Overclocker takes Intel Core i9-12900KS CPU to 7.45 GHz on liquid nitrogen

midian182

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What just happened? Intel's new Alder Lake flagship, the Core i9-12900KS, arrived this week, but we've already seen overclockers squeezing every drop of performance from the CPU and breaking several records in the process.

The Core i9-12900KS utilizes the best 12900K silicon to produce a binned Special Edition of the latter chip that clocks slightly higher: 5.5 GHz turbo and 3.4 GHz base frequencies, compared to the original's 5.2 GHz turbo and 3.2 GHz base.

We weren't overly impressed with the small performance uplift offered by the Core i9-12900KS over the K version when you consider how much it costs—around $800—though we did note that price is likely worth it for extreme overclockers.

Tom's Hardware reports that the i9-12900KS already has a dedicated page on overclocking hub HWbot. The most eye-opening stat is TSAIK getting the chip to hit 7,450.62 MHz using one physical core and liquid nitrogen cooling (LN2), though it doesn't quite take the world record of 7.6 GHz achieved on a standard 12900K.

TSAIK is part of MSI's overclocking team; they used an MSI MEG Unify-X motherboard for the overclock. The company celebrated the feat by posting an image of this achievement along with the CPU and MOBO that were used.

Allen 'Splave' Golibersuch did manage to take some of the world records (WR) and global first places (GFP) with the 12900KS, including the Cinebench 2003 16 physical core score, the Cinebench - R23 single core score, and the Geekbench 4 Multi Core (16C).

While the 12900KS hasn't stolen the overclocking world record quite yet, it's worth remembering that the CPU has only just launched, so don't be surprised if it adds that accolade to its list of achievements very soon.

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And this is what people don't understand about the KS series. You pay the higher price to get a highly binned chip that will OC very well.

5.4-5.6 GHz all-core for 24/7 use is possible with good cooling. Especially good for gaming, since watt usage won't be that high but performance will. My 9900K locked at 5.2 GHz uses like 100-125 watts in gaming. Easily performs on par with current top tier gaming chips. I am using 4000/CL15 memory.

KS series is what made Silicon Lottery go out of business... and these chips are still cheaper than SL sold them for anyway..
 
And this is what people don't understand about the KS series. You pay the higher price to get a highly binned chip that will OC very well.

5.4-5.6 GHz all-core for 24/7 use is possible with good cooling. Especially good for gaming, since watt usage won't be that high but performance will. My 9900K locked at 5.2 GHz uses like 100-125 watts in gaming. Easily performs on par with current top tier gaming chips. I am using 4000/CL15 memory.

KS series is what made Silicon Lottery go out of business... and these chips are still cheaper than SL sold them for anyway..
And we should be enthusiastic about this, why exactly?
If you want to up the gaming quality, you game at 1440p or 4K and at those resolutions a 199$ usd 5600 is sufficient

Sure you can go ahead and spent 1000$ more for cpu-mobo-cooling for "extra" performance that you will not notice

For productivity, you always go for efficiency. These high clock - high power parts defeat the purpose of alder's lake hybrid design.
 
And we should be enthusiastic about this, why exactly?
If you want to up the gaming quality, you game at 1440p or 4K and at those resolutions a 199$ usd 5600 is sufficient

Sure you can go ahead and spent 1000$ more for cpu-mobo-cooling for "extra" performance that you will not notice

For productivity, you always go for efficiency. These high clock - high power parts defeat the purpose of alder's lake hybrid design.

People using 144-360 Hz monitors will notice...

Overclockers will notice...

You can easily be CPU bound at 1440p, very easily. I run 1440p/240Hz and is CPU bound in many games.

You can even be CPU bound at 4K/UHD. 4K/144Hz exist, 4K/240Hz is coming soon.

You probably don't care because you don't care about high-end hardware and don't have any need for it

If you can get your stuff done faster with 12900KS, which you can since 12900K already beat 5950X in most productivity tasks, then why is it pointless. Time is money, no-one professional cares about 75-100 watts more or less.
 
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I would probably go threadripper over this if was to build such an overpowered pc but my 3600x is doing just fine at 1440/165.

Still nice to see records broken.
 
Tom's Hardware reports that the i9-12900KS already has a dedicated page on overclocking hub HWbot. The most eye-opening stat is TSAIK getting the chip to hit 7,450.62 MHz using one physical core and liquid nitrogen cooling (LN2), though it doesn't quite take the world record of 7.6 GHz achieved on a standard 12900K.
OK, they're only using one core, right? People tend to forget what's already been accomplished with other, much older, CPUs.
"The legendary Cedar Mill (Celeron D-347) hits 8.37 GHz 14 years after its release.".

By comparison, this Alder Lake part, is "jus' FLOPing over".
 
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