Famed Finnish overclocker Sampsa Kurri has thrown in his liquid nitrogen soaked towel and will be taking up the game of golf instead.
“The passion I had for pushing CPUs and GPUs higher and higher with all different kind of cooling methods (air, water, peltier, compressors, dry ice, liquid nitrogen & liquid helium) during these years is unfortunately just no longer there,” Kurri explained in a farewell hwbot forum post.
“Aiming for top spots in benchmarks can be addictive and exhausting. You keep thinking about the last bench session, what could be improved and how much more and worrying about how to match the parts other people have.”
Kurri lamented that professional overclocking is now plagued by “too much” drama, personal disagreements and even cheating.
“[Unfortunately], there are still many loopholes and just your conscience to decide what is right and wrong.
“[Of course, there are also] constant product launches which make current results insignificant during one night – and recent ‘problems’ in the scene with manufacturer support [for] cherry picked ES parts the majority won’t even have chance to get hands on.”
Although Kurri said he remained (theoretically) open to participating in live overclocking competitions (if properly organized), he emphasized that his passion for liquid nitrogen had been replaced by golf.
“Golf made me realize that a hobby should be something which I do for my own fun, feel happy about it and my mind is relaxed while playing. I also got married earlier this year and if everything goes well we have a second generation overclocker coming up in April.
“ Anyway, I’ll be following the overclocking scene closely even though not being active myself. [So], good luck to everyone and enjoy your hobby!”
