We're still a couple of weeks away from the AMD Zen 5 launch but that hasn't stopped AMD showing off the full extent of its new CPUs' capabilities, at least when it comes to overclocking. In a new AMD Ryzen 9 9950X overclocking video by Gamers Nexus, AMD's overclocking aficionados take the new flagship Zen 5 chip to a ludicrous speed of 6.6GHz, with a little help from a Thermos flask.
The 9950X is fully expected to be among the best gaming CPUs you can buy when it launches, making the Zen 5 release date a highly anticipated one. However, while we still have to wait until July 31 before we can actually buy this processor, AMD has given us a sneak peek at the chip's capabilities when it's pushed to extremes.
AMD's engineers, Bill Alverson and Amit Mehra, have appeared on a Gamers Nexus video (below) demonstrating the overclocking features of the new processors. In the video, Bill is shown cooling the 9950X to -130°C (-202°F) using a vacuum flask filled with liquid nitrogen, allowing him to overclock the chip to 6.6GHz.
This is 900MHz faster than the stated 5.7GHz peak boost frequency of the CPU under normal conditions in lightly-threaded workloads, and it enabled the chip to blast past Cinebench records previously set by the Ryzen 9 7950X.
In fact, with the 9950X running at just 5.85GHz, it was able to outpace the 7950X running at 6.7GHz in the same test. This is testament to the improvements in instructions per clock that AMD has been touting with these new Zen 5 chips. AMD has been claiming as high as a 16% improvement, with the above test runs showing a 14.6% performance increase.
AMD also discusses its new undervolting feature in the video. Undervolting is when you try to lower the chip's voltage as much as possible - to reduce heat and power consumption, while still maintaining as much performance as possible.
To that end, AMD had previously implemented a feature called Curve Optimizer that allows the user to undervolt the chip by an offset amount, rather than a fixed voltage. This allows the chip to still do its clever internal overclocking and undervolting (following a curve defined by voltage, temperature, and frequency), but with the voltage brought down slightly.
With the new chip, though, AMD has introduced Curve Shaper, which lets the user not just specify a fixed voltage offset from the standard curve, but actually tweak the internal overclocking curve. It's a fairly involved process that may well be a bit intimidating for casual users - there are three temperature bands and five voltage bands with which to experiment - but it provides a really powerful tool for users who want to optimize their system for peak performance.
Thankfully, for those of us who are more interested in just dropping a new chip into a motherboard and letting it do its thing, all signs are really positive. It looks as though the 9950X, and the rest of the Zen 5 range - including 9000X3D chips when they arrive - will offer class-leading speed and performance per watt when they land.
Meanwhile, if you're a little unsure about installing your own CPU in a motherboard, fear not as our guide on how to build a gaming PC teaches you how to go about it.
We're hiring!
Do you love tweaking your CPU and GPU to get the best frame rates in your games? Can you write informative and interesting copy quickly, coherently, and accurately? Then we want to hear from you. PCGamesN is looking for a new, UK-based hardware writer to write news, reviews, guides, and op-eds about all the latest PC gaming tech, particularly when it comes to CPUs and GPUs.
If you'd like to join our passionate, hugely experienced hardware team, then send us your application without delay as the closing date is July 26.