Intel released all details of its 11th Gen Rocket Lake S-series desktop processor. Intel tried to catch up with AMD with the new processor but the journey is long. The new processors are designed to achieve the gaming performance that Intel has lost since the launch of the Ryzen 5000 processor.
Whereas, No considerable improvement in the chip except the new integrated GPU and backported architecture. The Rocket Lake features new Cypress Cove architecture. Intel backported 10nm Sunny Cove architecture to 14nm and renamed it Cypress Cove.
Typical Intel, there are lots of different SKUs from Core i9 to Core i3 and Pentium. All the processors support hyperthreading. Surprisingly, both the Core i9 and Core i7 processor are 8 Core /16 Thread part. Memory support increased to DDR4 3200 MHz and also, better memory overclocking added even to non “K” SKUs.
Core i3 and Pentium are carrying the same 10th gen Comet Lake but refreshed. Intel abandoned the Rocket Lake upgrade to Core i3 and Pentium.
Intel Rocket Lake support 20 PCI-express 4.0 lanes. New BIOS upgrade can enable PCIe 4.0 in older 400 series chipset motherboard if it’s ready for PCI express 4.0.
Rocket Lake performance
- Up to 19% gen-over-gen IPC performance improvement.
- Up to 50% better-integrated graphics performance with Intel UHD graphics featuring
- Intel Xe graphics architecture.
- Intel® Deep Learning Boost and Vector Neural Network Instructions support accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) inference — vastly improving performance for deep learning workloads.
- Enhanced overclocking tools and features for flexible overclocking and tuning performance and experience.
The company claims to have up to 19 percent IPC (Instructions Per Cycle) gain with With newer Cypress Cove architecture. Intel also said that the Rocket Lake Core i9-11900K is up to 11 percent faster than Ryzen 9 5900X. However, these are some company’s internal benchmarks which we cannot guarantee.
The new 11th Gen Rocket lake processor built on 14nm, and it is hard to squeeze out performance with power efficiency. That why, TDP of the CPUs (Core i9, i7) increased from l0th gen to 125W. No doubt, when the CPU runs on a turbo clock will surpass the advertise TDP easily, and more power means more heat.
AnandTech reported in their early review that the Core i7-11700K run very hot and consumes more power up to 290 W. We have to wait till March 30 for full official launch and reviews. But with the sample sourced by Anandtech reveals much of CPUs.
Furthermore, Ryzen 7 5800X win in almost all CPU test and Gaming test perform by AnandTech. In the AVX512 workload test, Intel is a clear winner. Rocket Lake-S new enhanced Xe graphics (Intel UHD Graphics 750) is interesting that give up to 50% improvement.
it’s early to say but even 10th gen Core i7-10700K is performing better than Core i7-11700K. Intel may fix it till the official launch date.
The Core i9 features a Thermal Velocity Boost(TVB) up to 5.3 in single-core and 4.8 all core. TVB increases clock frequency on single-core and multi-core above Turbo Boost if temperature and power budget is available.
Currently, no 10 Core, 12 Core and 16 Core processors available in 11th gen intel Rocket Lake. Previously, Intel’s 10th gen Comet Lake Core i9 has 10 core/20 thread, but intel removed two core from it and made it 8 core/16 thread core i9.
Why Intel removed two core?
The reason is Intel’s years old 14 nm process node. See, Intel backported the 10nm CPU to 14nm, which created the problem. The transistor density in 10nm process is more compare to 14nm process.
14nm CPU Cores don’t have enough space to fit transistors like the 10nm process, in limited die size. To make enough room, Intel stripped two Cores.
Memory Overclocking
Intel Rocket lake 11th gen desktop processors introduce new overclocking tools and more flexible tuning. This generation includes real-time memory overclocking, which enables changes to DDR4 frequency in real-time. And extending memory overclocking support for H570 and B560 chipsets.
Now, memory overclocking made easy and only the Z-series chipset motherboard is not required to play with RAM frequency.
New 500 Chipset
Intel Rocket Lake require a 1200 socket motherboard compatible with both the new 500 and old 400 series motherboard. The Chipset PCI express lanes are still PCIe 3.0 and Integrated USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20G) supported. There is not much difference between 400 and 500 chipsets.
Compare to Ryzen 5000
As the early review suggests, the AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 is still ahead of Rocket Lake. The major problem of the users is to get an AMD CPU in stock at the right price. AMD already increased the cost of their Ryzen 5000 series processors, and above that, stock issues and price has surged insanely.
Here, Intel can fight AMD with price and stocks. At last every performance is measured with the price. If the great performance CPU is not in stock or available at an inflated price, so what the use of the performance.
There is a big chance Intel’s price will help them to be in the market until some revolutionary chip comes out from the factory. Especially in the lower budget. Meanwhile, for those who need a high core count CPU, AMD Ryzen the only choice left.
Conclusion
The official launch date for the 11th gen Rocket lake processor is march 30. We are keen to see the Intel pricing for India and globally. If Intel managed to keep adequate stocks and cost in control, It could help consumers.
Overall, the performance and everything else indicating us to wait for 12th gen Alder Lake. The Alder Lake processors are not too far from launch, else buy AMD Ryzen.
Remember when Intel launched 7th gen Kaby Lake and 8th gen Coffee Lake in the same year. We may see something same with Rocket lake and Alder Lake. The company targeted to launch Alder Lake in late 2021.
We will update here if any performance or any improvement reported on the launch day.