Intel documentation confirms the existence of Z390 and X399 chipsets

Intel documentation confirms the existence of Z390 and X399 chipsets. Wait! Doesn't AMD already have an X399 chipset?




Thanks to TheF3ARChannel for the info.

Read more about Intel's Z390 and X399 chipsets.

Lesson one - mass confusion.

/slow clap.

Well nice to know that my Z370 motherboard is absolutely worthless for anything besides Coffee Lake, way to go Intel.

rfarmer said:

Well nice to know that my Z370 motherboard is absolutely worthless for anything besides Coffee Lake, way to go Intel.

Click to expand...

That much was completely obvious before Z370 even launched. Z390 was rumoured for this summer before Z370 boards were even on the shelves.

However, hopefully some Z370 boards (the ones with enough phases to cope with an 8 core) may work. I mean, there was some hacked bioses for Z270 to make CL work.

But yeah honestly if you didn't already know the next time you look at buying a PC have a think about it. Because AMD don't pull this crap, and you can go through several generations all on one board.

I really hoped Intel would can this crap and leave it out now that AMD have come back to the fight, but it seems not. It really, truly sucks. The problem is Intel value their chipsets very highly and make tons of cash out of those *as well* as the CPUs. So it's obvious why they do it, but that doesn't make it suck any less.

While I love seeing new tech, Intel really need to stop pulling this new socket crap when they really don't have to, More people would buy Intel if they knew they had an upgrade path.

Dicehunter said:

While I love seeing new tech, Intel really need to stop pulling this new socket crap when they really don't have to, More people would buy Intel if they knew they had an upgrade path.

Click to expand...

They do it for several reasons, but all of them have the same goal - making cash.

Not only do they sell their chipsets (for a lot more money than AMD do..) but they also require a license for you to use the socket which also costs money.

That is why they fell out with Nvidia, copped the nark and said "No more sockets for you".

rfarmer said:

Well nice to know that my Z370 motherboard is absolutely worthless for anything besides Coffee Lake, way to go Intel.

Click to expand...

Nowhere does it say that so hold on to your horses our boards should be good for ICL too, hypothetically...

AlienALX said:

Lesson one - mass confusion.

/slow clap.

Click to expand...

To be fair, Intel had the name already in the works forever and it was AMD that decided to be a rooster. Surely Intel will change theirs now.

Please dont be another socket, if im being totally honest I wish tech (primarily cpus) would slow down a little, its been kinda nice with gpus knowing it isnt going to be old news 6 months later, it almost justifies the price tags.

russler said:

Please dont be another socket, if im being totally honest I wish tech (primarily cpus) would slow down a little, its been kinda nice with gpus knowing it isnt going to be old news 6 months later, it almost justifies the price tags.

Click to expand...

I agree with this.

CPUs are long lasting even with the recent introduction of actual competition from AMD. Bumping up the core count doesn't do much after a certain point for most tasks.

If this results in a core count war, it also means that 4 and 6 core CPUs will be low and mid tier products and priced accordingly, but will have the generational boost in single core performance.

I can't see that being a bad thing from any perspective, unless the goal is to have latest and greatest every generation.

I wish Intel stopped this nonsense of not providing backwards compatibility, but then again with my current cycle of new CPU every four to six years there has been a reason to also swap motherboards, last time it was USB 3.0 and NVME, now it was DDR4 support.

I've used Intel exclusively since Core2 - and the socket/chipset stuff is now getting out of hand. It's getting hard to keep track of what goes in what!

My next upgrade will likely be to team Red once my 7700k gets tired.

Dicehunter said:

While I love seeing new tech, Intel really need to stop pulling this new socket crap when they really don't have to, More people would buy Intel if they knew they had an upgrade path.

Click to expand...

People buy it anyway. It's just they make sure to complain first before dropping unneccesary money on a 5% increase.

Wonder how many have gone from 6700k/7700k to an 8700k which has next to 0 gain yet happily dumped around £500 minimum for a chip and mobo.

Sorry to say, but even those who have money to burn, it's getting to the point were stupidity overtakes common sense and impulse control.

Why on earth do people drop such vast amounts of money to see increases in perf. like this.

However throw in this new scenario we have. AMD producing outstanding CPUs. Ok, Intel need to increase the gain. Easily done for them, but stupidity will rise once again, and when Intel release the new CPU along with ... yet another Mobo. Everyone will jump to it and buy both, defending Intel stating "the gain on this CPU is much higher, it needed a new mobo" when in reality, it didn't.

Long story short. Tech addicts are gullible.

Warchild said:

Long story short. Tech addicts are gullible.

Click to expand...

Totally. I watched some guys go through Sandy, Ivy, Haswell and even DC. Absolutely crazy.

AlienALX said:

Totally. I watched some guys go through Sandy, Ivy, Haswell and even DC. Absolutely crazy.

Click to expand...

2600K - 6600K - 8700K I'm in the clear as I at least gained something (HT) and 2 more cores.

TheF34RChannel said:

2600K - 6600K - 8700K I'm in the clear as I at least gained something (HT) and 2 more cores.

Click to expand...

I really don't change CPUs that often. IIRC my last few (starting with the present) was 14 core ES Xeon (Broadwell E) - 5820k - 3970x (that I had to sell because the board blew up) FX 8320 - Sandy I5 2400 (locked) - I7 950 (the sandy was a waste of cash tbh, the 950 was quicker multi threaded).

And that would take me all the way back to 2009. So it's really not that many. And, tbh? had I not had a windfall I would have never *ever* built that 3970x triple Titan Black SLi rig, and would probably be typing from my FX 8320 now.

GPUs? haha, I am a complete whore I've had bloody loads.

AlienALX said:

I really don't change CPUs that often. IIRC my last few (starting with the present) was 14 core ES Xeon (Broadwell E) - 5820k - 3970x (that I had to sell because the board blew up) FX 8320 - Sandy I5 2400 (locked) - I7 950 (the sandy was a waste of cash tbh, the 950 was quicker multi threaded).

And that would take me all the way back to 2009. So it's really not that many. And, tbh? had I not had a windfall I would have never *ever* built that 3970x triple Titan Black SLi rig, and would probably be typing from my FX 8320 now.

GPUs? haha, I am a complete whore I've had bloody loads.

Click to expand...

3x titan back in the day? I bow to you, my liege. I'm a GPU whore as well; biggest upgrade one can get.

CPUs I change out of necessity also. A board that gave out, needing HT back whilst getting extra cores for the future.

TheF34RChannel said:

3x titan back in the day? I bow to you, my liege. I'm a GPU whore as well; biggest upgrade one can get.

CPUs I change out of necessity also. A board that gave out, needing HT back whilst getting extra cores for the future.

Click to expand...

It was the most I ever spent on a PC. About four grand, all told. It was something I had dreamed about for many years. Last time I had a top end PC was back in like 1999. Being absolutely broke for over a decade just made me want to do it even more. Kinda like the irresponsible sports car I guess. Any way, done that now and learned from it.. got about £1500 back out of it. Never again.

AlienALX said:

It was the most I ever spent on a PC. About four grand, all told. It was something I had dreamed about for many years. Last time I had a top end PC was back in like 1999. Being absolutely broke for over a decade just made me want to do it even more. Kinda like the irresponsible sports car I guess. Any way, done that now and learned from it.. got about £1500 back out of it. Never again.

Click to expand...

Yeah PC stuff isn't always a good investment. However it must have been good feeling like a king for well over a year.

TheF34RChannel said:

Yeah PC stuff isn't always a good investment. However it must have been good feeling like a king for well over a year.

Click to expand...

Not even that long tbh !. When I bought it the only CPUs with 6 cores were either the 3930k, 3960x, 3970x and 4930k and 4960x. About a month after I bought it the 5820k came out, though looking back it would have been short of lanes. The titans were £699 each, IIRC and I started out with two. I bought the other one about 4 months later for £450, which was cheap then. However, within six months the 970 and 980 came out, at a much bloody cheaper price. I got my 3970x cheap (£340, around the same launch price as the 5820k) so I wasn't bothered about that and it ran an easy 4.9ghz on a H110. I could bench at 5, but it started getting too hot. Plus it had more lanes, and I was able to run a patch to enable PCIE3.

However after 11 months the board died (MSI BB XPII) and MSI had none. I did buy a RIVE, but I was worried it would die (second hand, no warranty etc). I was also very concerned about the uber high OC, because I was thinking "Did that kill the MB?".

So I bought my Triad Alienware for about £1200 IIRC (5820k etc) dropped back to two TB and gave one to my wife and it was fine. Sold off the rest to pay for the Triad.

But yeah, not doing that again. I was chasing 4k with high FPS. Back then you needed at least two 970s to come to the party but that would barely scrape you through. Problem is? adding a third card adds serious issues. Heat for one, but drivers just let me down time and time again.

So I sold off the 4k monitor, dropped down to 1440p and bought a Titan XM. Was great, then the XP came out and now I can finally run 4k if I want using DSR, otherwise I can run native at 1440p.

But yeah, I am no longer going to chase tech. Like, trying to run something bleeding edge or unconventional (like three screens, SLi, Triple SLi etc). None of them are supported properly and usually die and fall to the wayside (like wide screen gaming etc etc). All of it just brings you issues on day one that sometimes are never fixed. 3D was the same.. Yeah, I am now one of the masses. I don't want to stick out any more just give me lovely games that work.