Intel's 13th Gen 13700K reaches 6GHz milestone

Overclocking enthusiasts have something to look forward to if this new leak turns out to be representative of the headroom of all 13th Gen K series chips. The leaked screenshot shows a 13700K CPU running at 6GHz across all of its eight performance cores, and it appears to be doing so without the aid of sub ambient cooling.

The result was sent anonymously to Videocardz, and shows the CPU scoring a massive 983 points in the CPU-Z single threaded benchmark. For comparison, my 12900K scores around 820 or a bit more depending on the memory used. AMD’s soon to be superseded 5900X scores around 660.

A second result comes from Twitter, where user @esperonslaie shows a 13700K at 5.9GHz with the e cores and hyperthreading disabled. The system is shown running Cinebench which means this isn’t some glory screenshot. The voltage is 1.447v which is high and temperatures rise into the 80s.

The cooling isn’t disclosed, but if we assume 13th Gen carries most of the traits of 12th Gen CPUs, then we’re looking at high end water cooling here. The noise in the video suggests fans are running at high RPM.

If Intel’s K CPUs can high 6GHz consistently with off the shelf cooling, then the 13th Gen range is sure to be a hit among overclocking enthusiasts. For sure, power consumption and efficiency won’t be impressive, but those things don’t matter when you’re chasing that magical 6GHz figure. 

Questions remain however, and they won't be answered until retail CPUs are out and in the hands of overclockers. Will retail chips be able to reach these numbers with hyperthreading enabled? Is this a golden sample ES? and can an average 360mm AIO keep a K chip cool enough to reliably hit 6GHz? It won't be long until we have the answers.

13th Gen CPUs will formally launch within the next few months. They are set to go head to head with AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series processors. They’re also rumoured to be getting a significant clock speed increase, though 6GHz may be beyond the capabilities of Zen 4, on ambient cooling at least.

The battle between Intel and AMD is shaping up to be an exciting one. Whether you're after gaming or content creation performance, something cool and quiet, or want a maxed out overclock, there's sure to be some compelling models from both companies.