The Core i7-14700K and Core i5-14600K additionally overclocked properly
Welcome again to the enjoyable manufacturing facility, aka, my basement laptop lab — the realm the place the distinctive turns into the usual. Right now’s journey will discover the acute aspect of overclocking, centered primarily on the PC’s mind, the processor. I just lately nailed a complete of fifty world information with Intel’s 14th Gen “Raptor Lake Refresh” CPUs. Lots of these nonetheless stand as of this writing (persons are all the time posting new ones to HWBot), together with 15 world information with the Core i7-14700K and eight information with the Core i5-14600K, together with 4 information with the Core i9-14900K, spanning benchmarks from Cinebench to wPrime and H265.
My prime speeds have been 7,730.11 MHz on all cores on the 14900K, 7,859.05 MHz on the 14600K and seven,600 MHz on the 14700K. All of those achieved in Cinebench R23 whereas utilizing Liquid Nitrogen cooling.
| CPU | Most Clock (All-Core) | Inventory Max Velocity | Cores / Threads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-14900K | 7,730.11 MHz | 6,000 MHz | 24 (8P + 16E) / 32 |
| Core i7-14700K | 7,600 MHz | 5,600 MHz | 20 (8P + 12E) / 28 |
| Core i5-14600K | 7,859.05 MHz | 5,300 MHz | 14 (6P + 8E) / 20 |
The hero of the day? Intel’s new child is the Raptor Lake Refresh processors, led by the Core i9-14900K. The present latest flagship for the mainstream (will we get KS, perhaps?) is clocked excessive out of the field, so what have they left for us to seek out on our personal? Is that this processor, as the youngsters say, a “clean mind” or a “wrinkle mind?” Let’s discover out.
“OC is lifeless!” some cry. Nicely, sure and no. Intel is pushing the turbo exhausting on these processors, which works nice. Pushing upwards of 6 GHz was a dream not even a 12 months in the past, and it’s seemingly the brand new normal. “However that is not on all cores.” Nicely, even I “cheat” the boundaries of the system by working an asynchronous per-core clock ratio on LN2. Why restrict your self to your weakest core?
I feel OC is altering. Relying in your motherboard and the way they arrange energy and temperature limits, you’ll be able to see a strong efficiency uplift from strapping on higher cooling and altering nothing in any respect! You do not even have to enter the BIOS, however there’s a characteristic in most BIOS now known as Intel Present Limits. Many producers have this disabled, even at inventory settings. So, if you happen to aren’t following the Intel present limits, is your motherboard “overclocking” for you? If OC is lifeless, why is that this even an choice? Possibly you might be an overclocker, and you do not even comprehend it!
Let’s overclock! For full transparency, I’ve many shut relations within the PC business, and several other sources offered these CPUs. They need to be thought of greater high quality than a traditional random draw. That being stated, six out of six ran Cinebench R23 at 5.9 GHz on water cooling with all cores synced, and 5 out of six ran Cinebench R23 at 6.0 GHz on water cooling with all cores synced. Sure, 6 GHz!
The 14900K is seemingly only a higher 13900K, proper? On the identical MSRP, is {that a} win? If you’re supplied a greater automobile for a similar value a 12 months later, is {that a} whole lot? Is that this very true within the 2020s period /covid/greed/inflation?
So, with totally manually managed settings with no turbo and a hard and fast clock price, the 14900K is the identical because the 13900K so far as efficiency is anxious. Nice. On this case, meaning to interrupt information, we are going to want pure clock pace enhancements. Possibly we are going to see a 7.19424% improve in clocks (13900K % achieve to 14900K)?
For my record-setting makes an attempt, I take advantage of my trusty ASRock Z690 Aqua OC motherboard. It’s a two-DIMM board for higher reminiscence overclocking, which helps the benchmarks we generally run rating greater than with a four-DIMM board. It’s about a bit over a 12 months outdated and nonetheless runs robust. Why not a Z790 motherboard if I’ve entry to no matter I would like? Nicely, to me, Z790 is only a completely different identify for a similar factor, very similar to the 13900K is to the 14900K.
The ENERMAX Revolution D.F. X 1050W ARGB powers the system. It’s 80-plus Gold, it’s tiny, and the cables are tremendous flexible in order that I can maintain them out of the best way of all my followers and LN2 containers simply. It handles the system on LN2 with no sweat.
For reminiscence, I all the time select G.SKILL. These are their DDR5 Trident Z5 7800 MHz RGB sticks in Silver. When pushing the boundaries, you want any edge you may get. Slightly decrease latency or additional bandwidth can take you from silver to gold. That is why I take advantage of G.SKILL and their greater frequency kits. Find it irresistible or hate it, the RGB appears to be like nice and provides 100 factors to my Cinebench scores (simply kidding).
With my star-studded branded powerhouse of a system slapped collectively, we will lastly work up an overclock. Cinebench R20, though ageing now, appears to be the business normal for OC measurement, so I normally begin there. It’s additionally a reasonably lengthy, constantly high-load take a look at. It actually checks your cooling gear, just like the CPU LN2 container and thermal paste. I am utilizing Der8auer’s Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal paste at present and a Reaktor CPU container.
These CPUs do not like very excessive voltage: It generates an excessive amount of warmth and creates a downward spiral of excessive wattage, excessive temps, and common inefficiency. We wish to run as cool as attainable with as little voltage as attainable, with clocks as excessive as attainable for robust scoring and effectivity. For perspective, the max voltage I think about using with regular cooling (AIO, and so on.) is round 1.4-1.45V. This might get you into the 100C space, and probably thermal throttling on the very excessive finish.
On LN2, I’m solely utilizing +200mV greater than that. Many suppose these are throw-away CPUs and rubbish after getting used on LN2, however that’s removed from the reality – the CPU will final numerous classes in these circumstances. It’s really uncommon for me to kill or wound {hardware}, and after I do, I take it as a private failure. I’ve a small graveyard in my yard the place I do a brief service to pay my respects to fallen {hardware} heroes.
Listed below are some additional little tidbits for you: When the CPU pot is full, the temperature probe reads -192C. After I begin the benchmark, it should attain as excessive as -189C, preventing in opposition to the chilly face of the CPU pot stuffed with liquid nitrogen. The precise die temperature will probably be a lot greater than that.
Frozen thermal paste shouldn’t be the very best conductor, and a few robust forces work in opposition to one another in that weak layer. Generally, the chilly will overwhelm the thermal paste, and it’ll both crack or separate itself from one aspect of what it’s presupposed to be cooling. In that case, it should develop into extra of an insulator than a conductor, and nothing will run.
The CPU will attain a optimistic temperature though the steel container millimeters away from it’s an insane -190C. When this occurs, you need to tear the whole lot aside and begin over. It’s a large number, and a complete timesuck. Fortunately, this solely occurred as soon as throughout my benching session, and it was my fault.
On the finish of every week of enjoying round, I broke the 8-core Cinebench file at a loopy 7.73 GHz on all cores! In complete, I managed over 50 information between the i5, i7, and i9 processors that have been refreshed. They’re a breeze to overclock and actually enjoyable to work with. Total, these CPUs probably OC higher than their predecessors and value the identical. It was a quite refreshing refresh, I might say.
Disclosure: ASRock, Enermax, Intel, G.Ability, and Thermal Grizzly contribute to my overclocking success.
