14 DAY TRIAL // All CPUs have a so-called base clock speed but most of them, particularly high-end ones, can be pushed well above that, and it seems that the record for AMD CPU overlcocking has just been overcome by quite a bit.
Not long ago, Gigabyte Technologies, one of the world' largest makers of motherboards, held an overclocking contest.
Granted, overclocking records do not really have any bearing on a CPUs' marketing appeal, since chips pushed to such heights can't really do much in those instances.
For one, they don't really have a high survival rate (or lifespan) when overclocked at over 100%, and neither do they actually end up performing much besides running the SuperPi test suite.
Not only that, but serious overclocking attempts involve custom-made cooling, like methods based on liquid nitrogen.
Nevertheless, overclocking contests still serve to show off just how reliable mainboards, CPUs and/or other parts are (memory for instance).
The records taken into accounts in this instance were the ones validated by CPU-Z as being part of its so-called “hall of fame.”
The one that broke the previous record of 7217.81 MHz (achieved with the AMD Phenom II X4 955 by isulk) was Mad222, who had the AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition. The clock speed he attained was 7344.48MHz.
For the sake of comparisons, the records preceding the now overcome 7217.81 MHz were 7153.89 MHz, 7140.39 MHz and 7127.85 MHz, all of them on the Phenom II X4 955.
Mad222 has a system based on the Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 mainboard. He didn't do any modifications to the platform itself and, instead of liquid nitrogen, used dry ice for cooling.
Of course, the new performance does not exactly threaten the overall highest CPU overclocking world record set by the Intel Celeron 360 on an Asus Commando mainboard. The frequency was of 8242.45MHz, while the four runner up records all are well above 8000 MHz.