Overclock the Core i5-12400 to 5.2GHz by increasing the base frequency, its performance increases by 32%

As happened a few years ago with the Intel Core 6th. Generation, the new 12th Intel Core. Generation can be overclocked by increasing the motherboard’s base frequency, which allows the processor’s frequency to increase even if its multiplier is locked. This was demonstrated by der8auer with the Core i5-12400, which he overclocked to 5.2GHz, significantly increasing its performance.

How base frequency overclocking works:

Commonly, motherboards work with a base frequency of 100MHz, which is then multiplied to achieve the different clocks of CPU, memory, PCI, SATA ports, USB and others. In the case of the i5-12400 for example, a x40 multiplier is used in multi-core loads, achieving a frequency of 4000MHz by multiplying 40 times the 100MHz that is taken as a base. Normally what is done to overclock the CPU is to modify the CPU multiplier, although since it is locked in Intel “No-K” CPUs, the way to overclock them is by increasing the base frequency.

As we can see, in this case der8auer increased the base clock to 130.98MHz, which allows to reach a frequency of 5239MHz by applying the x40 multiplier that the i5-12400 has in multi-core loads. This allowed to raise the result in Cinebench R20 from 4686 points to 6186 points, an incredible increase of 32%. Der8auer also showed off the winnings from playing the game, which you can see in the video below:

Unfortunately only some motherboards support this method

As we explained previously, the base clock affects all the components of the motherboard, including not only RAM and CPU, but also connections such as PCI, SATA, USB, etc. In this way, if we raise the base frequency we will also be affecting these connections, which is clearly something we do not want since it can cause instability problems, and that is why most motherboards do not allow raising the base frequency above the 103MHz.

The technique used by motherboard manufacturers to raise the base frequency to high levels such as the 130MHz used by der8auer without affecting the rest of the components is to place an additional clock generator that affects only the CPU and memories, leaving a fixed clock 100MHz for USB, PCI, SATA and so on, ensuring its stability. The problem is that few motherboards have an additional clock generator, and they are usually high-end motherboards, so it ends up being more profitable to buy an i5-12600K with a mid-high-end motherboard than a i5-12400F with a high-end motherboard.

At the moment, it is not clear which LGA 1700 motherboards support this overclocking technique. Der8auer used the Asus MAXIMUS Z690 APEX, and confirmed that the MAXIMUS Z690 HERO also supports this technique, even though they are $500+ motherboards. The Asus ROG STRIX Z690-I is not supported, so it looks like only top-of-the-line motherboards support this feature. On the MSI side, it was confirmed that the Z690I UNIFY is compatible, so possibly the Z690 UNIFY will be as well, although it is not clear if more models support it or not. Finally, on the Asrock and Gigabyte side, there is still no news about whether there are models that support this feature or not, although we will be reporting it in the future.

Don’t lose hope, maybe it’s possible to perform this technique on B660

In a second video posted by Der8auer, the overclocker commented that he believes two B660 motherboards are compatible with this technology and that he purchased one of each for testing. If so, we could afford to overclock by overclocking the Core i3-12100F or Core i5-12400F on a B660 motherboard and getting great performance at an affordable cost. We will have to wait for Der8auer to carry out the tests and confirm if this is possible or not, although for now it seems that all is not lost.

What do you think about this possibility to overclock the Alder Lake “No-K” like the i5-12400 by increasing the base clock? Do you think it can be done in B660?