Wednesday, October 18th 2017
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ASUS Confirms Z270 Platform Could be Compatible with Intel Coffee Lake CPUs
In an interview with Bit-tech, ASUS ROG motherboard product manager Andrew Wu has let the proverbial cat out of the bag: apparently, compatibility of Z270 boards with Coffee Lake processors wouldn't have been impossible after all. When asked why the new Coffee Lake CPUs aren't compatible with the previously released Z270 platform, Andrew Wu explained that it" (...) depends on Intel's decision." Andrew Wu also went on to mention that Intel's stated power delivery reasons don't "make much difference", and that ASUS themselves could make their Z270 motherboards compatible with Coffee Lake. For that, however, they'd need "(...) an upgrade from the ME [Management Engine] and a BIOS update", for which "Intel somehow has locked the compatibility."
It seems all of that extra "pin-count" doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of the current Coffee Lake lineup with up to six core processors - the CPU socket and platform as designed with Z270 would have been able to handle the increased core counts and power loads. The question gets murkier with Intel's ability to release an 8-core CPU to the Z370 platform though - that particular amount of cores might indeed prove to be too much for Z270's power delivery. Making an educated guess, it would seem that Intel could have allowed for Coffee Lake compatibility on Z270 motherboards on CPUs up to 6 cores, but would need the new revisions on the Z370 platform to allow for operation of 8-core Coffee Lake chips.Naturally, if Intel were to allow backwards compatibility, that would eat into sales of current-gen Z370 boards, so the company decided to increase the Z370 platform's attractiveness by locking all Coffee Lake processors behind it. It's not much of a platform sale point to say that it will be eventually compatible with unannounced 8-core CPUs. And let's be honest: ASUS and all other motherboard manufacturers probably love this game themselves, since they do get to sell more motherboards this way.
Source:
Bit-tech
It seems all of that extra "pin-count" doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of the current Coffee Lake lineup with up to six core processors - the CPU socket and platform as designed with Z270 would have been able to handle the increased core counts and power loads. The question gets murkier with Intel's ability to release an 8-core CPU to the Z370 platform though - that particular amount of cores might indeed prove to be too much for Z270's power delivery. Making an educated guess, it would seem that Intel could have allowed for Coffee Lake compatibility on Z270 motherboards on CPUs up to 6 cores, but would need the new revisions on the Z370 platform to allow for operation of 8-core Coffee Lake chips.Naturally, if Intel were to allow backwards compatibility, that would eat into sales of current-gen Z370 boards, so the company decided to increase the Z370 platform's attractiveness by locking all Coffee Lake processors behind it. It's not much of a platform sale point to say that it will be eventually compatible with unannounced 8-core CPUs. And let's be honest: ASUS and all other motherboard manufacturers probably love this game themselves, since they do get to sell more motherboards this way.
72 Comments on ASUS Confirms Z270 Platform Could be Compatible with Intel Coffee Lake CPUs
"You have to upgrade both mobo and cpu"
Later on...
"Wait, you MIGHT be ABLE to run under CERTAIN CERTIFIED BY INTEL(tm) mobos"
My best guess, Intel is a slow behemoth tied down with bureaucracy and standardization. Basically the way of thinking - If specifications say socket needs more voltage pins for what they are planning, it needs these and end of story. The fact that OC on the current socket/chipset/mobos has been pulling twice the power from the same socker is irrelevant.
:)
You could check the thread on intels community forum, where i posted the method i used
communities.intel.com/thread/78161
it is very cold in space !
"Major company decides to continue their business model of maximizing profit, while minimizing end-user options. Computer Community shocked. "
:eek:
hailpay Intel.Service wise, they are trading a bunch of angry hardware enthusiasts on the internet with knowing no customer will fry a CPU or a board in some scenarios.
Also by making a necessity to upgrade both motherboard and cpu, Intel is flooding the market with cheap i7 + Z270 combos, making life for AMD more difficult. Considering that people will still pay happily for a 8700K to get the absolute best gaming performance, Intel wouldn't have probably a big problem with this. What it needs is to control cash flow going to AMD. It needs AMD and RTG alive, just not kicking.