As the next generation of hardware is slowly coming towards us, it’s not unexpected to be getting more and more info leaking out about it. This particular leak targeted Intel’s CPU and specifically its chipsets and motherboards. According to leaker jaykihn0 on X, who provided a whole spec sheet for the upcoming Arrow Lake-S chipsets, their overclocking potential them might be limited to just the top-end chipset.
This information is about the Intel 15th Gen processors that are expected to come in the second half of the year. This does mean a new motherboard standard as we expect another socket change for the new CPUs with a new naming standard as well. But although previously overclocking your CPU was fairly wide-ranged, except for the lowest chipsets, it now might be available on just the Z890 motherboards.
Arrow Lake-S motherboard chipsets and specs
In the leaked spec page, jaykihn0 revealed quite a bit of information on the chipsets for Arrow Lake-S. There we see the expected range of options with the full initial lineup according to the leaker featuring the: H810, B860, Q870, Z890, and W880. There we expect to see the Z, B, and H to be aimed at consumers, W for workstations, and Q for enterprise. The Z890 is the feature-rich and top-end option to pick from.
Because of that Intel seems to be limiting the IA and BCLK OC to just the Z890 chipsets. This is what is used to overclock your CPU, and it kind of makes sense as it is the more enthusiast-level board and these days, CPU overclocking is a lot less common considering most processors go as high on their own. In this case, you want the best option for a mobo with the best power solutions and cooling capacity.
On the other hand, memory overclocking is a bit more open, with only the Q870, and H810 boards not supporting it, limiting the enterprise and budget motherboards in what they can do. This is the more important overclocking option as it is a lot more influential as running your RAM higher is a lot more common and is actually advertised on the packaging rather than running the JDEC spec.
Another interesting feature is PCIe Gen 5 support is becoming a lot more common. Intel looks to be adding support to each of its motherboards. With each x16 slot (for the GPU) to have it, so any future graphics cards running the standard won’t be limited. although the upper chipsets are the ones with more lanes and support for storage as well as the fastest NVMe SSDs. All in all, the next-gen is shaping up to be quite fast.
