Intel’s Core i9-13900K is the coolest chip available, assuming you have liquid helium.
What you should know
- Recently, overclockers were able to increase the Intel Core i9-13900clock K’s speed to 9GHz.
- The CPU temperature was lowered to -250 degrees Celsius using liquid helium.
- Typically, the Core i9-13900K has a base speed of 3.0GHz and a maximum turbo speed of 5.8GHz.
- The Intel Core i9-13900K is a powerful processor. It ships at a high clock speed, which can be increased through overclocking. When our editor-in-chief Daniel Rubino visited Intel in
Israel, the chipmaker demonstrated the Core i9-139008.0GHz K’s clock speed. Since then, overclocking specialists Jon Sandstrom and Pieter Plaiser have accelerated the chip to 9GHz, a new world record (via PC Mag).
The Core i9-13900K has 24 cores for context (16 E-cores and 8 P-cores with 32 threads). It has a base speed of 3.0GHz and a maximum turbo speed of 5.8GHz under normal conditions.
Neither Intel nor Sandstrom and Plaiser achieved their respective clock speeds using techniques that could be replicated on a standard PC, but both are impressive. Sandstrom and Plaiser utilized liquid helium as opposed to liquid nitrogen, which is a common method for cooling CPUs. PC enthusiasts were able to reduce the temperature of the chip to -250 degrees Celsius (-418 Fahrenheit).
With temperatures that low, it’s almost worthwhile to use the Kelvin scale. In the liquid helium chamber, the Intel Core i9-13900K reached a temperature of 23 degrees Kelvin.
SkatterBencher posted a behind-the-scenes look at the CPU reaching 9GHz on YouTube.
By placing a metal pot over the Intel chip, Sandstrom and Plaiser were able to reduce the CPU’s temperature to a lower level than is typically possible. Liquid helium is colder than liquid nitrogen, but the amount of the substance that the pair of PC experts had was only sufficient for one hour of temperature control.
Intel Core i9-13900K – This is one of the fastest CPUs currently available. The retail model has a base clock speed of 3GHz and a boost clock speed of 5.8GHz. In normal settings, the Core i9-13900K will not reach the 9GHz speed demonstrated by Jon Sandstrom and Pieter Plaiser, but it is still extremely powerful.
