Core i5 12600K processor review - Overclocking

Overclocking

Intel's Core i5-12600K will be one of three unlocked CPUs available initially on the Z690 platform. The Core i9-12600K will perhaps be the most interesting in the lineup to tweak. We achieved overclocked result of the processor at 5.2~5.3 GHz across all performance cores. That is however roughly the maximum you'll get on liquid cooling (LCS will suffice). Core i9-12900K has 16 cores and 24 threads. 8 P-Core (16 threads) and 8 E-Core (with 8 threads). The Intel Core i9-12900K has base and boost clocks of 3.2 GHz/5.3 GHz for P-Core and 3.0 / 3.9 GHz for E-Core. These are single-core boost clocks. The P-Core on an average will to boost to ~5.0 GHz and the E-Core to ~3.7 GHz. All performance cores were overclocked to 5.2 GHz, we leave the E cores at defaults settings. We could boot at 5.3 GHz but this required further refining in the OC/tweak to become 100% stable. 

Our Intel Core i5-12600K CPU used 350W in the stress tests at 5.1~5.2 GHz. Pushing the little cores may result in higher power consumption, though not as dramatic as the P-Cores. We estimate well over double the chip's PL1 TDP of 125W. Overclocking it will necessitate substantial amounts of cooling. We did not want to push any higher due to energy consumption and thus inevitably heat. In a multi-threaded scenario you this gain roughly 5% performance.