Who said you need exotic cooling to break overclocking records? A group of overclockers have taken AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X Zen 4 processor, touted as one of the best CPUs , and set four new overclocking records for the 16-core processor category. The fascinating part of the feats is that the overclockers used a conventional 280mm AIO liquid cooler.

The Ryzen 9 7950X hit 5.4 GHz on all 16 cores to score 40,498 points in Cinebench R23 to outpace the Core i9-12900KS , the previous record holder. For comparison, the Core i9-12900KS had to reach 7 GHz under liquid nitrogen (LN2) to rake in 40,412 points. Although the margin of difference was minimal, it was impressive to see the Ryzen 9 7950X came out on top with a 23% lower clock speed. It just goes to show Zen 4 has a tough cookie to beat.

AMD's Zen 4 flagship also took home the trophy as the fastest 16-core chip in Cinebench R20. Surprisingly, the Ryzen 9 7950X only achieved an all-core clock speed of 5.35 GHz. Nonetheless, it was enough to beat the Ryzen 9 5950X , which had previously set the record at 6 GHz with LN2 cooling.

The Ryzen 9 7950X had its best performance in the older Cinebench R15 benchmark, which soared to 5.5 GHz on all cores. As a result, the chip scored 6,900 points to beat the Ryzen 9 5950X's 6,832 points. The latter had accomplished the mark with a 6 GHz clock speed under LN2.

The last record pertained to 7-Zip where the Ryzen 9 7950X attained a 5.45 GHz all-core clock speed to put up 228,922 MIPS. Admittedly, it was the most significant delta out of the four records. The Ryzen 9 7950X outperformed the Ryzen 9 5950X at 5.24 GHz (LN2) by a 4.4% margin.

The overclocking records today are just a preview of what's to come. AMD is working with renowned extreme overclockers to push Zen 4 into new heights with LN2. In addition, expect the Ryzen 9 7950X to disrupt the overclocking scene very soon.