Intel's Core i5-12490F Hits 5.7 GHz With BCLK Overclocking

Intel's Core i5-12490F, which is exclusive to the Chinese market, looks like it may become an overclocking legend as one of the enthusiasts has managed to push it to 5.7 GHz through the BCLK overclocking method.

The Core i5-12490F is a six-core, 12-thread Alder Lake chip with 20MB of L3 cache and no integrated graphics. With PBP and MTP ratings of 65W and 117W, respectively, the Core i5-12490F runs with a 3 GHz base clock and 4.6 GHz boost clock. However, an overclocker has managed to overclock the chip to 5.7 GHz (a 90% increase versus default clock) by altering its TDP limit and increasing its BCLK to 142.53 MHz. In addition, the CPU has passed CPU-Z validation (via @Tum_Apisak).

The overclocker had to boost core voltage to 1.696V to achieve a massive frequency increase. It's an enormous Vcore for a 10-nm processor. Unfortunately, it is unknown what kind of cooling system he used, but we are sure he was likely using exotic cooling.

Keep in mind that the Core i5-12490F is not a typical six-core Alder Lake CPU. Unlike its inexpensive counterparts that use the so-called Alder Lake-6C silicon, this processor is based on the fully-fledged Alder Lake die with P and E cores as well as a large cache. For regular users, this die means a larger 20MB cache. We suspect that the Core i5-12490F utilizes recycled dies from the higher-end Core i7 SKUs.

With BCLK overclocking working fine on at least some Intel B660 and Z690 motherboards, non-K Alder Lake gems, such as the Core i5-12490F, will not go unnoticed. The Core i5-12490F will remain a China-only product, but it'll probably find its way outside of the Chinese market somehow.