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If ram oc is important, avoid locked alder lakes

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Intel released this last month. Previously you could always change SA voltage on gen 6-11 on locked sku's. For gen 6-10 this meant up to 4600+ ram and on Rocket lake 3733-3866 in gear 1. On alder lake most people will end up at 3400-3600 in gear 1 since SA volt is locked at 0.89-0.98v. With very good cooling and lucky IMC 3700-3800 may be doable, with trash IMC 3200 may not even work. You can use gear 2, but this is much slower. In real life many have problems enabling 3600 xmp on their kits, new bioses applies G2 as standard so this solves the issue (and raises another one with shait performance).

A few examples:
Sample 1: My 12400F locked at 0.95v can do 3600 G1 with better cooler
Sample 2: 12400F and 0.89v can't run 3200 G1.
Sample 3: 12100F stock cooler 3600G1, 3800G1 with AIO.
Sample 4: 12400F stock cooler 3500 max, 3600 with AIO.
Sample 5: 12700 cheap tower cooler 3400 max.


Summary
Explains that System Agent (SA) voltage is locked on non-K SKU Processors for a good starter experience of memory overclocking, not a replacement for the Pro/Best features of a K-SKU/Z-series combination.

Environment​


Description
Unable to adjust SA voltage on non-K 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors.
Resolution
Intel expanded the capabilities of our platforms by allowing some memory overclocking features for non-K processors on non-Z-series motherboards. This was not a complete duplication of the feature set of a K-SKU processor on a Z-series motherboard. It is intended to be a good experience, not a replacement for the Pro/Best features a K-SKU/Z-series combination.
The table below shows the expectation:
Non-K SKU Processor with Select PCH SKUsK SKU Processor
VccDDQ Voltage ControlYesYes
PMIC Voltages1YesYes
SA Voltage ControlNoYes
Memory OC ExpectationStarter/GoodPro/Best

This is really disappointing, for instance with unlocked SA voltahe a 12400F could habe beated Ryzen 5600X with OC (ram at 4000-4300 in G1), but with max of 3400-3600 the 5600X running 3800+ and pbo+co on ram is 5-10% faster in games.

Running 3200xmp stock 5600X is 3.5% fast avg but 5% slower avg.


With tuned ram 5600X is 7% fadter avg and equal on lows.

Link to test: I2hard youtube

If 12400F had unlocked SA volt like all gen 6 to 11 and could do 4000-4300 it would atleast have matched 5600X, maybe beaten it. Intel really dissapointed me with this. For the record I have both 12400F and 5600X.
 
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Same with my 12400f.
no post with two 3600 XMP dimms.
 
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Benchmark Scores CB20 4710@4.7GHz Aida64 50.4ns 4.8GHz+4000cl15 tuned ram SOTTR 1080p low 263fps avg CPU game
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"...with trash IMC 3200 may not even work."
-This is really bad.
 
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Is SA an issue when running 12th gen K on B660?
 
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Benchmark Scores CB20 4710@4.7GHz Aida64 50.4ns 4.8GHz+4000cl15 tuned ram SOTTR 1080p low 263fps avg CPU game
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So someone with a cooler in the class of a Hyper212/Gammax400 get 3000MHz DDR4 ram with their non K 12th gen CPUs (for G1 and compatibility)?
 
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i get bad intel for artificially segmenting the market.

but

what games, resolutions? what where the optimized setting of ram? and most of all, since not every mobo vendor adheres to intel specs (hello asus), what motherboard?
(i also think those things will get this/you noticed more)

tia. :)
 
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Benchmark Scores CB20 4710@4.7GHz Aida64 50.4ns 4.8GHz+4000cl15 tuned ram SOTTR 1080p low 263fps avg CPU game
i get bad intel for artificially segmenting the market.

but

what games, resolutions? what where the optimized setting of ram? and most of all, since not every mobo vendor adheres to intel specs (hello asus), what motherboard?
(i also think those things will get this/you noticed more)

tia. :)
 
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CzarZamora

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A friend of mine it's tempted to buy a 12700f instead of the 12600k, given this situation with memory OC on non K CPUs, I will advice him to go with the 12600k instead
 
Joined
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Benchmark Scores CB20 4710@4.7GHz Aida64 50.4ns 4.8GHz+4000cl15 tuned ram SOTTR 1080p low 263fps avg CPU game
3200 kit probably, 3600 maybe.

A friend of mine it's tempted to buy a 12700f instead of the 12600k, given this situation with memory OC on non K CPUs, I will advice him to go with the 12600k instead
A wise choice.
 
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thanks much, seeing the ATC and aida helped much. (along with translate captions).
i would have never thought XMP timings change like that. wow.
 
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