TECH NEWS – Real OC (overclocking, tuning) in Intel Alder Lake processors not meant to have such a feature? It is a cost-effective, performance-increase solution…

You can read on PCGamer that Der8auer has been able to overclock 12th generation Intel processors, and with some effort… but there are drawbacks. For example, the Intel Core i5-12400 can be boosted from its 4.4GHz maximum turbo to over 5.2GHz, which, in short, means that a cheaper processor can compete with more expensive i7 and i9 CPUs. The i5-12600 was also tested, and although it’s a slightly beefier processor, the results were a bit lacking… but 5.1 gigahertz doesn’t seem weak either, does it?

According to Der8auer, some ASUS motherboards have a basic clock boost feature when you put a fixed clock 65W processor on them. The Unlock BCLK OC option can be found in the Tweakers Paradise submenu of the Asus ROG Z690 Maximus Apex’ BIOS. Here, you have the option to increase the clock speed of the processor to a little over 130 megahertz. For the i5-12400 with the 40X processor multiplier, this change takes the speed slightly above 5.2 GHz, but increasing the BCLK (basic clock) also affects the RAM and cache speed, so these need to be fine-tuned to get everything working correctly.

Once that’s done, the processor voltage needs to be fine-tuned, and we also need to keep an eye on our cooling solution to avoid burning the CPU with unorthodox tuning. The results are not bad: according to Der8auer, the i5-12400 showed a 33% performance increase in Cinebench testing, and Intel’s processor has also got a serious leg up in games. The only catch is that this is only possible on motherboards with an external clock generator. In other words: there is no way to do this on cheaper, entry-level boards. This technology can decouple the base clock from other bus clucks, but it requires more engineering and is spared on more inexpensive boards. However, keep an eye on the temps (96 C) and the power requirements (136 W)…

Now, what is AMD going to do about that…?

Source: PCGamer