Z490 will support 11th gen Intel Rocket Lake-S

It's not often you hear the words Intel and support for multiple CPU generations on a single motherboard platform in the same sentence lately. Well, that is about to change since it has become apparent that new Z490 based motherboards will support 11^th gen Intel Rocket Lake-S desktop processors.

Ever since Gigabyte quietly announced to the world that PCIe gen 4.0 support would be a feature of its new Z490 motherboards series, rumours have been circulating why. 10^th generation Intel processors are not expected to support PCIe 4.0 and Gigabyte has suggested that the PCIe 4.0 support built into its Z490 motherboards will have limited functionality for now.

However, Intel’s 11^th gen Rocket Lake-S processors are highly likely to support PCIe 4.0 so it seems logical that the standard was introduced in Z490 motherboards for this reason, although Intel’s recent form suggests that with each new CPU generation, a motherboard upgrade is necessary. Maybe this time around Intel is thinking differently since AMD owners have been provided with the luxury of motherboard platforms supporting new generations of Ryzen CPUs for the last three iterations.

This idea of 11^th generation Intel CPU support on Z490 motherboard platforms seem very likely to become a reality now since a recent official live Q&A session by Gigabyte all but confirmed the rumours. Eagle-eyed viewers including the guys over at VideoCardz spotted the live Q&A session from Gigabyte and uploaded a short clip of the feature on their website.

A viewer of the broadcast asked whether the hosts thought that Z490 motherboards would support 11^th gen Intel Rocket Lake-S processors and one of the hosts answered with a straight “yes”, although quite reluctantly and even said he probably shouldn’t have made this common knowledge. So, if we are to believe this reliable source then we could well be looking at a new generation of Intel processors working on an older generation of motherboards for the first time in a while, which is welcome news for potential Intel customers.

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KitGuru says: If 11^th gen Rocket Lake processors do in fact turn out to be supported by Z490 motherboards, would this make any of you guys more likely to invest in Z490 now, knowing it will have a longer life than usual with Intel platforms?

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