AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT breaks GPU overclocking record

AMD's newest mid-range graphics card, the Radeon RX 9060 XT, recently set a global GPU frequency record at AMD's Markham office. In a collaboration between AMD's internal overclocking team and the world-renowned overclocker Allen “Splave” Golibersuch, the card reached a staggering core frequency of 4.769 GHz.

This achievement represents a massive leap over previous world records, including a 4.02 GHz mark on a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and a 4.25 GHz frequency on the iGPU of an Intel Arrow Lake processor. By pushing the RX 9060 XT to nearly 4.8 GHz, the team has increased the card's factory boost clock from 3.13 GHz by more than 52%, bringing the industry closer than ever to breaking the 5.0 GHz barrier on a GPU.

To facilitate this record-breaking run, the team used liquid nitrogen (LN2) cooling to maintain sub-zero temperatures, preventing the silicon from failing under extreme voltages. While the Radeon RX 9060 XT typically runs at 3.3 to 3.5 GHz with standard air or liquid cooling, the move to cryogenic cooling allowed the RDNA 4 architecture to showcase its hidden performance potential. During the attempt, Splave was observed using a custom internal AMD tool to fine-tune the GPU's power delivery and frequency offsets, bypassing the limitations imposed by retail drivers.

Although AMD shared the historic milestone in a brief video on its “AMD Gaming” YouTube channel, the company has remained relatively quiet about the technical breakdown, including the exact voltages and benchmarks used to validate the peak.

KitGuru says: The bar has been set. Now we will have to wait and see how long it takes for someone else to beat it. 

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