Intel Rocket Lake-S Desktop-Grade CPUs Specifications And Features Officially Revealed To beat AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processors?

Intel has unexpectedly offered multiple details about the upcoming Intel Rocket Lake-S desktop-grade processors. These new CPUs will go up against the AMD Ryzen 5000 Series of desktop-grade processors. The details offered by Intel slightly contradict the rumors about these new CPUs.

In a clear attempt to subdue AMD’s launch of the ZEN 3-based AMD Ryzen 5000 Series of Desktop-grade CPUs, Intel has officially revealed several important details about the Intel Rocket Lake-S Desktop series. These new CPUs from Intel will be officially branded as the 11th Gen Core series but it is not immediately clear if the CPUs belonging to the new series will follow the naming scheme pattern of its predecessors.

Intel Rocket Lake-S Desktop-Grade CPUs Based On Cypress Cove, Specifications, Features:

Intel confirmed that Rocket Lake-S will be based on the Cypress Cove architecture. It was previously speculated that the Core Architecture was a backport of Willow Cove (Tiger Lake). However, Intel has confirmed that Cypress Cove is Ice Lake (Sunny Cove) design. What this means is that Intel Rocket Lake is still based on the archaic 14nm Fabrication process. But it will feature a revamped architecture based on the Sunny Cove (Ice Lake) architecture called Cypress Cove.

Technically, Cypress Cove Architecture is a backport of 10nm to 14nm. This means the design does not benefit from the new SuperFin technology. Intel has, however, added the latest PCIe Gen4 support and also included its latest Xe 12 generation graphics. As the Cypress Cove Core Architecture is based on the 14nm Process, Intel could offer Boost Clocks that reach very close to the 5 GHz. Intel indicates such a hybrid approach will offer the best of both worlds situation where a new architecture will manage to offer very high Boost Clock Speeds from the first lot.

Besides the PCIe 4.0 support, which offers 20 CPU-based lanes instead of 16, the new Intel Rocket Lake-S SKUs will have Deep Learning Boost and VNNI support which should offer a significant boost to AI-related workflows. In terms of I/O ports, these new CPUs will feature the new USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 standard.

Interested buyers will also get the benefit of the Intel Xe-based Gen12 GPUs. These new GPUs support high-end video decoders like 4:4:4 HEVC and VP9 while allowing display resolutions of up to 3x 4k60. Moreover, the embedded memory controller now natively supports speeds of up to DDR4-3200 without the need for complex overclocking.

Will Intel Name The Rocket Lake-S Desktop Parts As Per The Standard Scheme?

The Intel Rocket Lake-S CPUs will officially land on desktops under a name of the 11th Gen Core series. Hence, it would be logical to assume the successor to Core i9-10900K will be named Core i9-11900K. But, the Rocket Lake-S series tops at 8 Cores and 16 Threads configuration. Hence it is unclear how Intel will position a generation of CPU that features fewer cores than the previous generation of Comet Lake CPUs.

Intel has assured that its 11th Gen Core series will be available in the first quarter of 2021. The series will support new 500-series chipsets. However, even the existing 400-series motherboards should support the motherboards as they are PCIe Gen4 compliant.

Intel’s Rocket Lake is going to be the first major new architecture after quite some time. However, usage of Cypress Cove instead of Willow Cove won’t offer more than 25 percent IPC gains which previous reports were claiming.