Monday, January 24th 2022
Intel Not Happy About BCLK Overclocking of 12th Gen CPUs, Warns of Damage
You may, or may not have noticed that in certain parts of the interweb, groups of people that are generally referred to as "Overclockers" have managed to get their cheap Celeron G6900's and Core i3-12100's to run at much higher clock speeds than Intel intended and now the company is unhappy about it, as they're anticipating that they're going to lose sales of more expensive CPUs. As such, Intel has issued a warning via Tom's Hardware
"Intel's 12th Gen non-K processors were not designed for overclocking. Intel does not warranty the operation of processors beyond their specifications. Altering clock frequency or voltage may damage or reduce the useful life of the processor and other system components, and may reduce system stability and performance."
Jokes aside, the lower end SKU's of Intel's 12th gen Alder Lake CPUs seem to be phenomenal overclockers, if you have the right motherboards. If the motherboard doesn't have an external clock gen, plus support for adjusting the BCLK on non-K CPUs, then you're not going to have much luck. This means, at least at the moment, that you're looking at fairly pricey Z690 motherboard, although there are rumors that we can expect the odd B660 motherboard that will get an external clock gen, with at least three models already reported to have BCLK adjustment support via beta UEFI updates. Pro Overclockers have already managed to hit speeds in excess of 5.3 GHz with the Celeron G6900 and that is only by adjusting the BCLK and the Voltage, which is no mean feat, as the CPU has fixed clock speed of 3.4 GHz, which makes this a 57 percent boost in clock speed. Intel is said to be looking into this unintended ability to overclock these CPU SKUs and is apparently looking at locking down this ability with a new microcode update in a future UEFI release.
Update: Added a screenshot from TPU's upcoming Core i3-12100F review, showing 5.2 GHz at 130 MHz BCLK.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
"Intel's 12th Gen non-K processors were not designed for overclocking. Intel does not warranty the operation of processors beyond their specifications. Altering clock frequency or voltage may damage or reduce the useful life of the processor and other system components, and may reduce system stability and performance."
Jokes aside, the lower end SKU's of Intel's 12th gen Alder Lake CPUs seem to be phenomenal overclockers, if you have the right motherboards. If the motherboard doesn't have an external clock gen, plus support for adjusting the BCLK on non-K CPUs, then you're not going to have much luck. This means, at least at the moment, that you're looking at fairly pricey Z690 motherboard, although there are rumors that we can expect the odd B660 motherboard that will get an external clock gen, with at least three models already reported to have BCLK adjustment support via beta UEFI updates. Pro Overclockers have already managed to hit speeds in excess of 5.3 GHz with the Celeron G6900 and that is only by adjusting the BCLK and the Voltage, which is no mean feat, as the CPU has fixed clock speed of 3.4 GHz, which makes this a 57 percent boost in clock speed. Intel is said to be looking into this unintended ability to overclock these CPU SKUs and is apparently looking at locking down this ability with a new microcode update in a future UEFI release.
Update: Added a screenshot from TPU's upcoming Core i3-12100F review, showing 5.2 GHz at 130 MHz BCLK.
139 Comments on Intel Not Happy About BCLK Overclocking of 12th Gen CPUs, Warns of Damage
It makes me want to see what a fully tuned sandy or ivy bridge system can do equal to these, because it really doesnt feel like progress - just moving goalposts
Edit: no really, with all the security issues and patches hurting performance and most benches in the past done with antique spinning rust disks
Kinda pissed my dad wont let me run benches on my old system i sold him, the 4770K with 32GB DDR3 2400Mhz would probably compete really well
I bet you that Intel will be like, "Mama said lock you out!"
But as I tend to use my previous rig as a side rig til the next one comes along, the thought that there is a real possiblity at that stage the AIO might die didnt sit well with me. I cannot imagine a Noctua failing during the time I have use for it.
Hardware is coming with less OC room these days anyway. Its more about the UV/sweet spot for me. Im happy to run 12900k at 5.1 all (P)core at 1.23v silently.
But yeah I feel exactly the same way about overclocking. What is the effin point if you're going to spend more on board and cooling to even get any semblance of an OC out a chip? Isn't the net result a loss there?! I never understood the rationale there. Just buy a faster chip. And back in the day, you could actually BUY the fastest possible chip and then see how far you could take it, because Intel didn't do it for you to begin with. So you'd chase the optimal performance on your own, with no guarantees, and then the expense of 'more cooling' looks quite different, to me at least: you're pushing that boundary.
But in the current world you're not even pushing boundaries, its just a game of 'how much voltage will it take before I see smoke'. Efficiency? What? I mean they already get out of the box clocked way out of the optimal curve, if you'd try for efficiency, you might as well just buy a lower SKU. Its like they literally monetized every piece of the stack for every type of buyer, but still try to sell the old idea of some sort of advantage.
And somehow, its working too. I get it. If you never knew how it really was, what you get today is your reality - there was never something else.
Companies know this. Its why we get all those reboot games too. Redefine reality so you can finally ditch those old nagging bastards telling you how shit everything's become because of commerce and profit drive. This is also why groups of consumers find themselves on opposite ends of a discussion (example: steam vs EGS, paid vs unpaid modding, lenience on MTX and pay to win, lenience on Pre-orders and early access, selling out to cloud versus owned).
What gives you that idea, vs what's been stated about the external clock gen on specific boards?
It could be only high end boards that have a external clock generator, but someone has found a way to do it on non high end boards.
Seen this-
Intel Non-K Alder Lake CPUs Topple Overclocking World Records
Intel Non-K Alder Lake CPUs Topple Overclocking World RecordsI am going to see if my board has the option in the bios, probably not though.
^ these boards have external clock gens
Intel users don't have that problem because there is no such thing as an "old S1700 motherboard" :D
You do need to ignore most guides and advice to pair a cheap, old B450 board with a CPU that could be classed as high-end given that the cheapest 5000-series offering is still about $270 - and yet it does and will continue to happen.
Just like intels 10th 11th and 12th gen...
It's not like thousands of vendors list the CPU's by socket or anything, where you can go search for a socket 1200 CPU and motherboard and get a jumbled mess of a build that physically fits, but has zero chance of ever working
Yet the problem is on the AMD side, where you can at least get the BIOS flashed and fix the issue? (AMD used to mail out CPU's to people to flash with, but these days its easier to get a store to do it... ones near me offer it free with the mobo purchase)
You've made me go so far off topic i had to even drag out an old meme for this one, and i ran out of text space and had to make two memes