The ever elusive Z390 motherboards are starting to show up in the wild(read benchmark databases).
While there’s has been talks and rumors about the Z390 chipset, nothing concrete has been found online till now. Now thanks to Sisoft Sandra Online database we have some numbers of a new motherboard from SuperMicro called the C7Z390-PGW.
The Z390 chipset is rumored to have more integrated USB 3.1 ports as well as built-in WLAN capabilities which “might” lower the cost. Apart from that, the Z390 doesn’t offer much of an upgrade over the Z370 except support for more cores; although the core upgrade is not confirmed.
If the rumors are to be believed, then the Z370 chipset along with coffee lake seems to be a rushed released from Intel. The Z390 will be the true successor to the Z270. However, these are all conjecture at this point and we will know when the board hits the shelves.
These small upgrades were first rumoured with the early 300-series Cannon Lake plans and never made it to launch due to the considerable hurdles Intel have run into with their 10nm microarchitecture as a whole. For potential customers, this may result in Coffee Lake’s true top-end chipset not launching until well into this eighth generation’s lifespan with minor incremental upgrades, and the traditionally top-spec Zx70 chipset renegaded to second fiddle.
Is Intel releasing another new architecture, so soon after Coffee Lake? Or is this merely a better chipset for the 8th Gen to be released alongside the budget chipset option arriving early next year. Only time will tell
