Months of teases, years of delays, and here we are with Intel finally detailing its 11th generation desktop processors. Codenamed Rocket Lake-S, these pack quite a bit of punch.
Still built on the 14nm node, these CPUs include a new architecture that comes with improvements of up to 19% instructions per clock cycle. They also come with an all-new integrated graphics, as well as new AI features with Intel Deep Learning Boost.
Let’s start with the list of new features.
Rocket Lake-S supports up to 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes, whereas its predecessor had about half the bandwidth. There is also support for faster DDR4-3200 memory, integrated HDMI 2.0, support for 10-bit AV1, as well as 12-bit HEVC.
Better overclocking capabilities are also in.
And while Rocket Lake-S uses the same LGA 1200 socket as Comet Lake-S, it does require the new 500 series chipset. This new chipset comes with built-in support for Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6E, 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, and more.
Thankfully, Intel has confirmed that some older motherboards are supported via a firmware update.
In terms of graphics, we have the new UHD Graphics 750 solution that uses the Iris Xe architecture that delivers a boost of up to 50% over the previous generation.
These new processors are shipping this month, and max out at $539 for the flagship Core i9-11900K. Price goes down from there, with the lowest-end model being the Pentium Gold 6405T that can be had for as little as $64.
