A team of overclockers has achieved multiple world records alongside a heap of global first-places using an Asus Z890 board. From CPU and RAM frequency overclocks to benchmark scores, the team obtained 55 titles in total.
Elmor, BenchMarc, OGS, and CENS have claimed a bunch of records using Intel’s latest Core Ultra 9 285K, Ultra 7 265K, and Ultra 5 245K processors. With some help from an Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Apex motherboard, the overclockers collected five world records, 19 global first places and 31 first places. Most notably, we have four 3DMark records from Elmor, plus one DDR5 frequency record from BenchMarc. Note, however, that the latter was promptly beaten by MSI and Kingston.
As we understand it, world record means the best-ever score, while first place indicates the top spot using that specific chip. The latter is far easier to pull since the Core Ultra 200K Series just launched, and many have yet to get their hands on them. To be clear, this doesn’t mean just anyone can beat these scores simply by having said CPUs; it’s just that the first mover advantage has a role to play. And besides, you would need liquid helium and a well-binned chip that doesn’t shy away from extreme overclocking.
ROG Maximus Z890 Apex was selected for its NitroPath DRAM technology and 22+1+2+2 phase power design, which can feed any CPU even under extreme cooling. The former uses shorter DIMM pins to improve stability, and thus the maximum frequency by up to 400MT/s. The Apex also features two DIMM slots instead of four, sacrificing raw capacity for higher frequency.
This combination allowed the overclockers to reach 7,48GHz on a Core Ultra 285K and 12,066MT/s (6GHz) on the DDR5 RAM. Additionally, the brand has showcased how the memory Gear ratio can influence performance. For example, in Far Cry 6 and Cyberpunk 2077, Gear 2 was up to 8.9% faster at 1080p compared to Gear 4, showing that having a well-balanced system is better than chasing the fastest RAM.
All in all, this is another great achievement by these overclockers who continue pushing hardware limits with each passing generation.