Intel and AMD offer different levels of headroom for mid-range processors.
Intel and AMD offer different levels of headroom for mid-range processors.
You're looking at typical overclocking outcomes for those processors. It looks like you can hit around 5.5 GHz on a single core for the 12600K/F, especially with all cores running at 5.2 GHz. For AMD, the chiplet architecture means you usually need premium models to reach those speeds—generally the 5600X or 5700X are better suited, while the 5900X or 5950X fit the bill. The 5600X/5700X won't quite deliver the necessary performance unless you upgrade to higher-end chips. It seems the claims in most articles don’t account for OC potential and chip limitations. Your setup with a powerful case and ample cooling should help push those temps, especially with your gaming workloads.
Usually they only reach about 200MHz when you overclock both, so adding another 2% each doesn’t really help much. It doesn’t add up to meaningful gains since the performance barely stays within acceptable limits. Just aim for a 12600K processor—it’s the overall speediest. Overclocking outside the XOC area is mostly pointless.
The situation shows high CPU load with limited utilization, yet the GPU remains under strain. Even without mods, performance drops significantly. The 12600K can reach up to 5GHz, but achieving only 5GHz single-core or multi-core speeds isn’t uncommon in older AAA titles. IPC gains from higher clocks may be minimal compared to the existing six cores at 5GHz.
Have you noticed the IPC rise compared to Skylake cores (from 6th to 10th generation, essentially just more cores and higher frequency)? That jump is around 20%, which should make a big difference.
9600k offers six cores with six threads, placing it near the lower end for gaming right now. Although HT values are frequently exaggerated, they still hold some value. Nearly any new CPU can provide an extra boost beyond just IPC improvements. I’m not sure which game or mods will really change this. Will it perform better on eight cores? If it does, you’ll likely get higher performance than figuring out the fastest six-core setup.
all reports indicate the vanilla game runs on 4 cores only; however, that was for vanilla. I suspect it will assist with BG tasks. For the E cores on the 12600KF it might suffice, but I should explore more about the 5700X since the price jump from 12600KF to 12700KF is significant.
I focused more on 5800X3D when talking about eight cores. Probably a price increase compared to what's usually considered. In the end, I'm not sure how the modded version will perform. 12,600 remains intriguing, and 5700X is clearly better than 5600X for performance gains.
Sure, it seems like the main challenge is getting free performance for the price. The X3D model is clearly not meant to be overclocked and is priced to match the market. That doesn’t align with what I need, especially given Intel’s situation—5.5 GHz on a single core or 5.2 GHz all-core chips are available (even in the lottery winners list) on the 12600K/F. I’m not sure how much of an effect X3D has on the games I play, since they’re all quite niche. Still, I’d like some data similar to the one on siliconlottery.com, so I can estimate if a 12600K would reliably hit 5.5/5.2 with a 90% chance or something closer to a 1% miss. Also, the 9900KS example shows that hitting 5 GHz is fairly common, and the 9700K chart suggests most should reach 5 GHz—maybe that’s what you’re after.
I share the previous commenter's view that OC is now less important. The percentage improvements are minimal compared to the effort and risk involved. Because different tasks affect CPUs differently, meaningful gains from OC often come at the expense of stability elsewhere. For Intel or AMD, the safest approach is to push the CPU to its maximum power setting without worrying about stability, which then shifts the focus back to CPU selection. Your aim should be top game performance, not just the highest clock speed. If we assume these upgrades prevent the CPU from being fully utilized and let GPU become the bottleneck, the choice of CPU becomes less critical.