Intel's Comet Lake-S CPUs will require new LGA 1200 sockets, launching early 2020

Earlier this week, a leak revealed spec and pricing information for the entire desktop range of Intel Comet Lake CPUs, and it looks like these are not going to feature any 10 nm tech, at least for the mainstream models. Instead, Intel will add a 14 nm++ node and will bump the max TDP to max 125 W. Newer leaked slides also inform that there will be a new Intel 400-series chipset arriving in early 2020 and the new motherboards will include an LGA 1200 socket, making the Comet Lake CPUs incompatible with currently available motherboards.

The 125 W TDP is reserved for enthusiast models with 10 cores and 20 threads, while the corporate / mainstream models will only need 65 W and the low power versions just 35 W. Intel was against the introduction of PCIe 4.0, and its absence from the new platform comes as no surprise. It supports up to 24 chipset PCIe 3.0, up to 6 USB 3.1 Gen 2, up to 6 SATA 3.0 ports, plus PCIe 3.0 storage solutions like Intel Optane memory or NVMe M.2 SSDs. The chipset can handle 30 lanes, while the CPU will still provide the usual 16 lanes. Native RAM compatibility is still limited to dual-channel DDR4-2666.

Other key platform features include:
•    Enhanced core and memory overclocking via Turbo Boost 2.0
•    Rec.2020 and HDR support, HEVC 10-bit hardware acceleration, VP9 10-bit acceleration, UHD / 4K support
•    Integrated Intel Wireless-AX support
•    Thunderbolt 3
•    Smart Sound Technology with quad-core audio DSP
•    Modern Standby option