Looking for guidance on choosing a MOBO?
Looking for guidance on choosing a MOBO?
It functions on any motherboard, but it makes sense to use only a Z690 board with a 12700KF. If you plan to overclock, a Z690 is essential; otherwise, if you're not aiming for that, consider skipping the overclock and opting for a 12700F instead. It operates within acceptable limits compared to its K counterpart when both are run at stock settings. The ideal board choice depends on your intended use for the system. The Z690-A Pro and its versions are generally a solid value, making up to 80% of users choose them, though there are additional factors to consider before deciding.
It varies by game, but performance is generally strong in most modern AAA titles for several years ahead. The GPU might start limiting speed before the CPU becomes the issue in most demanding titles.
The two chips perform quite similarly, probably just a few hundred to a couple of thousand MHz difference. It’s not really noticeable. The "OC profiles" tend to be problematic—they supply more voltage than necessary for the target frequency, and with Alder Lake they don’t actually offer significant speed gains over the standard version. You’re also more prone to thermal throttling. Sure, it’s a solid chip for that purpose.
There's a couple things you should know about 12th Gen that people are not mentioning in here. Firstly, the Boost algorithm is for real CRAP. The durations are short as hell, requires some bull shit tweaking that's totally stupid like lengthen the time and increase wattage limits..... OK ok. Just disable C-States and lock the cpu P core multi at 4.6ghz and you can leave the cpu voltage on auto. It'll be straight up stable. Secondly, the E cores are literally a waste of Die space. Save some thermals by disabling these. People show off some impressive 4.2ghz on undercut transistor count and they do nothing for your gaming = not used. Turn em on and OC for the Cinebench Runs is about all the usefulness anyone would ever need. I can go into a lot more details, but trying to keep this not so long winded. The Cpu will really start flexing muscles at 6400mhz DDR5 memory speeds. And I mean pretty big flex. Better than running B-Die at it's best looking at 100K reads and Writes (according to the inaccurate AIDA64 cache and memory benchmark) and this really gives the CPU some good performance increases. When choosing a board, Try to choose one with only 2 memory slots. A lot of motherboards (most all 4 dimm slot boards) aren't in favor of going over 6000mhz 5Dram frequency. This is seemingly a hardware flaw, because I myself have yet to find a Bios for my board to get over 6000mhz. Doesn't matter what memory you use, some people have gotten lucky though. I'm still in the process to point out certain boards, but it takes time and a lot of reading. SO I have no conclusions, because when I see it once, I need to see it twice for confirmation. So far, I haven't gotten there cause everyone is scared of DDR5.... Prices? Lastly, It might be better to just wait it out for 13th Gen. New boards, hopefully without wiring issues.... I suspect and have been reading these chips on ddr5 boards will have a 20% uptick in performance over using ddr4 with the same chip. Which is a great reason to go with DDR5 if you're buying 12th Gen now, which I should have waited, but got an itch. TLDR? Research more before you buy.
Thank you for the response! It's a lot to process. My understanding about maximizing the 12th Gen is limited. Still, I'll do more research before making a purchase.
I chose a 12400F / ROG B660-G / Patriot C36 series 5200mhz setup. Daily performance is around 4.6ghz stock cooler, very near the thermal limit with Ycruncher though. lol (the v-core was a bit too high from the LLC, it ran faster before). A basic cooler upgrade is all I needed; these chips easily hit 5ghz daily. More cores mean more heat. I didn’t feel justified in adding all that extra hardware this time. Mostly just “eh” cores. I won’t buy them myself... Also, I picked up a Samsung 980 1Tb M.2 drive – it’s incredibly fast. Definitely worth having, especially for the C: drive. I also have a B660-I board; it handles clock memory well, with the current hardware plus the memory kit, it’s stable up to 6400mhz. I’ve experimented with tuning, used memory training, but it didn’t stick. The two-slot board seems to perform best. A B660-I with a 12600K all-core 5ghz E-cores would make a solid gaming rig. You’ll need good RAM, but it’s manageable. It depends on your budget. For a 12400F, you should go with ROG B660-G or B660-F – the G model is a bit easier to find. Yes, this setup runs much faster than most AMD CPUs. 12 threads – that’s fine. 169$ for this combo? Not bad, I guess. I could go with a lower frequency RAM if needed. But for a 12400F, you’ll need either a ROG B660-G or B660-F. The G version is a bit more common. And yes, this single-core performance is significantly better than most other processors.