While the PC hardware marker has seen many wins and losses throughout 2020, 2021 looks set to be a big year for Intel, with the launch of their next-generation processors and their new Z590 motherboards… and maybe even a graphics card or two!
While it’s uncommon for Intel, Z490 and Z590 motherboards will be forwards and backwards compatible with the Comet Lake CPUs already on the market, and likewise with the Rocket Lake CPUs that are on the way. However, Z590 is primed to support their latest Rocket Lake processors and no doubt offer the best performance possible from their flagship i9-11900K.
While it’s likely many will be running overclocked memory kits anyway, the base clock speed memory support will see a leap from DDR4-2933 to DDR4-3200. However, we should even see some manufacturers produce DDR5 boards for this generation as we begin to transition to the next-gen memory platform over the next two years.
Another big leap is the upgrade to PCIe 4.0, something that AMD has had the run of for some time now. Keep in mind that many Z490 boards were marketed as Gen 4 ready, so the new CPUs should unlock those abilities for you. However, it’s ready from launch on the new Z590 boards. That’ll mean 20 lanes of ultra-fast connectivity. That could be x16 for the GPU and x4 for storage, or x8/x8, or even x8/x4/x4, but it’s really up to motherboard manufacturers how they want to use the available bandwidth.
Other big upgrades are a doubling of CPU bandwidth, native USB 3.2 G2x” (20Gbps) Type-C, and greatly improved memory support and greater support for Wi-Fi 6. Many of the more high-end boards will undoubtedly take advantage of the latest Intel Thunderbolt 4, which now supports branch chaining rather than just linear chaining!
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