Intel’s new Haswell refresh, the Core i7-4790K, is supposed to be hell on wheels for overclocking thanks to a new thermal interface material (TIM) and the addition of a number of capacitors to the bottom of the die to improve power characteristics. With its 4GHz base clock and 4.4GHz turbo, Intel has positioned the chip as the overclocker’s preferred solution — and a marked step up from the relatively anemic performance increases that Haswell offered in 2013. Now, at Computex 2014, a new team of overclocking enthusiasts have proven that the Devil’s Canyon core has legs with a 5.5GHz base overclock with air/water cooling, and a 6.4GHz overclock using LN2.

Between the two, it’s the air/liquid cooling that’s more interesting; using LN2 to hit high frequencies is a virtual given on any core. Here, the 5.5GHz hit implies that Intel has designed these chips with a new thermal interface that really does offer benefits over the old TIM material that choked off Haswell clocking by trapping too much heat on the die. It’s early days for Devil’s Canyon overclocking, but it does look good: With water cooling, the Core i7-4770K generally had a typical maximum overclock of around 5GHz. One enterprising soul pushed the core all the way to 5.6GHz, but it isn’t clear if that result was achieved by delidding the processor (removing the heat spreader and the poor-quality TIM).

Does Devil’s Canyon signal a return to the golden overclocking days of yore? Sadly, no. It does mean that Intel is taking this segment more seriously and is willing to offer products that cater to its interests (probably partly at the request of boutique builders), but the total range of clock speeds is still coming down in absolute terms. As an example, it was relatively common to see pre-built rigs with 5GHz overclocks in the Nehalem and Sandy Bridge days. That practice was tamped down by necessity with Haswell, since most boutique builders weren’t willing to bear the cost and risk of delidding the chip themselves. [Read: 20th anniversary Pentium specs leak – will this be the modern era’s Celeron 300A?]

Now, we could see a return to those clocks — but we’re still stepping up to them from a 4.4GHz Turbo clock. In other words, Intel has given overclockers a bit more headroom — but it’s also borrowing against its own maximum clock speeds. Still, we’re glad to see the clock increase — neither the Core i7-4960X nor the Core i7-4770K gave enthusiasts much to get excited about in 2013, but Devil’s Canyon may change that equation when it hits retail later this month (probably priced around $360). Meanwhile, experiments in alternate cooling solutions continue as companies search for better thermal materials that can enable them to better tap available headroom.