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You can guarantee a 5.1GHz Intel i9 11900K gaming CPU if you have $879 spare

5.1GHz on all cores, yours for over $300 more than MSRP

The CPU lid of an 11th gen Intel processor

We’ve seen some pretty impressive overclocks recently, with Intel’s new flagship i9 11900K hitting up to 7GHz speeds. Of course, you can’t expect to see such a high number without liquid nitrogen involved but slapping the best AIO cooler on will still yield some pretty big numbers. How much extra performance you’ll squeeze out of the i9 is pure luck, however, entirely dependent on what quality chip you bag.

The aptly-named Silicon Lottery is selling pre-binned i9 11900Ks, capable of running at a boosted 5.1GHz clock on all cores when overclocked. The usual all-core boost found out of the box on any i9 you buy is 4.6GHz. You’ll be forking out a large premium over the usual $539 MSRP of the best gaming CPU, however – $879.99 to be precise.

A significant 29% of i9s tested by the company fell into this 5.1GHz bracket, so you might have similar luck on a non-binned retail chip. However, Silicon Lottery does not state the number of CPUs tested to reach this figure.

If you go for Silicon Lottery’s pre-binned i9 11900K, you don’t need fancy equipment to hit the 5.1GHz overclock, but the company has only verified it with a few component combinations. First of all, you’ll need to pair it with at least a 240mm radiator, and you’ll be safe with any one of five thermal pastes, certain Asus motherboards, and DDR4 RAM below specific frequencies. That’s not to say you can’t hit it using other brands and speeds, but these are guaranteed with a stamp of approval.

Other than bragging rights, it’s pretty unnecessary for the best gaming PC – as we saw in our i9 11900K reviews roundup, the CPU is already more than enough for gaming out of the box with current titles.