Intel Comet Lake-S CPUs and Z490 boards support PCI-E 4.0 (but it's not active)
A new report on the web indicates that the upcoming Comet Lake-S processors (tenth generation of Intel Core for desktop) actually do support PCI Express 4.0, some Z490 motherboards are designed for it as well. However an issue prevents PCIe 4.0 to become usable, so the platform will support PCI-E 3.0 instead.
The reason behind this is presence of Jitter in the Z490 chipset signal, that causes instability in the data signal and that menas that specifications required for the PCI-Express 4.0 certification are simply not met. PCI-E 4.0 is working at very high frequencies, and that requires that the signal be completely clean.
Several manufacturers added external clock generators to eliminate this Jitter, however not everyone did, so Intel made the decision to not support PCI-E 4.0 on this new platform.
Intel Comet Lake i5 and i3 spotted, both get HyperThreading but lower clock speeds - 12/28/2019 10:11 AM
Some info on Intels' pending Comet Lake processors has surfaced. The 14nm node fabricated processors are assumed to launch in April. Earlier on it was kind of confirmed that the lower positioned pro...
Intel Core i9-10900K 10-core Processor and Z490 Chipset Rumored to be released April 2020 - 12/10/2019 09:36 AM
Intel Generation 10 Comet Lake processors, based on Intel's 14nm process and an underlying microarchitecture that is Skylake is next year's desktop processor series from Intel. It makes a step towar...
ASUS to release X299 BIOS Updates for Intel Core i9-10980XE, 10940X, 10920X and 10900X - 12/02/2019 09:26 AM
Much like MSI, ASUS as well will be releasing new firmware updates soon for their X299 motherboards, specifically for Intel Core i9-10980XE, 10940X, 10920X and 10900X, and an effort to make them over...
Review: Intel Core i9 9900KS Special edition processor - all cores at 5 GHz - 11/15/2019 01:34 PM
Intel has released its flagship desktop processor in the non-HEDT segment. The 9900KS is their most premium Coffee Lake-S eight-core processor that has been discussed so abundantly. This little beast ...
Intel Core i9-10980XE Cascade Lake-X Benchmarks - 10/25/2019 02:30 PM
The way Intel distributed samples on processors to media remains a mystery, however over in Romania the first review on the Core i9-10980XE, surfaced. It's written by our colleage Tudo who tested Ca...
Senior Member
Posts: 190
Joined: 2017-03-01
Sorry, i am just frustrated about the possibility of needing a new socket to mount a rebranded 10900KF, that is a 9900KF glued onto a socket adapter to fit the new socket, that is a rebranded and binned 9900k.
All that without the hardware mitigations, because the new chips are not ready yet.
Posts: 6073
Joined: 2011-01-02
The new platform should have been PCIe 4.0 and it should have been coupled to a 10 core CPU, before that turned out to be unpractical because of high power usage.
Will the new platform even be different then the current platform after these changes?
This error will cost Intel millions of $ in lost revenue from sales, together with wasted money on development.
Big OEMs like Dell, Lenovo, HP and more, will also feel that there PCIe 4.0 design money was wasted and they would need to continue to pay a small extra cost (1$ guess) on every single motherboard made to comply with 4.0, instead of the more simple and cheaper 3.0.
There will also be setups that would no longer be possible now with the slower bus speed, like some SSDs, multiple GPUs and Raid controllers for small workstation use.
And?