AMD’s Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) processors are about to launch, but the chipmaker wasted no time showing off the Ryzen 9 7950X’s overclocking abilities.famous hardware detective Tum_Apisak (opens in new tab) dug up some hidden CPU-Z submissions showcasing the Ryzen 9 7950X under liquid nitrogen (LN2), and the results are mind blowing.
Leading AMD’s Ryzen 7000 army and potentially one of the best CPUs out there, the Ryzen 9 7950X features 16 Zen 4 cores, 32 threads and a base clock of 4.5 GHz. The 16-core flagship will feature boost clock speeds of up to 5.7 GHz. However, under proper thermal conditions, the Ryzen 9 7950X can boost up to 5.85 GHz. This is because of the Fmax (maximum frequency limit) AMD has programmed into the chip.
The first of the two submissions showed the Ryzen 9 7950X achieving a single-core boost clock of 7,247 MHz at 1.506V. There are miles away. The FX-8370 is the current world record holder for clock speed of 8,722 MHz.
For comparison, the Ryzen 9 7950X scored 14% higher clock speeds than the Zen 3 flagship, while the Ryzen 9 5950X was only able to achieve 6,350 MHz. Of course, we can’t judge the entire microarchitecture based on a single sample, but Zen 4 seems like a good overclocker. However, the Ryzen 9 7950X lagged Intel’s Core i9-12900K by 5% as Alder Lake hit his 7,600 MHz.
The second CPU-Z submission showed the Ryzen 9 7950X to have 6.5 GHz across all 16 cores and a voltage of 1.465 V. Unfortunately, there are screenshots without performance data showing how much the 16 core chip can improve at 6.5 GHz. Again, this is extreme overclocking where getting the best clock speed is above all.
Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors also have great overclocking headroom. For example, a Bilibili user overclocked his Core i9-13900KF to his 6.1 GHz with traditional liquid cooling. Of course, extreme overclockers can have a lot of fun with Zen 4 and Raptor Lake, so expect to see more results when the next-gen chips are released.
