Gigabyte has reportedly requested that reviewers refrain from revealing too much about newly refreshed motherboards—TPU's Darksaber was invited to take a closer look at "next generation motherboards" in late August, but representatives were cautious to mutter anything too obvious or specific about Intel's oft-leaked Raptor Lake Refresh/14th Gen Core CPU lineup. Fast forward to recent happenings—VideoCardz believes that Gigabyte had prepped a bunch of new motherboard products to showcase in parallel with Team Blue's September Innovation event—many expected to see Raptor Lake Refresh unveiled to a great degree, but an official announcement was instead relegated to a 12-second long livestreamed segment.

The Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer/distributor has allegedly manoeuvred to avoid breaking its partner's embargoes—VideoCardz stated: "Consequently, Gigabyte had to request reviewers to conceal any details pertaining to the new CPU series on the packaging and motherboards they had received as initially intended." Their report includes various pieces of evidence (screenshots and video captures)—focusing on a slightly rejigged AORUS Z790 Master X motherboard, which seems to sport "Core 14th gen processors" livery.