I9-12900KS, Cores and overclocking

[acbsdesign]

Hi all,

My IT department (that same guy), has a question:

Can someone please explain in short how to streamline my I9-129000KS to get max for one threaded application?

Also- I have the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility-it boosts up to 5.2Ghz (5.5 steady as of 02-26-23, using BIOS), and the temperature is 64-80-81 -93  degrees Celsius.

My RAM is maxed at 6600MGhz. 32 Gigs. 4800 is the default.

Liquid cooling.

Overclocking is not an issue, (or IT thought so...), just wondering how I can let Autodesk get the best of the I9 KS jewelry.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Have a good day / night.

[Flies-Eyes]

Which processor do you have 12900KS or 12300KS?

Which motherboard are you using?

Which particular Autocad or Advance Steel command / task / activity are you looking to gain performance from by overclocking?

I did a video recently discussing my 12900k overclocking build. You can find that on the SYSDEF YT channel.

[acbsdesign]

@Flies-Eyes 

Sorry, it was a typo, it is 12900KS.

PRO Z690-A.

Long hours here.

[Flies-Eyes]

Is that the ASUS ProArt Z690?

[acbsdesign]

MSI PRO Z690-A.

It is steady 5.187GHz  at a Core temp 44 Celsius, Socket Temp is 38 Celsius.

[Flies-Eyes · Accepted solution]

I would expect a 12900KS to be stable at 5.4Ghz or even 5.5Ghz. Cooling and the number of cores you are running will be your biggest influencers here.

From my research so far there is no performance gains with overclocking when undertaking general daily modelling tasks, stock frequency will suffice for those activities. I have gone with Software overclocking rather than BIOS overclocking as this allows me to switch overclocking settings based on the software / command / script that I am running on the fly without having to exit and reboot. Running a script on a database which is stored in the RAM will require a different setting to CAD scripts or Video Rendering tasks.

I am not familiar with the MSI BIOS interface yet however you would want to go and find which of 8 cores are strongest and allocate those to the ACAD.exe task services by using the Process Affinity or any other single threaded scripting services that your are looking to gain performance. If your scripting code is using multi-threading or GPU processing then we are into a whole separate topic then.

The big performance gains you get is when overclocking long scripts such as running drawing creation scripts for a full set of drawings. We have also found very little gains when automating PDF creation using the Advance Steel document manage batch ploting script as this requires very little processing power and performance gains for these tasks are more dependent on data storage read and write speeds with a little CPU processing thrown in for good measure.

I am still researching how much value RAM speed is having on my automation script performance. Early testing would indicate that turning off the eCores to gain more L1 and L2 Cache for the pCores seems to be the case however we are getting down into the computer science nerd knowledge at that point so I am just starting to learn about this technology now and specifically with how it operates with the new Alder Lake / Raptor Lake and the new AMD 7950x processor.

[Flies-Eyes · Accepted solution]

Sorry to go back and respond to your original question, you will want to isolate your 2 best cores (4 threads) and set those cores to the highest stable frequency that you can get away with. Set your Process Affinity to use those 2 Cores for the single-threaded tasks that you are seeking performance gains.

Just to reiterate my findings, overclocking daily modelling tasks does not yield performance gain for Advance Steel.

[acbsdesign]

@Flies-Eyes 

Thank you, I will be using the software (not BIOS) too.

Enjoy your day.

[acbsdesign]

@Flies-Eyes 

I have 5.48 at 8 performance cores, 100 degrees Celsius.

Will test more tomorrow, getting late here.

Thank you for the help.

[Flies-Eyes]

That frequency is more what I would expect from a 12900KS. Isolating your 2 best cores and having them running at say 5.5 and having the other 6 running @ 5.3 will likely allow you to reach the highest frequency for single threaded applications. Just to note, you don't need to have all pCores running at the same frequency.

[acbsdesign]

Yes, we need only one or two.

[acbsdesign]

@Flies-Eyes 

I ended up using the BIOS, 8@52, 8@40.

First tried to use IntelExtreme Tuning Utility-all Windows updates + they are trying to be up to date, with their fixes etc,  I gave up. I will get back to it in a few months. 

MSI has a nice app, MSI Center, it controls the overall performance and it shows the frequency of each core, voltage etc.

As you said, overclocking to extreme values does not help with modeling.

It helps with plotting (300-500 dwgs does make a difference).

So what I am thinking, 3-4 years ago it was all about overclocking.

Today's CPU's are 12 gen with 13th coming soon, fast and smooth running, we are well equipped even if they are not overclocked. 

I am saying this but I will leave it at P5.2, E4.0, it improves the overall workflow, not only Advance.

I have the liquid cooling, good for another 3-4 years.

Thank you for the help, and yes, better to leave deep computer science to the scientists, what we need is a stable machine with a modern CPU, not thinking about overheating.

[Flies-Eyes]

Plotting performance gains will depend on which tool is used. The AdS batch plotting tool from our research offers no gain and gets fatal errors when batching 500 plus drawings. Autocad publishing tool does improve times plus it doesn't fatal error.

At 5.2ghz for a 12900KS you would be leaving some performance on the table but I doubt it would be noticable unless long running scripts are in play.

[acbsdesign]

@Flies-Eyes 

So just an update on how is I9-12900KS behaving after a few days of work.

When overclocked at P8x5.5 and E8x4.2 in BIOS......it works great, but is slightly noisy, it is probably overall cooling, and although it is liquid, it probably requires more.

When overclocked in BIOS to P8x5.2 E8x4.0-it is quiet but I am not able to find the optimum of DDR5 frequency (mine is 6600 max) (or something else that my IT:) does not know, still learning).

Using MSI Center -used their Genie, I think it is working well, it boosts to 5.5 and to 4.2 by default, but again, slightly noisy and after working with BOXX, it is annoying.

Downloaded the latest version of Intel Extreme Tuning Utility-it optimizes both CPU and DDR5, and everything around-it is the best way to work so far.

Extremely quiet, and it runs very, very smooth. 

Coming from Apexx S3, 8700K overclocked at 4.8, it is still a nice machine after 4.5 years of use, but this one is FAR better overall with DDR5 than the 2018 Apexx S3.

Zero noise. Extremely smooth and fast.

Intel may have hit the target with this tool.

What I have noticed, there is greater utilization of RAM compared to if not this tool is used.

Just wanted to share, we live now in some kind of transition I guess, CPU-overclocking-wise, and tools like this from Intel may be the best overall choice for the everyday user to improve performance.

[Flies-Eyes]

It sounds like the OC settings have been set to static freq not dynamic freq.  General 3D modelling tasks only require short bursts of power not constant OC.  Noise can be managed via fan controls.  Although the CPU temp is going up and down like a yoyo pump speed is more important than fan speed.  Set fan speed on rad to constant speed.  Fan speeds going up and down like a yoyo like CPU temp is not a true indication of thermal management.

I agree the new Intel Hybrid pCore / ECore architecture is more suitable for those dealing with single-threaded applications than the new AMD all core solution which would suit multi-threaded applications.  The complexity comes when we begin to deal with both single and multi-threaded applications as part of our daily routine.

In my opinion it won't be too long until we start to see CPU and GPU combined.   

[acbsdesign]

It reaches 5.66 with the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. 

[bigcarl5000kg]

Hi @acbsdesign ,

still stable after 8 hours of operation? What temperatures are reported by the CPU and MAINBOARD sensor? Have you tried measuring the cooling noise from a distance of approx. 1m? Thanks in advance.

[acbsdesign]

@bigcarl5000kg 

No, no noise anymore, probably I screwed up something, pretty capable in doing so with CPU's.

The second day running with this set-up-no issues, no noise, no overheating, no blue screen, and no AS crashing.

Working as it is supposed to be.

[acbsdesign]

@bigcarl5000kg 

This is after exactly 8 hours of working:

[bigcarl5000kg]

Ilko you are an magician, thanks for your feedback 😉👍👍🤘