Intel Comet-Lake S CPUs could require new socket, new mobo

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AMD is about to launch its next-gen Zen 2-based range of Ryzen 3000 series on the new 7nm node, but what is its competitor up to? The latest rumor on the next-gen Comet Lake S-based processors is that they won't work with current-gen motherboards, as they'll require a new socket.

The latest leaks were found inside of the new Intel server chipset driver, with the listing mentioning the 400-series chipset and 495-series chipset, both of which are totally new. The 10th generation Core processors in the form of the Comet Lake-S range look to be arriving on LGA 1151 V3, which will require a new motherboard and hence, new chipsets to support them. This means the 10th gen Core CPUs will not be backwards compatible.

The new Comet Lake-S family of processors should arrive in 4/6/8/10-core SKUs all on the same 14nm node that Intel has been stuck on for many years now, but we should expect higher clock speeds on the 10th gen CPUs. We should see them deployed sometime in Q1 2020 alongside the new 400-series motherboards. Computex 2019 is right around the corner, so we'll see what Intel does there.

Intel's next-gen Comet Lake-S is expected to offer 10-core SKUs, and Intel continues its run with the 9000-series nomenclature, will the new CPUs be called Intel Core i9-10900K or something? The new 495-series chipset coming is designed for future Ice Lake-S chips, but we might expect Rocket Lake-S in between now and then (sometime in 2020) that might work on the new chipset.