The thing is, overclocking the 12900K to 4.9GHz is basically pointless. The cores will exceed those clocks on their own. Intel and AMD CPU's do not sit at their base frequencies when loaded. They tend to sit somewhere between their base frequency and their maximum turbo clocks. Usually a couple hundred MHz off their highest maximum turbo value. It's honestly better to leave it on automatic as the cores can boost to 5.10GHz or even 5.3GHz depending on the circumstances. E-Cores only run at 3.9GHz and they can be taken slightly further, but not by a lot. I've seen AIO based all core overclocks of around 5.0GHz and even 5.1GHz.Wow! Thanks for the great explanations………
I’ve seen the displays on the $700+ motherboards, and thought the idea of showing the actual errors was great. Problem is I wouldn’t come close to exploiting a motherboard that expensive. If I thought I needed an $800 motherboard I’d buy it, but while I chew up a lot of memory and have periods when the system is 100% busy, it’s not constant for hours. Nor do I plan to overclock the system to the maximum extent it’s capable of.
I’ll not be concerned about the lack of a debugging display and presume if there’s a problem it’ll be easy to figure out what’s wrong from the 4 lights.
I’m likely one of the people that misunderstands what’s involved in overclocking, so thanks for the detailed explanation… So, a real-world question – and I’ll understand if the answer is “not likely without a $700 motherboard”… From looking at tests others have done (taken with a grain of salt), the 12900 can “easily” be overclocked to 4.9 GHz on air cooling. Presuming I get an average 12900 CPU, is it reasonable to expect to do that with a mid-range (those 60-70A boards) DDR4 motherboard like a $270 AORUS Elite, $300 MSI MAG Tomahawk or $350 ASUS Strix-A gaming? Or is even that likely to require a $600 -800 motherboard?
Again, thanks for the info on memory. I knew 3600 was the “sweet” spot on DDR4, and presumed when the memory gets built, they test it and most get thrown in the 3600 bin, the bad stuff gets thrown in the 3200 bin, the 10% of better stuff gets thrown in the 4000 bin, and the top few percent gets into 4400 bin. And things get priced accordingly.
I’ve looked at Ebay occasionally for memory, but the whole place seems so seedy these days that it doesn’t inspire confidence. It’s like buying a TV that “fell off a truck” from a buy in an alley. That’s OK for a $20 something, but I’m not sure I want to buy $1000 worth of memory that way.
Since you were aware of the December supply hit, do you have any feel for when supply is likely to open up to a reasonable level? Are we looking at January or June? Or even the end of 2022 or longer?
This is achievable on most motherboards, regardless of price point. It isn't that you need more expensive motherboards to do that, it's that they make it easier to achieve those clocks and their finer tuning capabilities can get the most out of a CPU. Usually, we are talking about 100MHz (sometimes more) difference between cheaper boards and expensive ones if there is anything at all. The higher end motherboards can theoretically handle being clocked and run harder for longer periods of time than their lesser counterparts but this really depends on a lot of other factors, so even that's hard to prove. Again, overclocking isn't really the thing that separates these boards. It's the ease of overclocking and the general end user experience.
Primarily, it's features. You might get stuck with a Realtek 1.0GbE LAN controller and an older audio CODEC with a cheap board. Compare that to your ultra high end boards, and the difference is startling. The Maximus Z690 Extreme comes with a 2.5GbE Intel LAN and a 10GbE Aquantia LAN controller, plus WiFi and a much better audio solution, etc. You get 3x M.2 slots on a Biostar Z690 DDR4 board compared to 5x M.2 slots on the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme. Again it's features, quality, and the user experience that you pay for. That doesn't mean that you can't get the job done for a lot less.