Test Setup
For our tests, we used a test rig which includes the ASRock Z490 Steel Legend motherboard, along with an Intel Core i9-10900K (Comet Lake) @ 3.7GHz (Overclocked @ 5.4GHz), as well as 16GB Thermaltake Tough Ram RGB DDR4-3200 ram in dual channel mode.
All tests were conducted at the overclock speed of 5.3GHz at a resolution of 1920×1080. High or Ultra settings enabled.
| CPU | Intel Core i9-10900K (Comet Lake) @ 3.7GHz / Overclocked @ 5.4GHz |
| Overclock | All cores at x54, vCore at 1.4V – Result: 5.4GHz |
| Cooling | Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 |
| Motherboard | ASRock Z490 Steel Legend |
| Ram | 16GB Thermaltake Tough Ram RGB DDR4-3200 |
| XMP 2.0 profiles | Memory timings : 15-15-15-35 @1.35v |
| SSD/HDD | Gigabyte Aorus PCIE 4.0 Gen4 M.2 256GB SSD |
| PSU | Cooler Master 850W |
| VGA card | Zotac GeForce RTX 2080 8GB GDDR6 |
| Nvidia Drivers | Latest GeForce Drivers – WHQL |
| OS | Windows 10 |
CPU-Z Information
Load Temperatures
During our stress test, the load temperatures reached a high of 91 degrees Celsius. It’s fairly high, but it’s what we expected … we highly recommended a very good CPU cooler. We suggest investing a custom water cooling or a large AIO unit.
Below are some benchmarks scores between the Core i9-10900K on all 10 cores @ 5.4GHz (left) versus @ 4.9GHz (right). I’ll let the numbers do all the talking …
Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software Cinema 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and OS X).
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PCMark 10
PCMark 10 is the latest in our series of industry standard PC benchmarks. Updated for Windows 10 with new and improved workloads, PCMark 10 is also faster and easier to use. PCMark 10 features a comprehensive set of tests that cover the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. With express, extended, and custom run options to suit your needs, PCMark 10 is the complete PC benchmark for the modern office and an ideal choice for organizations that buy PCs in high volumes.
3DMark v2 – Port Royal
Port Royal is a graphics card benchmark for testing real-time ray tracing performance. To run this test, you must have a graphics card and drivers that support Microsoft DirectX Raytracing..
3DMark – Nvidia DLSS Test
Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an NVIDIA RTX technology that uses the power of deep learning and AI to improve game performance while maintaining visual quality.
DLSS is a post-processing technique that uses a pre-trained deep neural network to extract features of the rendered scene and intelligently construct a high-quality final image.
This feature test helps you compare performance and image quality with and without DLSS.
TimeSpy
3DMark Time Spy is a new DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built “the right way” from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, Time Spy is the ideal test for benchmarking the latest graphics cards.
FireStrike
Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it … how to overclock your Intel Core i9-10900K (Comet Lake) to a whopping 5.4GHz on all 10 cores. Don’t let the non-believers deter you from getting that extra turbo boost! Intel’s crafty marketing ploy says the Core i9-10900K at achieve a turbo boost of up to 5.3GHz, when the actual fact is … it’s only on 1-2 cores! The actual maximum default Turbo Boost on all 10 cores is around 4.9Ghz.
Overclocking the Core i9-10900K to 5.4GHz on all 10 cores isn’t that difficult. Just play around in the BIOS, and make sure you give the CPU enough voltages, and of course you need adequate and sufficient CPU cooling as well.
Happy overclocking …
Disclaimer: Overclocking is never guaranteed, so the results may vary depending on certain conditions and various hardware configurations. I am not recommending overclocking if you do not know what are you doing. High voltages may damage hardware and it will not be covered by warranty.
Related articles
- ASRock Z490 Steel Legend motherboard Review
- Buy the ASRock Z490 Steel Legend
motherboard from Amazon
- Buy the Intel Core i9-10900K (Comet Lake) processo
r from Amazon
- Buy the Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro
240 AIO from Amazon
3 comments
You want the cache speed higher for better performance, stock is 4.3ghz, I found 4.7ghz to be optimum with 3733 mem and 4.9ghz clock. I’ve pushed to 5.3 on all cores but performance was down. I’m an overclocker running an Apex Z590, currently ranked 26th in the UK. I’ve been as high as 12th when I did liquid nitrogen.
My i9-10900KF is running at 5.3Ghz all cores . Ring Ration 4.8Ghz. Memory 4266Mhz . (tested once on 5.1Ghz ring ration as well)
My Pc – Windows 11 Pro – is working stable at 5.4Ghz too (the rest being the same) – but cooling is not sufficient for a stress test.
I am using a 360mm AIO.
I will switch to a a custom water loop and Mora3 – will definitely go ok on 5.4Ghz full load too
Who said there little to no difference by havinf100-200Mhz more is wrong
My system is having a noticeable faster Windows daily experience 5.3Ghz compared to 5.1Ghz all cores.
(if we talk about OC … with this MoBo and CPU – I tested it with a Intel TEC CryoCooler . I managed to have speeds like 5.5-5.6Ghz. But only light loads and OC applied after boot , in Windows , with XTU . Not worthed – but was fun for an test)
(I am in Uk too – no ranking whatsoever . lol ).
Yes, on my previous system , I was no1 at some point with an i7-10700k ….
Well done 👏