In a weblog put up on Medium at present, Intel’s John Bonini has confirmed that the corporate will probably be launching its next-generation desktop platform in Q1 2021. This is confirmed as Rocket Lake, presumably underneath Intel’s 11th Gen Core branding, and can function PCIe 4.Zero assist. After a number of months (and Z490 motherboards) mentioning Rocket Lake and PCIe 4.Zero assist, this observe from Intel is the first supply that confirms all of it.
The weblog put up doesn’t go into any additional element about Rocket Lake. From our facet of the fence, we assume that is one other 14nm processor, with questions as as to if it’s constructed upon the identical Skylake structure because the earlier 5 generations of 14nm, or is a back-port of Intel’s newest Cove microarchitecture designs. Add in PCIe 4.Zero assist fairly than PCIe 3.0 – there’s no particular indication at the moment that there will probably be a rise in PCIe lane counts from the CPU, though that has been an concept that has been floated. Some motherboards, such because the ASRock Z490 Aqua, appear to have been constructed with the thought of a PCIe 4.Zero particular storage M.2 slot, which when in use makes the PCIe 3.Zero slot now not accessible.
It is notable within the weblog that John Bonini (VP/GM for Intel’s Desktop/Workstation/Gaming) cites excessive processor frequencies as a key metric for top efficiency in video games and well-liked functions, mentioning Intel’s numerous Turbo Boost applied sciences. In the identical paragraph, he then cites overclocking Intel’s processors to 7 GHz, failing to say that this type of overclocking isn’t finished for the sake of gaming or workflow. The weblog put up additionally appears to bounce between speaking about fanatic avid gamers on the bleeding edge and squeezing out each little bit of efficiency on the top-end, to then mentioning informal avid gamers on cellular graphics; it’s comes throughout as erratic and a bit bipolar. Note that this weblog put up can also be posted on Medium, fairly than Intel’s personal web site, for no matter purpose, and likewise appears to vary font dimension mid-paragraph within the model we have been despatched.
The purpose why this weblog put up is being at present, for my part, is two-fold. Firstly, latest unconfirmed leaks relating to Intel’s roadmap has positioned the following era of desktop processor firmly into that Q1/Q2 crossover in 2021. By popping out and confirming a Q1 launch window, Intel is no less than placing these rumors to mattress. The second purpose is right down to what the competitors is asserting: AMD has a Zen3 associated presentation on October 8th, and so with Intel’s footnote, we no less than know what’s happening with each group blue and group pink.
