Intel Rocket Lake CPUs to reach 5GHz all core OC & better gaming performance

We recently got the big AMD Ryzen 5000 series zen 3 reveal where we saw Dr. Su announce the full lineup and their respective specs. These were certainly a huge improvement over the 3000 series, showing over 20% increase in performance in a number of today’s AAA games so, what does Intel have up its sleeve for their Rocket Lake processors? Well, we’ve only got an official announcement they exist thus far but, according to rumors circulating the web from prolific leaker ITCooker, it seems that these 11th Gen CPUs are definitely up for a fight.

ITCooker, a few days ago, shared screenshots of a PC currently running an Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake engineering sample in which showcases its PCIe 4.0 capabilities on a Z490 motherboard. But now, he’s returned with even more details on cache sizes, AVX-512 performance, and more. Here’s the full rundown of the Rocket Lake rumored details:

• Supports PCI-e Gen 4.0 protocol
• Greater AVX-512 performance (but chips will run much hotter and consume more power)
• Both L1 and L2 cache sizes will be increased. L1 will have 48KB whilst L2 will have 512KB
• 11th Gen Rocket Lake is still 14nm – however, there are clearly architectural changes
• Architectural improvements will see an uplift in gaming performance. Whilst providing better performance than the 10th gen CPUs, they will still be behind AMD in multi-threaded tasks
• Can easily overclock to 5GHz all cores

These details suggest that this generation sees a big shift for Intel and even though the chips will still be based on that 14nm process node, the architectural upgrade will be the biggest we’ve seen since 2015’s Skylake. Furthermore, it’s clear that they’re taken AMD very seriously, upping their progress towards getting their CPUs closer and closer in terms of gaming performance, even if they are still lagging behind.

What does this all mean in terms of price points though? Well, typically, AMD has Intel beat for pricing but it seems this time around, the Rocket Lake line could be priced very competitively.

Again, these are all speculations and rumors but the Core i7 Rocket Lake processor is going to come in under $400, which is less than the Ryzen 7 5800X that we’re sure a large number of people are looking at slotting into their PC come release. Moreover, rumors around the i5 variant are that it’ll retail between $250 and $300 therefore making it cheaper than the Ryzen 5 5600X so, it’ll be down to consumers on whether they want to be shelling out a little extra for AMD!

The only real issue for Intel here is that the budget AMD Ryzen 5 5600 chip that is yet to be revealed is reportedly going to be retailing well under $250, making it the cheapest CPU of all and certainly an attractive option for individuals wanting to save a bit of cash.

The launch of Intel’s Rocket Lake processors is set for Q1 2021 so there’s still quite a bit of time to see if these rumors and speculations are true or slightly off the mark. We’ll also get a full reveal from Intel themselves in that time where we’re sure we’ll see the full power of the whole lineup and how it compares directly to the AMD Ryzen counterparts. We’ll be on hand to keep you updated on all the Rocket Lake news as and when it drops including a where to buy page so you can secure one for yourself so head back to the website for all the juicy details!