i7 965 chip hits 5.5GHz

December 4, 2008 | 12:43

Tags: #965 #clock #i7 #overclock

Companies: #asus #intel

Wondering just how far Intel's new i7 processor range can be pushed? The answer might just have you weeping into your watercooling tower before checking on that second mortgage.

Asus has announced that inveterate Japanese overclocker duck has managed to get Intel's latest i7 Extreme 965 processor to a staggering 5.5GHz from its stock speed of 3.2GHz.

Although not as impressive as his earlier achievement of getting a Pentium 4 631 to an eye-watering 8.2GHz last year, the i7's significantly better performance per clock cycle means that he's possibly in possession of the fastest single-processor x86 desktop in existence.

If you're wondering why Asus has made the announcement, rest assured it's not merely because the company knows cool when it sees it: the claim is that duck's achievement is due in no small part to his use of the company's ROG Rampage II Extreme motherboard, which provides “overclocking-oriented features” including – bizarrely – a “joystick-like control on the motherboard [that] allows overclockers to make real-time changes to their systems' core frequency, voltage and other parameters – even while the benchmark utility is running.

For the doubters among you, a validated CPU-Z score is provided demonstrating that the phenomenal speed of 5510.09MHz was obtained using a 190MHz bus speed with a 29x clock multiplier.

While the 72 percent increase in clock speed is pretty amazing, it's still early days for Intel's latest and greatest – and I would imagine we'll be seeing much more from these processors before long.

Has this achievement finally settled you on wanting an i7 chip, or are you still holding out for a Phenom II? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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