Gigabyte Z490 And B460 LGA 1200 Motherboards Incoming For 10th Gen Intel Comet Lake-S

As we reported last month, Intel's next-generation Comet Lake-S desktop processors are scheduled to arrive sometime during the first half of 2020. Rather than being based on Intel's new 10nm process tech, Comet Lake-S will be yet another extension of the company's long-running 14nm lithography.

Despite the 14nm ties, 10^th generation Comet Lake-S desktop processors will reportedly require a new socket (LGA 1200), which means that all-new motherboards will be required. To that end, the folks over at VideoCardz have come across Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) listing for a number of upcoming 400-Series Gigabyte motherboards that seemed destined to accommodate Comet Lake-S.

In addition to the H410, H470 and Q470 which were revealed previously via leaked desktop roadmaps, today's leak makes mention of Z490 and B460. The Z490 will be the flagship chipset for 400-Series motherboards, with Gigabyte's EEC listings making reference to the following products:

• Z490 AORUS ELITE
• Z490 D
• Z490 GAMING X
• Z490 UD
• Z490 WHITE
• Z490M
• Z490M DS3H
• Z490M GAMING X

Despite the need for new chipsets/motherboards, we won't be seeing any major new I/O enhancements with the move to LGA 1200. Instead, that will have to wait until the 10nm Tiger Lake processors arrive with support for PCIe 4.0 later in 2020. For those keeping score, AMD first embraced PCIe 4.0 with the launch of Ryzen 3000 desktop processors and the supporting X570 chipset in July.

Comet Lake-S processors will be available in 35W, 65W, and 125W configurations, with the top-spec 125W parts sporting 10 cores and 20 threads.