Intel's 12th generation Core has been selling for a while, and from the feedback from players, everyone is very recognized for the strong performance of the 12th generation Core. And due to the use of the new Intel 7 process, the first six 12th generation Core K series products have shown a good overclocking ability, making it further cost-effective. However, for enthusiasts who pursue the limit, to fully tap the overclocking potential of top flagships like the Core i9 12900K, of course, a flagship Z690 motherboard is needed. Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER, as the luxury flagship of the Eagle Family Z690, is naturally one of the best choices. What kind of black technology does the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER have in terms of overclocking? You may wish to take a look at it with us.
Luxury stacking king Z690 big show overclocking hard power
In order to tap the overclocking ability of the 12th generation Core flagship, the motherboard power supply must be strong, so the super eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER is equipped with 19+1+2 phase direct out digital power supply, and uses a 105A MOSFET chip, which is a luxurious configuration
We know that once a top flagship like the Core i9 12900K unlocks the power wall limit, the power supply requirements will increase dramatically after overclocking, so the power supply capacity of the motherboard is a serious challenge. The super sculpture Z690 AORUS MASTER has carried out luxury stacking in terms of power supply, which adopts a combination of 19 phase CPU power supply + 1 phase core display power supply + 2 phase PCIe/Memory controller power supply, and is equipped with a MOSFET of the highest 105A standard, which has been significantly improved compared with the standard of the previous generation of flagship 90A. In addition, the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER also adopts a direct-out power supply scheme, equipped with high-quality tantalum polymer capacitors, which are more efficient than traditional power supply designs, lower output ripple and operating temperature, more reliable power supply stability performance under overclocking and heavy load, and better dynamic response performance, providing a stable power output for the 12th generation Core overclocking.
The memory slot uses the SMD chip process and is equipped with an alloy armor shield to reduce signal interference and make it easier for memory to be overclocked to a higher level
A big upgrade of the Z690 motherboard is to support DDR5 memory, and a major feature of DDR5 memory is that it is much higher in terms of operating frequency than DDR4, so it requires the motherboard to have better electrical performance to ensure its stable operation. In addition to adding an alloy shielding cover, the DDR5 memory slot of the super eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER also adopts the SMD patch process, which can greatly improve the ability to resist electrical interference and fully ensure the stability of high-frequency DDR5 memory running at high speed after removing the pins connected to the PCB.
In addition, the new generation of DDR5 memory adopts the design of its own PMIC power supply chip, and the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER unlocks the security mode of the DDR5 PMIC power supply chip into a programmable mode, thereby achieving a wider range of native adjustment of the DDR5 voltage, which means that the DDR5 overclocking ability of the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS Master becomes more powerful, with the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS Master presets a variety of DDR5 memory XMP solutions in the BIOS, so enthusiast players can easily squeeze the ultimate potential of DDR5 memory in their hands.
Equipped with the third generation of stacked heat dissipation fins and the second generation of direct contact heat pipes, the power supply circuit operates at a lower temperature after overclocking
In order to cope with the increase in heat generated by the high load operation of the power supply circuit after overclocking, the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER has also been upgraded in terms of thermal design. Its VRM armor is equipped with third-generation stacked heat dissipation fins and a thicker second-generation 8mm direct-touch heat pipe, and is sprayed with a nano-carbon coating on the surface of the armor, resulting in an additional 10% cooling effect. In the active cooling part, the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER has 10 hybrid fan sockets and 9 temperature sensors on board, and the player can create a flagship-level cooling system when installed, looking for the perfect balance between heat dissipation performance and noise control.
In addition, the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER also uses an 8-layer 2-ounce copper circuit board, which is more excellent in terms of interference carrying ability and heat dissipation ability than the 6-layer board of the ordinary Z690 motherboard, which is also very helpful for overclocking. Then let's get into the actual overclocking link!
The soft and hard design is in place, and the Super Eagle Z690 is easy enough to overclock
Test platform
Processor: Intel Core i9 12900K
Motherboard: Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER
Memory: AORUS DDR5 6200 16GB×2
Graphics: Magic Eagle RTX 3090 GAMING OC 24G
Hard disk: Golden Eagle Gen4 1TB
Power supply: Battle Saint II. 1000W
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro
The default voltage can easily exceed 5.2 GHz for full cores and up to 5.5 GHz for a single core
From the previous evaluation results, we found that the E-core overclocking benefits of the Core i9 12900K are far less than the P core, which is of little significance for improving the player experience, so this overclocking test is still based on the ultra-P core. We first pulled the 8 P-core turbo frequency to 5.2 GHz directly without moving the voltage on the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER, which perfectly passed the test machine test; then when we tried a higher frequency, we found that the integrated water cooling could not hold the Core i9 12900K in the "violent" state, so we decided not to add voltage, but the default voltage alone challenged the single core frequency limit. After a simple attempt, the single-core frequency eventually stabilized at the 5.5 GHz level, and the CPU-Z single-core score was as high as 878, which was a further improvement from the default maximum turbo frequency of 5.2 GHz of about 820. All in all, the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER has very good electrical performance and power supply stability performance during overclocking, easily supports 5.5 GHz high frequency, and can easily hold the processor power supply requirements of up to 300W after overclocking.
The power consumption of the full-core 5GHz test machine is about 285 W, and the VRM MOS temperature is up to 60 °C half an hour after the test machine
The camera monitoring screen can see that the maximum temperature of the VRM area is only 64 °C, and the maximum temperature of the heat sink is 54.6 °C
To cope with the high heat of the power supply circuit after overclocking, the heat dissipation design of the motherboard must pass the pass. From our actual measurements, the Core i9 12900K is set to full core 5 GHz on the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER, maintaining a power consumption of 285 W with the Cinebench R23 for 30 minutes, and the VRM MOS temperature is only 60 °C. As can be seen from the footage taken by the thermal imaging camera, the maximum temperature of the VRM area is only 64 °C, while the maximum temperature of the heat sink is only 54.6 °C. To know that this is still not equipped with the chassis fan, completely rely on passive heat dissipation to achieve, it can be seen that the super eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER equipped with the third generation of stacked heat dissipation fins and the second generation of direct-touch heat pipe VRM cooling armor is indeed quite good.
The memory overclocking capability of the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER is also quite powerful, easily supporting the DDR5 6400 high frequency
The memory heatsink surface temperature does not exceed 48 °C
We are equipped with the AORUS Master AORUS Master AORUS master with AORUS DDR5 6200 16GB×2 memory set to try to overclock, which is arguably one of the most frequent DDR5 memory on the market today. As can be seen from the XMP option of the BIOS, this set of AORUS DDR5 6200 memory even has a built-in configuration scheme of DDR5 6400, and we decided to try more aggressive timing parameters, so in the BIOS manually set to DDR5 6400@38-38-38-76 1.45V, and successfully passed the stability test, from the camera shooting screen can also see that the maximum temperature of the memory surface does not exceed 48 °C, It can be seen that the power control and thermal design of the memory itself are also very in place, and the super eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER support for DDR5 memory overclocking is also quite powerful.
Judging from the test results, the read bandwidth after the AORUS DDR5 overclocked to 6400 MHz finally exceeded the 10GB/s mark, which has doubled the bandwidth compared to ordinary DDR4, and at the same time, due to the increase in frequency, its latency is lower than that of 6200 MHz. Therefore, enthusiast players can safely choose the combination of Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER and DDR5 memory to experience the fun of extreme overclocking, and enjoy the ultra-high bandwidth brought by high-frequency DDR5 memory in one step.
Summary: Power supply and heat dissipation are super strong, the 12th generation Core play overclocking selection super eagle Z690 is very reliable!
As can be seen from the previous tests, the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER can easily overclock the 8 P cores of the Core i9 12900K to the level of 5.2 GHz for the full core, and the single-core frequency can exceed 5.5 GHz, and the power supply and electrical performance are quite excellent. At the same time, in the state of full load of 285 W, the test machine for 30 minutes, the temperature of VRM MOS did not exceed 60 ° C, it can be seen that the VRM cooling armor of the super eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER is also very powerful. In terms of memory overclocking, you can also see that the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER can easily support DDR5 6200 memory, and can stabilize the frequency of overclocking to DDR5 6400, and the reading speed exceeds the 10GB/s mark, providing extremely powerful memory performance. All in all, for enthusiasts, choosing the Super Eagle Z690 AORUS MASTER means that you can easily enjoy the ultimate overclocking fun of 12th generation Core and DDR5 memory and experience the top performance of the moment.