Intel Comet Lake-S CPUs and Z490 boards support PCI-E 4.0 (but it's not active)

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 01/22/2020 12:21 PM | source: tomshardware | 42 comment(s)

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.

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fantaskarsef
Senior Member

Posts: 11364
Joined: 2014-07-21

#5753104 Posted on: 01/22/2020 08:58 AM

kekw.

sverek
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Posts: 5743
Joined: 2011-01-02

#5753105 Posted on: 01/22/2020 08:59 AM

Better safe than sorry. Would be sad if inactive PCI-E 4.0 added additional cost for the chipset.

Undying
Senior Member

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Joined: 2008-08-28

#5753108 Posted on: 01/22/2020 09:18 AM

Great platform that will be. Chipset that support pcie 4.0 but cannot use and an 300w tdp 10core already outdated. Intel these days...

anticupidon
Senior Member

Posts: 4758
Joined: 2008-03-06

#5753111 Posted on: 01/22/2020 09:35 AM

When I was little I always ran against older kids from other blocks, and I won many times.
They got to the point :
Yeah, tomorrow, I'll bring my special running shoes and I will win, because you are a cheater.
Talking about special chipset that will make everything ok and forgotten.
Intel, what are smoking, buddy?

Astyanax
Senior Member

Posts: 5256
Joined: 2018-03-21

#5753116 Posted on: 01/22/2020 09:47 AM

well the signal wasn't completely clean in Zen 2 so i don't see the excuse flying here.

though not surprised intel can't get a first generation gen 4 controller right, they couldn't with gen 3.

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