Intel has been losing its edge in silicon valley, and it seems that the only resurrection path for intel lies in its upcoming roadmap. That is if the forthcoming Rocket Lake line-up saves the company from falling. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that intel is out of tricks.
Recently a Chinese outlet Weixin stated that intel’s partners would soon unveil their upcoming 500-series motherboards. According to sources, it will include Z590, B560, & H510 families and will be announced on the 11th of January. The 500-series chipset motherboards are designed to support the upcoming 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPU family.
According to the Chinese outlet report, the release of 500-series motherboards featuring the Z590, B560, and H510 chipsets, is all but sure. However, we still haven’t heard anything from intel or any other source regarding this matter. Another thing mentioned in the report states that the Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs won’t be hitting shelves till the end of February or even early March.
But we have already heard the rumors that Intel will be launching its Rocket Lake Desktop CPU in January, with some even suggesting that it will be pinned in March. All these have conflicting theories, but what might be possible is not the launch but the unveiling of Rocket Lake-S line-up alongside the new motherboards.
Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake Desktop CPU Lineup Specs (Preliminary):
| CPU Name | Cores / Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock (1-Core) | Boost Clock (All-Core) | Cache | TDP (PL1) |
| Core i9-11900K | 8 / 16 | 3.50 GHz | 5.30 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 16 MB | 125W |
| Core i7-11700K | 8 / 16 | TBC | 5.00 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 16 MB | 125W |
| Core i5-11600K | 6 /12 | TBC | 4.90 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 12 MB | 125W |
| Core i5-11400 | 6 /12 | 2.6 GHz | 4.40 GHz | 4.2 GHz | 12 MB | 65W |
The 500 series platform brings full support for the PCIe Gen 4 protocol, missing from various 400-series motherboards. Here are all the specs we know about the Rocket Lake line-up.
Main features of Intel’s Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs include:
- Increased Performance with new Cypress Cove core architecture
- Up to 8 cores and 16 threads (Double Digit IPC Gains Over Skylake)
- New Xe graphics architecture (Up To 50% higher Performance Than Gen9)
- Increased DDR4 3200 MHz Memory Support
- CPU PCIe 4.0 Lanes (Available on Z490 & Z590 Motherboards)
- Enhanced Display (Integrated HDMI 2.0b, DP1.4a, HBR3)
- Added x4 CPU PCIe Lanes = 20 Total CPU PCIe 4.0 Lanes
- Enhanced Media (12 bit AV1/HVEC, E2E compression)
- CPU Attached Storage or Intel Optane Memory
- New Overclocking Features and Capabilities
- USB Audio offload
- Integrated CNVi & Wireless-AX
- Integrated USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20G)
- 2.5Gb Ethernet Discrete LAN
- Discrete Intel Thunderbolt 4 (USB4 Compliant)
