Today’s update doesn’t introduce completely novel details. Igor’sLAB had previously revealed Intel’s upcoming desktop CPU socket for the Arrow Lake series. Despite this new CPU generation not being slated for release until mid-2024, the LGA-1851 socket was originally designed to go hand in hand with the Meteor Lake-S CPUs, a strategy that has now been abandoned.
Intel has officially validated the specifications of the LGA-1851 socket, which have experienced minor alterations compared to the previous leak. Additionally, Igor has secured access to both the Independent Loading Mechanism (ILM) and chipset 3D models, granting an exclusive 3D view of forthcoming PC hardware, a rare occurrence in the realm of leaks (you can explore the interactive 3D rendering in Igor’sLAB’s article).
The LGA-1851 socket marks Intel’s effort to rival AMD, with a primary focus on enhancing the platform’s PCIe 5.0 lane support. This represents a significant upgrade from the LGA-1700 series, which was restricted to just 16 lanes. The upcoming platform will offer support for 16+4 lanes, with four dedicated to SSDs. On existing platforms, this limitation hinders users from using GPUs and SSDs that utilize the Gen5 standard simultaneously. However, it’s important to note that at present, there are no desktop GPUs from Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD with Gen5 support available in the market, making this limitation less of a concern.
The first iteration of Core Ultra desktop CPUs, known as Arrow Lake, is planned to include 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores. Future platforms like Panther Lake are anticipated to raise the core counts, but presently, the LGA-1851 platform is moving in this direction. Additionally, the new platform is reported to exclusively support DDR5 memory, completely phasing out support for DDR4 technology.
As per several leaks, Intel’s 800 series chipsets are expected to consist of seven different SKUs: Z890, B860, H810, W880, and Q870, while there is a possibility that Intel may discontinue the H870 variant. This move aims to simplify their motherboard lineup, bringing it more in line with AMD’s offerings.
Users can take solace in the fact that the new socket is expected to work with most current LGA-1700 coolers, as the package size remains the same, with only minor modifications to the Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) dimensions. This design detail was revealed through a leak involving an engineering sample of Meteor Lake-S, although the series has since been scrapped.
Source & Images: Igor’sLAB