Chinese tech blog overclocks Core i7-6700K, achieves 5.2GHz on air cooling

With Intel preparing for the launch of its Skylake processors, rumored to take place on August 5, it’s not all that surprising to find that someone has already tried to push the emerging architecture to its unbridled limits. The perpetrator this time is Chinese hardware website HKEPC, who posted the following image to its Facebook page, according to Maximum PC.

The screenshot depicts an Intel Core i7-6700K with a clock speed of 5,198.75 MHz, or more simply, about 5.2 GHz. At stock, this is a processor that is designed to run at 4GHz with a boost clock speed of 4.2GHz, so it’s a pleasant little surprise to see such a massive overclock.

What’s more, attaining these speeds didn’t even call for a wealth of voltage or an unusual cooling system. Rather, the processor was overclocked at 1.35V using air cooling instead of water or liquid nitrogen as would be expected for such a feat.

Supplementing clock speeds noted before, the i7-6700K contains 8MB of L3 cache, 95W TDP, and bears support for both DDR4-2133 and DDR3L-1600 memory. Graphics wise, a report at WCCFTech suggests that the chip features Intel HD Graphics 4600 (GT2), sporting 24 execution units and full-fledged DirectX 12 support as well as bolstering 350MHz base and 1,250MHz boost clock speeds.

Its specs are reminiscent of the frankly disappointing Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon processor, albeit with better graphics, a slower boost, and numerous architectural upgrades, thereby improving performance per clock along with power efficiency. Nevertheless, this was perhaps to be expected given the benchmarks for the 6700K leaked earlier this month courtesy of a different Chinese tech blog.

All Skylake-S processors, however, will demand that you purchase an LGA 1151 socket if you haven’t done so already. Thanks to EVGA, we’ve already seen what the Z170-series motherboards are capable of, though when the processor package ships next month, the motherboard selection will undoubtedly be plentiful.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/1MgPxJm
Gabe Carey