ASRock just released their two top-tier overclocking Z690 motherboards, the Aqua (4-DIMM) and Aqua OC (2-DIMM) both featuring a CPU/VRM monoblock with limited production of 500 units.
Video promo: Limited Edition Z690 AQUA and Z690 AQUA OC For extreme overclocking - YouTube
ASRock website with motherboard details ASRock Z690 AQUA OC
Key Features
Early samples of the Z690 Aqua OC were sent out for Intel’s 12th gen cpu launch in early November and this motherboard proved to be one of the best out there and broke multiple extreme overclocking records.
ASRock Z690 Aqua OC breaks multiple 'TRUE' world records on HWBOT - VideoCardz.com
Intel Core i9-12900K Smashes Multiple World Records at 6.8 GHz | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)
Intel’s new 12th generation cpus brought a lot of technological advances such as hybrid system using both P and E cores, DDR5 memory, PCIe gen 5.0, etc. A comparison between the 11900k vs. 12900k using the ASRock Z590 OC Formula vs. ASRock Z690 Aqua OC motherboards (early sample) can be found here: ASRock 12900k vs 11900k | Overclock.net
Now that the Z690 Aqua/Aqua OC boards are available for pre-order, this thread was created for sharing general experiences, overclocking settings and results found so far. Since this is the first platform with DDR5, there are tons of new things to learn about it and the Aqua board has given us some great pre-sets as a start.
I would encourage everyone to read DDR5 Overclocking Guide: A Little More Performance Never Hurts - Overclockers by our very own OCN Moderator David Miller @MllrKllr.
Also this thread has a lot of great info about DDR5 memory overclocking Official Intel DDR5 OC and 24/7 daily Memory Stability Thread | Overclock.net
Unboxing
Getting started
All official drivers, bios, manual, etc: ASRock > Z690 AQUA
Timing configurator:
A-Tuning (called ASRock Motherboard Utility ver:3.0.442): ASRock > Z690 AQUA
Here is a picture showing baseline data of a fully stock system (bios settings set to default).
Air overclocking on early sample (no waterblocks yet)
Next, I will be showing an example overclock on air for both the cpu and memory using a intel i9 12900KF (ES), ASRock Z690 Aqua OC (ES), 2x16GB Hynix DDR5 and a Noctua NH-D15 cpu cooler (ambient temp 21C):
-Once into the bios, you can press F6 to go in advanced mode and enter CPU config.
-In my example OC, I manually entered 51 for the cpu p-core ratio, 41 for cpu e-core ratio and 43 for the cpu cache ratio.
-Then in the DRAM config, I selected the Hynix DRAM pre-set for 6400mhz 1T followed by manually selecting the 6600MHz DRAM frequency. This pre-set includes tight 1st, 2nd and 3rd timings and is a perfect starting point to maximize cpu and memory benchmarking scores such as geekbench 3, Cinebench R20 and Aida64 extreme. This pre-set sets the primary timings to Cl-30-37-37 1T but I manually changed to CL-30-38-38 1T for stability.
-For example timings for non-Hynix DDR5 owners, please see David Miller’s DDR5 memory OC guide linked above.
-RTL and IOL can greatly improve the overall memory performance in many benchmarks and the Aqua OC board has some excellent pre-sets for these. By default the Round trip Timing Optimization is set to Auto but enabling this feature and setting Round trip to Normal will help tightened these and possibly increase benchmark scores and system stability.
-Also there may be some benefit to setting this to loose when trying higher DRAM frequency (above 6600MHz).
-The following table shows example RTL/IOL by switching Round trip Timing Optimization from Auto to Enabled and Round trip between Normal and Tight.
Freq. | Auto | Normal | Tight |
6400 MHz, CL30, 1T | 68,66,66,64 | 62,56,62,57 | 61,55,61,56 |
6600 MHz, CL30, 1T | 68,66,67,64 | 62,57,63,58 | 61,56,62,56 |
-The cpu voltage was set to Fixed mode at 1.220V.
-The remaining memory related voltages were set to VCC_AUX Fixed = 1.770V, VDD_CPU = 1.250V, VDD_IMC = 1.250V, VDD = 1.540V, VDDQ = 1.435V and SA = 0.95V (located in FIVR menu).
-For VDD and VDDQ, you need to set VDD and VDDQ Voltage Range to OC Demand in order to go above 1.435V.
-I did notice that both CPU_VDD and CPU_IMC didn’t scale well above 1.25v.
-Also, SA voltage ranging from 0.90 to 0.95v seem to be the sweet spot for memory overclocks up to 6600 MHz
-Below are my results based on the overclocks detailed above.
-First picture is for Round Trip Level = Normal with RTL/IOL at 62,57,63,58
-Second picture is for Round Trip Level = Tight with RTL/IOL at 61,55,62,56
-The second scenario helped boost scores in both Geekbench 3 and Aida64 Extreme, however there was a small reduction in score for Cinebench R20. It is worth the time to test different RTL/IOL levels for each benchmarks separately as the results could vary based on looser or tighter settings.
-For Aida64 extreme, there is a benefit to disable the e-cores in the bios to allow a higher overclock range for the CPU cache. Although not shown in the results above, disabling the e-cores dropped the memory latency by a few ns.
Round Trip Level = Normal with RTL/IOL at 62,57,63,58
Round Trip Level = Tight with RTL/IOL at 61,55,62,56
Gaming Performance for stock vs OC vs e-core disabled
Here are gaming performance between 4 scenarios using the 12900kf + RTX 3080 on the ASRock Z690 Aqua OC. 1440p monitor @ 165hz.
1) Stock
2) CPU OC + MEM OC
3) CPU OC + MEM OC + GPU OC
4) CPU OC + MEM OC + GPU OC + e-cores disabled
Extreme overclocking
Pascal Börner recently did an excellent video tutorial on the Aqua OC and shows all aspects of extreme overclocking using this motherboard in a 2-part video series here.
Part 1: ASRock AQUA Extreme Overclocking with i9-12900k at 6.8GHz - YouTube
Part 2: ASRock AQUA OC Extreme Overclocking Guide with i9-12900k at 6.8GHz P-Cores / 5.5GHz E-Cores - YouTube
Conclusion remarks
Similar to the Aqua Z490 and Z590 OC Formula, the Z690 Aqua is simple to navigate through the bios menus and Nick Shih provides great overclocking pre-sets as starting points for either air/water or extreme overclocking.
The ASRock testing team has been increasing over the past few years and includes great talent that we will probably see sharing their own results and experiences on this thread.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, we are all embracing the new Z690 platform and learning the new DDR5 memory as it develops and improves every week.
Cheers,
Marc
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