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Intel Z370 Chipset Could Support Kaby Lake - But Intel Will Not Allow It
Much has been said and spoken about Intel upcoming 6-core Coffee Lake processors. It will launch based on a LGA 1151 Socket. We’ve been able to confirm that Z370 will only support Coffee Lake processors. Here’s the shocker, they could support Kaby Lake, yet Intel doesn’t allow it.
Over the past few weeks I have been talking to many motherboard manufacturers, and the story is the same. There is no reason for the Z370 chipset to not be able to support last-gen Kaby Lake, it is merely firmware restriction. Intel is enforcing the motherboard manufacturers to only support Intel 8th gen processors, thus Coffee Lake on Z370.
We’ve seen it in the past though, a BIOS update all of the sudden might enable other processors. The board-partners are very tight-lipped about this, understandably. Earlier this week you have already seen our Dutch colleagues from HWI try out a 7th gen Celeron G3930 Kaby Lake based processor on Z370. That processor got in the BIOS post code up-to code 26 when it halted. Post code 26 is the graphics pass, all passes before that would have been valid including memory and CPU.
According to some board partners the extra pins used on Z370 are merely supported voltage pahs. Ergo, (but not confirmed) perhapsvice versa Coffee lake could have been supported on Z270 as well. But this last bit remains speculation of course. But the reality is, that other processors than Coffee Lake on LGA1151 could have been supported on Z370, yet Intel simply will not allow board partners to support them.
New info also shows that the new 6-core procs can do an all-core 5 GHz overclock on a proper air cooler / liquid cooling without too much complication.
nosirrahx
Senior Member
Posts: 400
Joined: 2013-04-05
Senior Member
Posts: 400
Joined: 2013-04-05
#5474671 Posted on: 09/22/2017 10:19 PM
I think intel has lost the memo, I understand that they want to sell people new chips, but preventing people from using chips that are less than a year old for no techinical reason ,when they are facing stiff competition, seems like a very bad idea.
I would think they would want people looking to upgrade to stay with intel, much easier to do that if they don't have to upgrade the motherboard and cpu at the same time.
Only reason I can see for them doing this, is to prevent people from buying second hand chips and using them with z370 board, or they still want to sell z270 boards along side z370, both of which seem fool hardy.
Got a feeling that this will be temporary to force adoption of Z370 and then once that runs it course we will see microcode updates to encourage Z270 owners to upgrade CPUs.
Right around that update we might see a "refresh" to bump up speed a little on the CPUs. All of this feels pretty predictable at this point.
I think intel has lost the memo, I understand that they want to sell people new chips, but preventing people from using chips that are less than a year old for no techinical reason ,when they are facing stiff competition, seems like a very bad idea.
I would think they would want people looking to upgrade to stay with intel, much easier to do that if they don't have to upgrade the motherboard and cpu at the same time.
Only reason I can see for them doing this, is to prevent people from buying second hand chips and using them with z370 board, or they still want to sell z270 boards along side z370, both of which seem fool hardy.
Got a feeling that this will be temporary to force adoption of Z370 and then once that runs it course we will see microcode updates to encourage Z270 owners to upgrade CPUs.
Right around that update we might see a "refresh" to bump up speed a little on the CPUs. All of this feels pretty predictable at this point.
Aura89
Senior Member
Posts: 8305
Joined: 2008-07-31
Senior Member
Posts: 8305
Joined: 2008-07-31
#5474673 Posted on: 09/22/2017 10:27 PM
Got a feeling that this will be temporary to force adoption of Z370 and then once that runs it course we will see microcode updates to encourage Z270 owners to upgrade CPUs.
Right around that update we might see a "refresh" to bump up speed a little on the CPUs. All of this feels pretty predictable at this point.
If that's true, that'd be pretty messed up, because if after that happened, you decide to match the "newly" supported CPU with with a Z370 motherboard, and you happened to get a motherboard that has not been updated to the latest BIOS, you could be potentially screwed if that prevents you from updating the bios.
Got a feeling that this will be temporary to force adoption of Z370 and then once that runs it course we will see microcode updates to encourage Z270 owners to upgrade CPUs.
Right around that update we might see a "refresh" to bump up speed a little on the CPUs. All of this feels pretty predictable at this point.
If that's true, that'd be pretty messed up, because if after that happened, you decide to match the "newly" supported CPU with with a Z370 motherboard, and you happened to get a motherboard that has not been updated to the latest BIOS, you could be potentially screwed if that prevents you from updating the bios.
Reddoguk
Senior Member
Posts: 2334
Joined: 2010-05-26
Senior Member
Posts: 2334
Joined: 2010-05-26
#5474689 Posted on: 09/22/2017 11:36 PM
It remains to be seen but i'm speculating a AM4+ somewhere down the line too.
It remains to be seen but i'm speculating a AM4+ somewhere down the line too.
Athlonite
Senior Member
Posts: 1337
Joined: 2007-11-09
Senior Member
Posts: 1337
Joined: 2007-11-09
#5474697 Posted on: 09/22/2017 11:56 PM
It's already here it's called ThreadRipper
It remains to be seen but i'm speculating a AM4+ somewhere down the line too.
It's already here it's called ThreadRipper
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Don Vito Corleone
Posts: 44030
Joined: 2000-02-22
So if I write something a bit vague like that, don't you get the hint that whenever I write something like that I might indicate something I cannot say out in the open?