Hi everyone, I’m new to this platform. I don’t usually comment or post much, but today I’d like to share—as cordially as possible—something I achieved with my Core i5-12600KF. On July 12, 2026, I overclocked it; I wanted to get the most out of my processor. I managed a stable overclock on the efficiency cores at 4.1 GHz and ran performance tests in PassMark, achieving a score of 29,373. However, I wanted to go further and overclock the high-performance cores to 5.1 GHz; unfortunately, I kept getting errors and the system would stop responding. I’m not exactly an overclocking expert (though I should make a quick clarification here: before boosting the efficiency cores to 4.1 GHz, I had to ensure the CPU was as stable as possible at 1.220 V with a 170 W power limit; once I achieved good stability, I started the overclock). I had to increase the voltage to 1.260 V and the power limit to 190 W to push the efficiency cores to 4.1 GHz. I succeeded, but ultimately reverted everything out of disappointment—since it didn't meet my expectations—returning to 1.220 V and the 170 W limit. I ran the tests again just to check stability and was surprised to get a very high score; I thought it was an error, but there it was: 29,424 (you might see a different score in the images, but that’s because I ran the test several times; I just couldn't quite believe it). I was amazed that this score was higher than the one I had achieved with the overclock—something I previously considered the only way to reach such figures. I was truly surprised this time. Additionally, I show in MSI Afterburner that CPU frequencies held at factory levels—4.888 or 4.9 GHz—and the efficiency cores stayed at 3.7 GHz. Peak power consumption was 177 W, and the maximum temperature reached 69°C (152°F)—very low temperatures. In fact, the images show a score of 29,208, but that is because I ran several tests and obtained those results; I have a real-time video showing my entire setup without cuts leading up to the benchmark, but I cannot upload it to this platform. I will upload it to YouTube and share the link if asked.
Core i5-12600KF
RTX 4060
48 GB RAM
2 TB
MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4
MSI 360mm AIO