Intel Confirms Rocket Lake on Desktop for Q1 2021, with PCIe 4.0
by Dr. Ian Cutress on October 7, 2020 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- PCIe 4.0
- Z490
- Rocket Lake
In a blog post on Medium today, Intel’s John Bonini has confirmed that the company will be launching its next-generation desktop platform in Q1 2021. This is confirmed as Rocket Lake, presumably under Intel’s 11th Gen Core branding, and will feature PCIe 4.0 support. After several months (and Z490 motherboards) mentioning Rocket Lake and PCIe 4.0 support, this note from Intel is the primary source that confirms it all.
The blog post doesn’t go into any further detail about Rocket Lake. From our side of the fence, we assume this is another 14nm processor, with questions as to whether it is built upon the same Skylake architecture as the previous five generations of 14nm, or is a back-port of Intel’s latest Cove microarchitecture designs. Add in PCIe 4.0 support rather than PCIe 3.0 - there’s no specific indication at this time that there will be an increase in PCIe lane counts from the CPU, although that has been an idea that has been floated. Some motherboards, such as the ASRock Z490 Aqua, seem to have been built with the idea of a PCIe 4.0 specific storage M.2 slot, which when in use makes the PCIe 3.0 slot no longer accessible.
It is notable in the blog that John Bonini (VP/GM for Intel’s Desktop/Workstation/Gaming) cites high processor frequencies as a key metric for high performance in games and popular applications, mentioning Intel’s various Turbo Boost technologies. In the same paragraph, he then cites overclocking Intel’s processors to 7 GHz, failing to mention that this sort of overclocking isn’t done for the sake of gaming or workflow. The blog post also seems to bounce between talking about enthusiast gamers on the bleeding edge and squeezing out every bit of performance at the top-end, to then mentioning casual gamers on mobile graphics; it’s comes across as erratic and a bit bipolar. Note that this blog post is also posted on Medium, rather than Intel’s own website, for whatever reason, and also seems to change font size mid-paragraph in the version we were sent.
The reason why this blog post is being today, in my opinion, is two-fold. Firstly, recent unconfirmed leaks regarding Intel’s roadmap has placed the next generation of desktop processor firmly into that Q1/Q2 crossover in 2021. By coming out and confirming a Q1 launch window, Intel is at least putting those rumors to bed. The second reason is down to what the competition is announcing: AMD has a Zen3 related presentation on October 8th, and so with Intel’s footnote, we at least know what’s going on with both team blue and team red.
Related Reading
- Best CPUs for Gaming: September 2020
- ASRock Z490 Aqua Motherboard Review: The $1100 LC Monoblock Flagship
- The Intel Comet Lake Core i9-10900K, i7-10700K, i5-10600K CPU Review: Skylake We Go Again
- The Intel Z490 Overview: 44+ Motherboards Examined
- AMD Announces Ryzen "Zen 3" and Radeon "RDNA2" Presentations for October: A New Journey Begins
Source: Intel
88 Comments
View All Comments
Qasar - Thursday, October 8, 2020 - link
um, cause the launch isnt until 9 am pdt. and due to the fires in california, the rtx 3000 series review has been delayed. dr cutress has mentioned this in other threads. technically it is zen3, and either ryzen 4000 or 5000.PopinFRESH007 - Sunday, October 11, 2020 - link
For someone calling someone else an idiot, you sure are the most ignorant AMD fanboy I've seen in a while. Ryzen is a CPU product line. Zen is a CPU architecture. They are not the same thing. Ryzen 3 is also not the same as 3rd generation Ryzen, it is a low end model line within the Ryzen CPU product family.Ryzen 3 is not equal to 3rd gen Ryzen
3rd gen Ryzen is not equal to 3rd gen Zen
3rd gen Ryzen is a 2nd gen Zen CPU and there were several Ryzen 3 models of 3rd gen Ryzen. Also, wow look at this the 4th gen Ryzen 5000 series didn't actually "launch" at 9am on the 8th. Its crazy I know. Why would Anandtech post an article with nothing but speculation hours before a press event or product announcement? Maybe you should go check out wccftech, that is probably more your speed.
Spunjji - Saturday, October 10, 2020 - link
Advice on shilling from lmcd should not be taken lightlySpunjji - Saturday, October 10, 2020 - link
What is this nonsense? They covered the Zen 3 release, and they're not in control of wildfires.Warrior24_7 - Tuesday, October 13, 2020 - link
Good, can’t wait! I NEVER buy AMD! Their video cards are horrible, and Intel STILL has the fastest gaming CPUs on the market! This is with old tech. This is a fact. Clocks beat cores. Intel wins, and is still winning. PCIe 4.0 will bring their board where they should be.Spunjji - Thursday, October 22, 2020 - link
Can't tell if fanboy or mocking fanboys 🤔Machinus - Wednesday, October 14, 2020 - link
I think the honest, actual designation for this product is 14nm++++++. Right?Everyone is going to have Zen3 by then, so no one will buy these.
Spunjji - Thursday, October 22, 2020 - link
Don't underestimate the power of brand loyalty!