Overclocking

For those familiar with Intel overclocking, overclocking the 12th generation Intel processor comes with a light learning curve owing to new voltages and the new E-Cores. I am certainly not an expert on the subject, but did some minor overclocking, as I did not want to burn out the only CPU due to excess voltage before it even officially released. As such, please do not take my applied settings as a standard, or copy my voltages—I do not know what is safe for long-term use yet.

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero has practically every setting related to the CPU you could hope for. In fact, it was a bit overwhelming at first, and the provided overclocking material pre-launch was sparse, more of a series of hints than anything useful. Nevertheless, I systematically went through the settings and adjusted what I thought was appropriate in the limited time I had.

Important CPU-related items are that the E-Cores come in clusters of four and share the same voltage. As far as I can tell, these cannot have their own separate voltage applied directly. The only immediate solution I had was to use an offset voltage to counteract what was applied to the CPU P-Cores. I found no reason for pumping voltage into cores clusters that do not need it. If you do not disable the E-Cores, a very important rule must be followed to avoid failed boots and restarts: The Ring Ratio (Cache) must be with 2x of the E-Cores. For example, if the E-Cores are at 4 GHz, the lowest you should go is 3.8 GHz on the Ring Cache. While I was able to drop it down to 4x, that seemed hit or miss per boot. If you are able to disable the E-Cores, the Ring Cache is only limited by itself.

At first, I left the E-Cores and Ring Cache alone and set out to push the P-Cores up until I was uncomfortable with the applied voltage. While Turbo Boost should allow up to 5 GHz, I only observed 4.7 GHz during stress testing. My soft limit is 5.1 GHz with 1.4 V (after the Vdroop). A bump to 5.2 GHz required 1.5 V, and I was not comfortable using that much voltage (yet).

Next was to play around with the E-Cores. This was quick as 1.45 V only yielded 4.1 GHz with the Ring Cache right behind at 4 GHz. I knew core temperature was not a problem as AIDA64 stress test only put the cores into the mid 70s. Prime95 was not used because it did not load all the cores and left a few E and P-Cores at 0% even at the stock configuration.

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero also has an AI Overclocking feature that precisely matched my manual overclock, including the voltages. Usually, the auto overclocking feature is way off target, and I generally just suggest avoiding it altogether. Clearly, ASUS has made an effort to better predict what is needed instead of just jamming a bunch of voltage in for no good reason.

Memory Overclock

With only a limited time to play around with memory, I was pleased to find that I was able to achieve DDR5-6400 with my Teamgroup DDR5-6000 memory. I didn't have to adjust any timings or voltage from the set XMP, which begs the question whether this kit is cherry picked for sampling or just that good. In either case, this isn't a review about the memory and wasn't provided to be reviewed either, just to be usef with the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero.

Switching to one DIMM, I could not boot above DDR5-6400 even with loser timings and more voltage. With DDR5, there are five different voltages to contend with. Three are directly for the memory modules and integrated into the DIMMs. Now, for DDR5, the motherboard provides 5 V to the PMIC. From there, it is broken out into VPP, VDD, and VDDQ, which can be set independently. For the CPU side, it is the same as on previous Intel generations with VCCSA for System Agent and VCCIO(2) for the memory controller. ASUS has renamed VCCIO(2) the Memory Controller Voltage in the BIOS, which makes it much easier to identify.

Because DDR5 is new to everyone, it will take a bit of time to narrow down which voltage rarely changes across all the kits and those completely dependent on the configuration and operating frequency. The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero states that DDR5-6400+ is possible, but nothing on the QVL list reaches past DDR5-6400 as of this publication.