ASUS overclockers broke the 9 GHz barrier with the ROG Maximus Z790 Apex

The overclocking team of ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) set a new world record, pushing the 13th generation Intel® Core™ i9-13900K processor beyond the 9 GHz barrier, reaching 9.008 GHz thanks to ROG Maximus Z790 Apex.

ROG Maximus Z790 Apex, the motherboard that made it possible to exceed 9GHz

It’s not the first time that ASUS overlocks have set such a record: three months ago like today, the ROG Maximus Z790 Apex was paired with an Intel Core i9-13900K processor, freezing everything with a generous dose of liquid elium (LHe).

To cope with the high conductivity of liquid helium cooling, the team used the compound ThermalRight TFX and, to deal with power overloads, a power supply ROG Thor 1600W Titanium.

Thanks to this formula, the motherboard has been able to distinguish itself from other motherboards, proving to be particularly suitable for the task of setting this new record, thanks to an Overclocker’s Toolkit useful to maintain stability during cryogenic cooling.

Furthermore Apex team has made a mod built on one of the motherboard features: a manual trigger useful for switching to safer frequencies during setup.

The challenges encountered by the Apex team

Despite the availability of high-tech equipment, the Apex team had to face several challenges: the first of all was finding a supply of liquid helium capable of accomplishing this feat in an hour.

Initially a first great success was reaching the 8,9 GHzwithout losing sight of the real goal, which is to overcome the 9 GHz. Indeed, during one of the experiments, one of the USB ports was disconnected, disabling the system keyboard.

Once the mistakes made were understood and a sufficient supply of liquid helium was found, the experiments resumed, going up to and beyond 9 GHz, not only reaching the goal, but making history.

Shosho Chang, Intel Tech Evangelistinterviewed the overlockers Jon “Elmor” Sandström e Peter Plaisierwho explained some of the basics of overlocking and provided insights into how they achieved this record-breaking milestone.

ROG Maximus Z790 Apex motherboard is currently employed in 14 world records e 29 global first places. The complete list of classified benchmarks using the ROG Maximus Z790 Apex is available here.