Intel has introduced a new socket (LGA 1200) and chipset (Z490) for its Comet Lake-S desktop processor. That's a hassle. But there is good news: if you decide to upgrade to Comet Lake, the shiny new Z490 motherboard will support at least one more CPU generation.

Gigabyte held a live stream (via Videocardz) where several representatives conducted a Q&A session about their Z490 motherboards. The first question that came up was whether the Z490 would support Rocket Lake.

"Um, yes," one of the hosts replied nervously." I don't know if I should say so, but, um, yes."

He could and did say that. Whether he should have done so is a matter for Gigabyte and Intel.

In any case, this would explain why Gigabyte has built PCI Express 4.0 support into at least some Z490 motherboards, even though Comet Lake still only supports PCIe 3.0. As Jacob pointed out a few weeks ago, these boards are useless if they are not compatible with Rocket Lake. We now know that it is compatible.

On a related note, this is further evidence that Rocket Lake is where Intel and AMD will finally meet in the PCIe 4.0 battlefield. According to previously leaked slides, Rocket Lake will introduce a new CPU core architecture that will support PCIe 4.0, but nothing official. Well, except for Gigabyte's understanding that the Z490 will support PCIe 4.0.

AMD has already introduced PCIe 4.0 support in its X570 chipset, and PCIe 4.0 will be available in the mainstream B550 chipset in June. Intel has yet to follow suit.

Current graphics cards are not constrained by PCIe 3.0, so this is not a major issue. However, if one wants to purchase a PCIe 4.0 SSD with incredibly fast read/write speeds (>5,000 MB/sec), it must be paired with a PCIe 4.0 platform.