MSI Z690-A WIFI vs B660 Mortar Max

If you were in the same board potentially, as long as you could find a way to keep the ecores roughly stock. I suspect it would need a bit more power to feed those also.

With the K model though you'd have options to use multiplier and not just bclk though :)

Your P-cores might even be better binned, but would be luck of the draw, the 12400 I am using was never intended to be used at these speeds and voltages after all :)
 
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Alexrose1uk said:
Yes, the boards with the external bclk generators which can do this really expose how much these lower level chips are kneecapped by Intel. 4GHz to 5GHz all core is a decent upgrade by any margin, and benchmarks put the chip now in the same region as the much more expensive and i7/i9, at least for stuff that doesn't need more cores or e-cores.

I would say however get a decent cooler if you go this route though which is an added expense, I have a Deepcool AK500, and under full stress test the chip does get toasty even at 5GHz. To go further/higher voltage, you really need something like a decent AIO or something else top end. I also couldn't run my ram higher without some random instability due to the memory controller chipset voltages being restricted on the non-k chips, but at 5GHz with the ram at 3375, I'm laughing.

With good enough cooling and a reasonable chip (and enough volts) I suspect many of these will happily do another couple hundred MHz at least, pretty sure from memory I was able to get mine to boot at 5.3Ghz but couldn't throw the volts or cooling to get it anywhere near stable.

The 13th gen chips are faster due to the higher clocks and such, but with current pricing, the 12400 and Bclk is a very tempting option.
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Thanks, I was going to get an AIO to play it safe. Obviously this adds a bit more cost but definitely seems worth it in this instance.
 
Are there any particular recommendations for ram when overclocking a 12400 using the MSI Mortar Max board? I was thinking of getting 3600 ram, however I'd want one that is known to overclock well. I've been looking at Corsair Vengeance LPX, Corsair Dominator Platinum, GSkill Ripjaw V, Team T-Force Xtreem ARGB - any specific recommendations? Not overly fussed about RGB. Thanks.
 
The non k chips have the memory controller voltages restricted so you're not guaranteed anything over 3200, although most will reach close to 3400 based on what I've seen. 3600 is raw luck.

Mine would not do it.
 
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Ah ok - I incorrectly assumed the independent clock generator applied to the cpu and memory for some reason, not just the cpu. Makes sense now.
 
It does apply to the memory clocks and you use dividers to then bring it back down to an appropriate level, unfortunately due to the locked memory controller voltage on these non k chips it's simple luck of the draw to how far above 3200 can go, most will not do 3600mhz memory unfortunately.
 
My 12600 does 3600mhz with no problems. It even did 3866mhz with the previous kit I had. The downside is that due to the locked controller voltage I can't change anything else.
 
That is very nice. It wouldn't surprise me if the 12600 is a better bin than the 12400 as I'd heard most of the i3/i5 will not hit those clocks reliably. My ram kit is 3600c16 rated but cannot run it that high with my chip, went flaky above 3400.
 
The original kit was Gskill F4-3866C18D-16GTZSW Trident Z 2x 8Gb and the current set is the Team Group 8 Pack 3600mhz C14 in my siggy. Both kits all I had to do was set XMP and change the dram voltage and they just worked.
 
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As an aside is your 12600 overclocked? It may be that it cannot maintain higher memory clocks when the entire chip has been overclocked :)

I'm also using a larger 32gb dual rank memory kit which is a little bit harder on the memory controller albeit a bit more performant too for given clock.
Yours both look like fairly well binned memory kits and single rank so suspect they may be a bit easier on the memory controller to run at higher clocks.
 
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The only thing I have tried is fixing all cores at it's max boost of 4.8Ghz but it's running at stock now. It really isn't worth the hassle overclocking for tiny gains these days. It's not like the good old days of socket 775 when you could buy a cheap board and cheap cpu and then double it's speed or sometimes even more. I have even ditched my high end custom water loop and gone back to air cooling for the first time in over 17 years.
 
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