The impressively powerful i9-7980XE CPU from Intel boasts not just 18 cores and 36 threads but also an unlocked clock multiplier. The spec was clearly an open invitation to Roman Hartung who has something of a reputation when it comes to overclocking processors. In tests he was able to crank up the clock of this beast to 5.7 GHz at which point the CPU draws around 1kW of power.

It would seem that this is now a performance power record for an Intel CPU. The liquid nitrogen cooled multi-core processor clocked at 5.7 GHz scores a mighty 5,600 points running the Cinebench-Multithreading benchmark. At this performance level the PC’s 12 V supply is pumping out 80 A, in normal operation the chip is rated with a TDP of just 165 W.

This all sounds pretty awesome and you may even be thinking about building an ultimate PC gaming setup based on his results. Be warned, at €2,400 a pop, these chips are by no means cheap. Roman explains his test configuration really well in the video and has some interesting and detailed technical information on the chip architecture. To power his machine he uses a massive 1.6 kW power supply just for the board alone (that’s not including the graphics card).