9206 MHz: New world record in overclocking with liquid helium

Kevin Hofer

18.5.2026

Translation: machine translated

The overclocker "wytiwx" has set a new world record. For the additional 88 MHz, the Chinese man used liquid helium instead of the usual nitrogen.

9206 MHz is the highest clock frequency ever measured for a commercially available CPU. The value is verified on the overclocker platform Hwbot. It was achieved by the Chinese overclocker «wytiwx» with a single core of an Intel Core i9-14900KF based on Raptor Lake. The previous record was 9118 MHz. It was set by the Swede «elmor», who was the first ever to break the 9 GHz brand with an Intel CPU. Back in 2025, «wytiwx» had supposedly broken the record with 9133 MHz /page/913033-mhz-new-world-record-in-overclocking-39284. However, this data is no longer available on Hwbot. I don't know why. I suspect that the record has been declared invalid.

For cooling, «wytiwx» used liquid helium. It vaporises at minus 269 degrees Celsius, which is only around four degrees above absolute zero. Most extreme overclockers use liquid nitrogen with a boiling point of minus 195 degrees Celsius.

Liquid helium is significantly more expensive. As it evaporates more quickly, it is also used up more quickly. Large quantities are therefore required for an experiment lasting several hours. However, it is not automatically possible to convert the theoretical temperature advantage into more cycles. The so-called pot must lie absolutely flat on the CPU. Thermal stresses put a strain on the mainboard and components. The quality of the silicon also plays a decisive role. The «Golden Sample» is selected from dozens, sometimes hundreds of specimens.

Only seven of the eight P-cores of the i9-14900KF were active for the test. In the end, one of them reached 9.2 GHz. The efficiency cores were completely deactivated. Windows 7 Ultimate was used as the operating system. The system is popular in the scene because many background services can be switched off without compromising stability. The DDR5 memory ran at a moderate 5792 MHz at CL32. Maximum memory performance was not important here. The team's entire effort can be seen in a video on the Chinese platform Bilibili.

Before the rise of Intel Raptor Lake processors, the AMD FX-8370 held the clock speed record from 2014 to 2022 with 8722.78 MHz. It was considered to be particularly overclockable, but could not keep up with Intel in terms of everyday computing power. Intel's latest Core Ultra 200S generation, for its part, is not suitable for tests beyond the 9 GHz limit. AMD's current Zen processors are not known for high clock rates either. The record set by «wytiwx» is therefore likely to stand for the time being.

Kevin Hofer

Senior Editor

kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.ch

From big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.

Follow

---

Gaming

Follow topics and stay updated on your areas of interest

Follow topic

---

News + Trends

From the latest iPhone to the return of 80s fashion. The editorial team will help you make sense of it all.

Show all

These articles might also interest you