system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does 5GHZ seem to be the ceiling for conventional desktop overclocking?

I know that overclockers can push CPUs s further than that, but ~5GHZ seems to be the clockspeed today's CPUs max out on since 2011. Why is that?
gpt
CPU speed is limited by time of transmission and heat. 

The electrical signal has to be transmitted through microscopic wires in a chip. Though the theoretical limit is the speed of light, the realistic limit is determined by the material that conducts the electrical charge. Additionally the gates -- the circuits -- have to switch from 0 to 1 -- open to closed -- and that can only happen so quickly. So there are physical, engineering limits on how fast those things can take place. 

It is possible to make those things happen faster -- that's basically what overclocking is -- but when you do that it generates additional heat. Without appropriate cooling, the heat will eventually burn out the microprocessor. Because of the size of microprocessors there's only so much cooling you can bring to the table, so as you try to speed up the chip you reach a point where the additional heat outstrips any attempts at cooling, and you burn the chip up. 

The combination of transmission speed and heat dissipation create the limits on CPUs.