reached 3100 MT/s at CAS 12. The processor didn't have any issues with bugs, and it accepted -196°C without a problem. The test would have been downright enjoyable if we could have squeezed out an extra 300 MHz.

As with the 1500X, we took advantage of the absence of LN2-based scores to place our own.


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Jean-Michel "Wizerty" Tisserand is a French extreme overclocker, and former OC world champion. Passionate and curious, he's always into pushing hardware to its limits. Willing to transmit his knowledge, he created the French Overclocking Federation, and writes merciless hardware torture articles!