Intel is providing a first look at an upcoming 13th Generation “Raptor Lake” Core processor that can hit 6GHz without any overclocking at all.
The company first mentioned the mysterious 6GHz CPU chip back in September while remaining mum on details. But on Tuesday, Intel finally demoed the processor in action in a video.
The clip confirms the processor can hit 5.98GHz speeds, using only a Corsair all-in-one cooler. “I’m not showing any tricks. This is all running out of box, factory default setting,” said Jason Xie, Intel’s gaming technical marketing lead.
But it seems the chip can only hit the near 6GHz speed over two performance cores on the 13th Generation Core processor, which likely contains at least eight performance cores, and another 16 efficiency cores. In addition, the chip can only hit 6GHz in short bursts that last a few seconds.
That’s to be expected since maintaining a 6GHz speed would eventually overheat the CPU. “A lot of factors come into play here, whether it’s the power budget, the thermals, or in some cases, where the software itself, Windows, may not be allocating to the right cores,” Xie said.
Still, the chip promises to take the crown as the fastest desktop chip, making it the world's first 6GHz CPU. In contrast, AMD’s latest chips can only hit a boost clock speed of 5.7GHz.
Meanwhile, Intel’s Core i9-13900k can hit boost clock speeds of 5.8GHz out of the box. (However, the chip can reach 9GHz if you have some liquid helium on hand to cool the CPU.)
Intel demoed the unnamed 6GHz chip on two motherboards—an Intel internal “reference validation platform” for testing purposes, and a Z790 motherboard from Asus that's currently on the market. Intel has yet to name the 6GHz processor, but rumors suggest the chip will be dubbed the Core i9-13900 KS. Xie said expect it to arrive soon.