Intel Z890 Chipset Allegedly Features More Gen 4.0 Lanes & WiFi 7 Support: Meteor Lake Desktop CPUs In Limbo

Alleged information regarding Intel's next-gen Z890 chipset has leaked out which points out slight I/O changes. Meanwhile, rumors regarding the Meteor Lake Desktop lineup still have the family in limbo as there's no confirmation if we will actually see them in action.

The latest information comes from leaf_hobby (TLC) who has tweeted out the details regarding the Intel Z890 PCH and the Meteor Lake-S Desktop CPUs. According to the details, the Intel Z890 PCH is going to offer a total of 4 additional PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes which will be dedicated to an additional M.2 slot and this would bring the total number of PCIe lanes to 24 lanes or four more than the existing Z790 PCH.

https://twitter.com/leaf_hobby/status/1629570261480792065

One interesting thing mentioned is that the Z890 motherboard will be the first to mark the debut of Intel's WiFi 7 technology. Existing Z790 motherboards feature WiFi 6E support and which could end up being one of the major selling points. There's also support for Microsoft's Windows 12 OS listed but that might be a placeholder for now. The bigger question is whether the Z890 PCH is made for the next-gen LGA 1851 socket or the existing LGA 1700/1800 socket.

We know that Intel has its Raptor Lake-Refresh lineup prepped for launch later this year and Intel is known to offer a refreshed platform each year. They already have two platforms with the LGA 1700 / 1800 socket, the 600 and 700 series so having the 800 series on the same socket won't make a lot of sense. Hence, it is likely that the Z890 chipset would debut with the next-gen CPU lineup for the LGA 1851 socket. The Intel LGA 1851 socket has already been leaked out and incorporates a similar design as the LGA 1700/1800 socket with minor changes besides the addition of the extra contact pins.

With that said, the leaker also points out that Intel's Meteor Lake-S Desktop CPUs did exist at one point in 6+8 and 6+16 SKUs which is also something we pointed out in our exclusive a while back.

The SKUs list includes:

It is also alleged that the Intel Meteor Lake-S Desktop CPUs featured four additional PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes that might be dedicated to a Gen 5 SSD. Currently, Z790 motherboards that offer a PCIe 5 SSD functionality have to share lanes with the PCIe x16 slot. The lanes on the CPU are split in x16  (Gen 5) for dGPU, x4 (Gen 5) for M.2, and x4 (Gen 4) for M.2. Like its Raptor Lake predecessor, the Intel Meteor Lake-S CPUs are also said to not feature any AVX-512 support.

The leaker also mentions a roadmap that mentions the next Core Desktop family, Raptor Lake Refresh, in Q3 2023 followed by a new chipset around Q2 2024. Obviously, there's nothing set in stone for now even though multiple rumors have said that Meteor Lake-S has more or less been canceled.

News Sources: TechPowerUp, Videocardz