Intel’s Rocket Lake CPU tested in PCIe 4.0 performance
As we learn more about Rocket Lake-S, the upcoming Intel 11th Gen Core series for desktops, more and more leaks are beginning to appear. Shortly after we revealed that Intel Rocket Lake is currently planned for Q1 2021, Intel official confirmed this fact on its official blog.
The 11th Gen core series will feature Intel’s new 14nm core design (rumored Willow/Cypress Cove) and integrated Xe-LP graphics. Both represent a major transformation for Intel’s now outdated Skylake architecture. The series will also be the first to support PCI Express 4.0 devices, an interface standard that has been available to AMD 400 and 500-series platforms for a long time.
Taiwanese leakers allegedly had access to one of such ‘next-generation’ CPUs and they immediately tested it on the Z490 motherboard. Motherboard manufacturers were eager to confirm that their first LGA1200 motherboards are already hardware-ready for the new PCIe standard.
Two screenshots were posted by ITCooker, featuring Seagate FireCuda 520 PCIe 4.0 SSD and AMD Radeon RX 5700XT graphics card. Both were correctly recognized as PCIe 4.0-capable devices by Crystal Disk Mark 8 for SSD and GPU-Z for the graphics card.
A 5 GB/s sequential (Q8T1) read and 4.2 GB/s write performance were reported by CristalDiskMark. Such throughput is only available through the PCIe 4.0 interface. The GPU was stress tested with Furmark, where GPU-Z reports PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 4.0 active bus interface. This confirms that both SSD and GPU were using the Gen4 standard.
ITCooker:
INTEL Next Generation CPU can use Z490 line PCIE 4.0
Fortunately, some Taiwanese friends borrowed PCIE 4.0 SSD for testing
AMD 5700 XT is used for PCIE 4.0 but CPUZ cannot read memory
After that, I’ll have a chance to test the super frequency again
Intel Rocket Lake-S PCIe 4.0 SSD Performance, Source: ITCooker
Intel Rocket Lake-S PCIe 4.0 GPU Performance, Source: ITCooker
Full screenshots:
| INTEL Mainstream CPU Series Specs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz.com | Coffee Lake-S | Comet Lake-S | Rocket Lake-S | Alder Lake-S | Meteor Lake-S |
| Launch Year | 2018 | 2020 | 2021 | 2H 2021 | 2022-2023 |
| Fabrication Node | 14nm | 14nm | 14nm | 10nm SuperFin | 7nm SuperFin? |
| Core µArch | Skylake | Skylake | Willow (Cypress) Cove | Golden Cove + Gracemont | Ocean Cove + Gracemont |
| Graphics µArch | Gen9 | Gen9.5 | Gen12 | Gen12 TBC | Gen 13 TBC |
| Max Core Count | up to 8 cores | up to 10 cores | up to 8 cores | up to 16 (8+8) | TBC |
| Socket | LGA1151 | LGA1200 | LGA1200 | LGA1700 | LGA1700 |
| Memory Support | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR5 | DDR5 |
| PCIe Gen | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 4.0 | PCIe 5.0 | PCIe 5.0 |
| Intel Core Series | 8th/9th Gen Core-S | 10th Gen Core-S | 11th Gen Core-S | 12th Gen Core-S (?) | 13th Gen Core-S (?) |
| Motherboard Chipsets | Intel 300 (eg. Z390) | Intel 400 (eg. Z490) | Intel 500 (Z590) | Intel 600 (eg. Z690) (?) | Intel 700 (eg. Z790) (?) |
Intel Rocket Lake-S Features
Source: ITCooker
