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Amongst all the AMD Ryzen Zen 3 buzz, rumors of the latest Intel Rocket Lake CPU lineup – set to launch sometime around CES’21 – have been circulating popular tech forums. The latest rumors state that Intel’s 11th Generation could have the ability to run an all-core overclock of 5.0GHz – something we have yet to see from any of the two brands’ top offerings.
Intel’s Rocket Lake CPU lineup is set to release in the first quarter of 2021, equipped with PCIe Gen 4.0 support and a host of improvements that should see it land back on top of gaming performance – according to reputable sources.
Intel's 11th Gen CPUs Will See Major Architectural Changes, Large Performance Increases, And A Max Core Count Of 8
Rumors have been leaked by tech insiders ITCooker and MebiuW – two reputable sources that released accurate rumors in the past. ITCooker was the first to provide benchmarks and raw data on the AMD Ryzen 4000G processors. This time around, ITCooker is providing details for Intel’s 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPUs, even showing screenshots of a setup running a Rocket Lake engineering sample – showcasing its PCIe 4.0 capabilities on a Z490 motherboard.
In short, here’s what the sources had to say about the latest 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPUs:
- Supports PCI-e Gen 4.0 protocol
- Greater AVX-512 performance (but chips will run much hotter and consume more power)
- Both L1 and L2 cache sizes will be increased. L1 will have 48KB whilst L2 will have 512KB
- 11th Gen Rocket Lake is still 14nm – however, there are clearly architectural changes
- Architectural improvements will see an uplift in gaming performance. Whilst providing better performance than the 10th gen CPUs, they will still be behind AMD in multi-threaded tasks
- Can easily overclock to 5GHz all cores
Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs: Architecture, Performance, And Platform Rumors
The leaker went on, reiterating that Intel’s Rocket Lake CPUs will support PCIe Gen 4.0, something we’ve seen from AMD’s X570 range for almost a year already. That said, whilst the 11th gen CPUs will still be based on 14nm process node, there will be a clear and major architectural upgrade – the biggest we’ve seen since Skylake back in 2015.
The latest architecture tweaks have been specifically tuned towards gaming and help Intel reclaim what AMD has seemingly taken with its Ryzen Zen 3 CPUs. The leaker states that the multi-core performance crown will still reside in the AMD park, mainly thanks to its faster SMT architecture and additional core count. Intel’s flagship 11900K looks set to hit shelves with only 8 cores and 16 threads – a step back from their 10th gen i9-10900K (10 cores/20 threads).
Intel 11th Gen Core Rocket Lake Desktop SKUs, Overclocking, and Pricing
Looking at overclocking, rumors are suggesting that we could see an all-core boost frequency of 5GHz – effectively becoming the world’s first. MeibuW says that Rocket Lake i9 chips can turbo up to 5.4-5.5GHz on a single core, boasting at least a 200MHz improvement over the existing Core i9-10900K.
It is also rumored that the Core i9 and i7 SKUs will share the same core/thread count of 8 cores/16 threads – with the latter expected to provide lower frequencies than the i9. Intel will also continue to use 6 cores and 12 threads for their i5 SKUs.
Looking at price, the Core i7 Rocket Lake SKU is reported to cost less than $400, making it extremely competitive with AMD’s recently released Ryzen 7 5800X – an 8 core/ 16 threads SKU that’s going to retail at the slightly higher price of $449.
Intel’s i5 SKU looks set to retail at around $250-300, slightly under that of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. That said, the Ryzen 5 5600 could throw a huge spanner in the works, set to release for well under $250.
As always, this is just speculation. If speculation is to be believed, Intel finds themselves in a tricky spot come Q1 2021.
