Old Core i7-6700K Processor Overclocked to 5.1 GHz at 1.65 V

The author of the TrashBench YouTube channel conducted an interesting experiment: he tested whether it was possible to "awaken" the old Intel Core i7-6700K processor to a level that would not limit the capabilities of the GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. The main task was to squeeze maximum power from the 2015 Skylake architecture processor using extreme overclocking and a non-standard cooling system. About this Ixbt.com reports .

During the test, the CPU was overclocked step by step. Initially, it operated at 4.7 GHz with 1.4 V voltage, then reached 5.0 GHz with 1.56 V, and finally achieved 5.1 GHz at 1.65 V. Attempts to conquer the 5.2–5.3 GHz mark at 1.7 V ended in failure. A special liquid cooling system equipped with an ice bath was used for stable operation at 5.0–5.1 GHz frequencies.

In the game Cyberpunk 2077, at standard frequencies, the system relied on the processor: the GeForce RTX 3080 operated at only 60% power, with average performance reaching 103 FPS. After overclocking to 4.7 GHz, the GPU load increased to almost 70%, and the FPS growth reached approximately 13%. At 5.0 GHz, the graphics card started working much more actively, and performance increased by 17%.

Interestingly, further increases at 5.1 GHz yielded almost no results. The difference with the 5.0 GHz mode was only one frame per second, indicating that the bottlenecks had shifted from CPU power to other aspects of the system. The situation was similar in other games: in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Hitman 3, and Far Cry 6, overclocking up to 5.0 GHz provided an average increase of 11%.

In the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, the results were more significant: performance increased by 19% and 24%, respectively. This experiment proved that old flagship processors are still capable of working with modern graphics cards, but this requires extreme measures and high energy consumption.