Monday, January 27th 2020
Intel 400-series Chipset Motherboards to Lack PCIe Gen 4.0, Launch Pushed to Q2
Intel's upcoming 400-series desktop chipset will lack support for PCI-Express gen 4.0. The motherboards will stick to gen 3.0 for both the main x16 PEG slots wired to the LGA1200 socket, and general purpose PCIe lanes from the PCH, according to a Tom's Hardware report. It was earlier expected that 400-series chipset motherboards will come with preparation for PCIe gen 4.0, so even if the upcoming 10th gen "Comet Lake" desktop processors lacked gen 4.0 root-complexes, the boards would be fully ready for the new bus standard in 11th gen "Rocket Lake" desktop processors.
10th gen "Comet Lake" desktop processors are built on 14 nm process, and implement Intel's current-gen CPU core design Intel has been implementing since 6th gen "Skylake." It's only with 11th gen "Rocket Lake" that the mainstream desktop platform could see a new CPU core design, with the company reportedly back-porting "Willow Cove" CPU cores to the 14 nm process. "Rocket Lake" is also expected to feature a small Gen12 iGPU with 32 execution units, and a new-gen uncore component that implements PCIe gen 4.0. PCIe gen 4.0 doubles bandwidth over gen 3.0, and while only a handful GPUs support it, the standard is made popular by a new generation of M.2 NVMe SSDs that are able to utilize the added bandwidth to push sequential transfer rates beyond M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 limitations.
It is also being reported that Intel has delayed the launch of 10th gen Core desktop processors and 400-series chipset motherboards to Q2-2020, to as early as April. Motherboards based on Intel 400-series chipset were the most notable absentees at the 2020 International CES, and it's rumored that a last-minute decision to delay the platform's launch caused exhibitors to box up their Z490 chipset motherboards. With an April launch, "Comet Lake" will lead Intel's mainstream desktop product line for at least three quarters. Intel is expected to debut 11th gen "Rocket Lake" in the 2021 CES, unless something changes then.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
10th gen "Comet Lake" desktop processors are built on 14 nm process, and implement Intel's current-gen CPU core design Intel has been implementing since 6th gen "Skylake." It's only with 11th gen "Rocket Lake" that the mainstream desktop platform could see a new CPU core design, with the company reportedly back-porting "Willow Cove" CPU cores to the 14 nm process. "Rocket Lake" is also expected to feature a small Gen12 iGPU with 32 execution units, and a new-gen uncore component that implements PCIe gen 4.0. PCIe gen 4.0 doubles bandwidth over gen 3.0, and while only a handful GPUs support it, the standard is made popular by a new generation of M.2 NVMe SSDs that are able to utilize the added bandwidth to push sequential transfer rates beyond M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 limitations.
54 Comments on Intel 400-series Chipset Motherboards to Lack PCIe Gen 4.0, Launch Pushed to Q2
or for that magical number: 7nm?
nahhhh
Socket 1700 will have it all. This 1200 socket is more like entry level.
Besides, what's the point for adding PCIe 4.0 when Comet Lake uses 3.0 only? you won't get willow cove on that same socket because that will change. (no shock there) so, what would be the point to add PCIe 4.0, boost price of the board with a feature that can't be used by CPUs you slap on it?
Anyway, I'm fine with Willow Cove being backported to 14nm. Intel has proven that their 14nm++++++++(++++++++)+^9999 process can compete with AMD's design on TSMC's 7nm. As long as it performs better than its predecessor and doesn't have a mountain of security flaws, it should be a success.I think "twice as good for a fifth of the price" is a bit of a reach, but for sure, AMD has made leaps and bounds of progress. We're at a stage now where one doesn't conclusively beat the other.
Why isn't anyone in this topic talking about the fact that AMD has botched PCIe4 implementation in Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs that why their upcoming APUs based on Zen 2 will not feature PCIe4 support?
What's wrong about it, you'll ask? Well, your X570 chipset idles at 10W while doing nothing and your Ryzen 3000 CPU has the minimum power consumption around 17 freaking watts due to to its IO PCIe4 core which is seemingly unable to ever enter idle mode.
That's 27W while doing pretty much nothing.
What if Intel saw it through and decided to postpone adding PCIe4 support in their products?
And let's talk about products utilizing PCIe4 at the moment. AMD Navi GPUs despite featuring this interface gain 0% of performance due to using it.
M.2 NVMe SSDs get twice as fast however from what I've seen all of them require massive heatsinks and dissipate enormous amounts of heat. And how often do you need to write/read data at speeds above 5 freaking gigabytes per second?
I'm not opposing progress - I'm all for it. However progress doesn't mean just performance - it also means responsibility.
I do understand that bashing Intel nowadays is a trend most people cannot resist to. It would be great however if the bashing was warranted and not a repetition of something we've heard ten thousands times already. Yes, it's still a SkyLake core, yes, no 10/7nm products in volume yet, yet, no PCIe4 yet. Let's move on.
Or do you still use AGP, ISA and PCI slots?
Future proofing makes sense only when you know exactly how it will benefit you in the future. PCIe4 does not have anything to it aside from increased IO throughput which is necessary for all the ten people in the entire world who depend on it.
Speaking of the ports you mentioned. PCI and PCI-E have enormous advantages over ISA and AGP that's why they were more or less completely replaced and abandoned by the industry. PCIe4 over PCIe3 again brings very little if anything for 99.99% of people out there. Most people in the world don't have M.2 NVMe drives at all and couldn't care less about the performance of their disks.
If you wanted to just say AMD is great and Intel is bad - I get it. If you have some deeper insight, please let me know.
I wonder how people justify their "upgrade" in their mind when they do shit like this.
Doesn't make sense that Intel would nerf the boards. Unless it's pure marketing but that doesn't make a ton of sense but they did artificially limit Optane support for quite awhile.
So Intel pride maybe? Making boards 3.0 only does lower manufacturing costs.