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 and used the spare i7-12700K, as I did not want to burn out my main CPU due to excess voltage. In fact, this CPU died shortly after running these tests, perhaps owing to it being an engineering sample used for an unknown number of hours beforehand. It could be that high temperatures for long periods at a time and abnormal voltages played a roll in its demise. Now that Alder Lake CPUs have been out long enough, the overclocking community suggests keeping it at or below 1.35 V for long-term use. However, please do not take my applied settings as a standard or copy my voltages, and ask on the TPU forums if you have questions related to voltages and general safety tips.

Quite frankly, the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X has everything required to maximize CPU efficiency. You have two ways to overclock these days, and it just depends on personal preference. Either one performs an all-core overclock or chooses two of the best cores and aims for the highest overclock on those alone. In the end, I settled for the highest all-core P and E-core overclock. You of course can set a single core to be higher with an offset, and this motherboard certainly can do it if you have the patience.

An important CPU-related item you must follow to avoid failed boots and restarts without disabled E-cores is that the Ring Ratio (Cache) must be coupled with 2x the E-cores. For example, if the E-cores are at 4 GHz, the lowest you should go on the Ring Cache is 3.8 GHz. While I was able to drop it 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 for up to 5 GHz, I only observed 4.7 GHz during stress testing. If you can keep the temperature in check, 5.2 GHz is possible with 1.35 V. I've seen reports of upwards of 5.5 GHz with golden samples. These will produce a whopping 400 watts when stressed in Prime95. Next was to play around with the E-cores. This was quick as 1.35 V only yielded 3.8 GHz with the Ring Cache to match.

Overall, I consider what I achieved basic. Not because of the motherboard's limits, but heat-related constraints and my i7-12700K sample not being a good overclocker, requiring 1.45 V for an extra 100 MHz. The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X has all the settings needed for a decent overclock, and with a monoblock, VRM temperatures are kept in check even under an abusive stress test.

Memory Overclock

When it comes to memory, since this is the Z690 Carbon WiFi, I figured this would be as straightforward as last time. However, since the last review, MSI released a BIOS update, and DDR5-6400 now boots with no stability issues. In fact, the BIOS now has full support for the CPU IMC. Officially, the motherboard QVL list only goes up to DDR5-6666 (OC), and while I had my doubts before, it seems MSI is actively working on bettering memory support, as evidenced by my test DDR5-6400 memory kit working just fine this time around.

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 into VPP, VDD, and VDDQ, which can be set independently. Alder Lake has three sources to draw from that are directly related to memory stability. These are System Agent (SA), vDD2, and TX VDDQ. MSI currently has TX VDDQ voltage listed CPU VDDQ, but it does in fact change the TX voltage.