Overclockers Just Broke A World Record On A 13-Year-Old Intel CPU

The weird computer nerds are at it again, this time eclipsing a 12-year high mark for the PC hardware benchmarking tool Cinebench. Rather than using the latest and greatest, this is breaking a record for the Intel Core i5 4670K, which launched in 2013 and was fully end-of-life in 2021, receiving no more updates. With help from a healthy amount of liquid nitrogen to keep the chip cool as it was pushed past its limits, the new high score eked past the 12-year-old record by 0.04 points.

Set by Finnish HWBot user Luumi, this new overclock allowed the now-ancient CPU to hit a score of 10.8 cb. Of course, the processor was released at the tail end of DDR3 being the main type of RAM. So this benchmarking used 4 GB of DDR3 RAM spread across a dual-channel setup (two 2 GB sticks), and as mentioned, a lot of liquid nitrogen. Looking at the setup of the bare motherboard crowned with a container-like contraption to pour that liquid nitrogen safely, it's quite a sight. With that level of cooling, Luumi managed to push the CPU to 6,301 MHz, or 6.3 GHz.

Modern scores for Cinebench usually range from four to 10 times the amount of what the 4th Generation Intel Core chip can do. The world record for the benchmark Luumi used is 207.25 cb in multicore scores, achieved with a 64-core Intel Xeon 696X. Meanwhile, the weirdos who love to pour freezing chemicals all over PC parts have previously set records like getting an i7-7700K up to 7 GHz in 2017 or hitting 9.2 GHz on a 14900KF in 2026. That last one came after another team had previously broken a record in 2022, reaching 8.2 GHz.

Overclocking, like many forms of nerd-centric hobbies, has launched a competition with actual company backing. Intel has previously hosted Creator Challenge, which combined a PC-modding competition with extreme-overclocking demonstrations. If you're considering doing this from home, Intel has a series of suffixes on its chips to indicate what can and can't be overclocked.

The next competition from HWBot appears to be opening on November 1, 2026, with an end date of December 29, 2026. The Country Cup is a series of tests, including Cinebench, split into categories like GPU, Intel, AMD, and "Misc." This last category is for hyper-specific tests, limiting the hardware to things like the Intel Arc GPU or Xeon CPU. For the Intel CPU circuit, participants will need to run SuperPi, XTU, Y-Cruncher, 3DMark Vantage, and Cinebench R20 to try to take first place. Other competitions, like those hosted by G.Skill in 2026, came with a $40,000 prize pool — however, HWBot's appears to be more of a hardware sponsor providing a kit. Maybe getting some sticks of RAM is actually better these days, what with tech prices all over the place.