Overclocking

For Overclocking, I have kept the same procedures that I used for Intel's 10th generation. I have left the "Gear" setting on auto for memory overclocking. Every board tested so far has used "Gear 2" when pushing past the 3600 MHz XMP speed for my Trident Z Neo kit.


The MSI MPG Z590 Carbon EK X proved to have good headroom for overclocking. I was able to achieve 5.2 GHz at 1.38 V core voltage on both my i9-10900K and i9-11900K samples. Overclocking is largely limited by temperature as the Intel Core i9 processors will overpower any ambient cooling solution. Depending on settings, the system will either crash or severely drop frequency.


For memory overclocking, the MSI MPG Z590 Carbon EK X did well, reaching 4000 MHz for both my 10th and 11th Gen samples at XMP timings and voltages on my Trident Z Neo kit.