Locked Intel Core i5-12400 Can Achieve Up to 33 Percent Higher Performance via BCLK Overclocking

[Tsing]

Image: Intel



Overclocking extraordinaire der8auer has confirmed that 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400 and Core i5-12600 processors, both of which are marketed as locked, non-K models that are not intended for overclocking, can still be overclocked to achieve up to 33 percent better performance thanks to a feature that can seemingly only be enabled on select motherboards paired with a non-K CPU.



As demonstrated by der8auer in a new YouTube video, the ASUS Maximus Z690 Apex and ROG Maximus Z690 Hero include an “Unlock BCLK OC” feature that, when coupled with some additional BIOS tweaking, can push the clock speeds of these lower-tiered Alder Lake chips past 5 GHz. Cinebench R20 results shared by der8auer suggest that the Core i5-12400 and Core i5-12600 can see performance gains of up to 33 and 16 percent, respectively, thanks to Intel’s reintroduction of BLCK for Alder...

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[hubaduba]

Buy a $600 motherboard to overclock your $200 CPU.

 

[LazyGamer]

Buy a $600 motherboard to overclock your $200 CPU.

That's the current option, though the implication is that more entry-level SKUs might come equipped with clock generators to support BCLK overclocking on non-K Intel CPUs. It's not an expensive option, just one that hasn't been really desirable except for extreme overclocking lately.

I'll say that I'm cautiously optimistic. The rise of unlocked parts has really limited the demand for other forms of overclocking.

 

[hubaduba]

That's the current option, though the implication is that more entry-level SKUs might come equipped with clock generators to support BCLK overclocking on non-K Intel CPUs. It's not an expensive option, just one that hasn't been really desirable except for extreme overclocking lately.

I'll say that I'm cautiously optimistic. The rise of unlocked parts has really limited the demand for other forms of overclocking.

"couldn’t get the option to appear on the ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming Wi-Fi"

That's only a $450 board. It would be great if this happened on reasonably priced motherboards, but it didn't look like that's the case.

 

[LazyGamer]

That's only a $450 board. It would be great if this happened on reasonably priced motherboards, but it didn't look like that's the case.

The reasonably-priced boards haven't arrived yet

 

[Grimlakin]

The reasonably-priced boards haven't arrived yet

I imagine for this to work you end rock solid power delivery and that's not normally it the realm of reasonably priced motherboards.

 

[LazyGamer]

I think that would be true for higher-end SKUs, but something like a 12400 with a meager power draw should be fine?

 

[Grimlakin]

I think that would be true for higher-end SKUs, but something like a 12400 with a meager power draw should be fine?

I'd have to read the article to gauge that... and really we would need more lower end motherboards with that feature enabled. This just could be a selling point to move the 'budget' cpu buyer into a higher tier motherboard. Which really at that point why not buy the bigger CPU instead of trying to OC the budget one?

 

[LazyGamer]

I'd have to read the article to gauge that... and really we would need more lower end motherboards with that feature enabled. This just could be a selling point to move the 'budget' cpu buyer into a higher tier motherboard. Which really at that point why not buy the bigger CPU instead of trying to OC the budget one?

I'm with you on this one - it really, really depends on the price and quality of entry-level boards with external BCLK generators, assuming any are ever produced.

 

[Dan_D]

Due to "product segmentation" I wouldn't expect a lot of inexpensive boards to have an external clock generator. So far, most of the DDR4 boards we've seen have been pretty lack luster and rather basic compared to their DDR5 counterparts.

 

[Dan_D]

Buy a $600 motherboard to overclock your $200 CPU.

Honestly, I'd rather invest in the motherboard than the CPU. To be frank, the motherboard is basically the system now. It determines what features your system supports. It decides how many USB ports you get, if you have access to Thunderbolt devices, how many NVMe devices you can have or what performance tuning options you get. Being able to take the $200 CPU and get the same gaming performance as a 12900K is very exciting. That's literally where the popularity of overclocking came from.

Overclocking has pretty much always been a thing for one reason or another. But it wasn't until the dawn of enthusiast websites and the Celeron 300A that it became popular. Jumperless motherboards also popped up around this time allowing the tuning to be done more easily without physically changing things on the hardware.

 

[Burticus]

Back to BCLK are we? Deja Vu all over again.

 

[Dan_D]

Back to BCLK are we? Deja Vu all over again.

BCLK overclocking has never really been a thing. FSB overclocking was back in the day, but since the move from a separate memory controller in the chipset to an IMC on the CPU, we really haven't had base clock overclocking as a viable option. Most chipsets and boards were extremely limited as they would become unstable very quickly.

We had BCLK strap settings for X99, but that was effectively keeping PCIe and RAM to 100MHz via multipliers/dividers. It wasn't base clock overclocking in the strictest sense.