Intel's new 900 series chipset: Z990, Z970, W980, Q970, B960 for next-gen Nova Lake desktop CPU

Intel's next-generation Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake-S" desktop CPUs are gearing for release later this year, with more details on the new 900-series chipset platforms and its different motherboard offerings on the way.

In a new post on X by leaker @Jaykhin, we're hearing that there will be 5 different PCH variants: Z990, Z970, W980, Q970, and the mid-range B960 chipsets. The new 900-series chipsets are crafted for the next-gen Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs which will arrive on a totally new LGA1954 socket, meaning new motherboards for all -- and they're DDR5 only this time around.

The new Z990 and Z970 chipsets will be used on OC-ready motherboards with higher-end features and hardware than the rest of the 900 series boards, with the flagship Z990 chipset expected to feature 48 PCIe lanes, 2 x USB4/TB4 ports, 12 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes, 8 x SATA 3.0 ports, up to 5 x USB 3.2 20Gbps ports, and will include IA OC, BCLK, and Memory OC support.

Under that, we've got the Z970 chipset that drops down to just 34 PCIe lanes and a single USB4/TB4 port, with zero PCIe 5.0 lanes (uhhh, what...) on the chipset, with 14 PCIe 4.0 lanes, half of the SATA 3.0 ports (4 on Z970 vs 8 on Z990) and just up to 2 x USB 3.2 20Gbps ports. On the OC side of things, the Z970 will keep its IA OC and Memory OC support, but drops BCLK OC.

On the workstation side, the new W980 motherboards will feature nearly everything the flagship Z990 chipset can do but drops its OC abilities. Memory OC is still offered on the W980 chipset. Under that, the Q970 chipset is for the business segment with improved PCIe and USB capabilities over the current-gen Z970, but without OC support.

Lastly, we have the B960 chipset which is for the mainstream and mid-range Nova Lake-S systems, with similar features to the Z970 chipset. You get the baseline IO features but B960 drops OC support, but maintains its Memory OC support. The leaker adds that there will be no entry-level H-series motherboards for Intel's new 900-series chipset family, meaning we won't see an H910 or H970, for example.