Intel has finally shared extensive details about its 11th Generation Intel Core S-series desktop processors, which are also known as ‘Rocket Lake’.
Rocket Lake is engineered on the new 14nm Cypress Cove Core architecture, with Intel suggesting it will see up to 19% IPC improvement on the previous 10th Generation series. Intel has also highlighted the improved integrated graphics for Rocket Lake, which is said to offer a 50% better graphics performance. Rocket Lake will be equipped with the same Intel Xe graphics architecture found in the Tiger Lake mobile processors in modern laptops. The most powerful Intel desktop chip of this new generation, the Intel Core i9-11900K, is reportedly capable of reaching speeds up to 5.3GHz when helped by Intel Thermal Velocity Boost. However, Intel is controversially capping the core and thread count to 8 and 16 respectively, which is half the offering of AMD’s most powerful desktop chip (the Ryzen 9 5950X). 
Intel Rocket Lake release date – When will it launch?
Intel Rocket Lake desktop processors will launch on 30th March, according to German retailer Mindfactory (via PC Gamer). However, some retailers have decided to start selling the desktop processor earlier than the official launch date, so it may well be possible to get your hands on the Intel chip even earlier. Intel Rocket Lake price – How much will it cost? The most expensive Rocket Lake processor (the i9-11900K) will be priced at US $539(~SGD $723). Intel will also be launching several other 11th Gen processors (a total of 19) at more affordable prices. The cheapest of them all, at least at launch, will be the i5-11400T at US $182(~SGD $244). 
Intel Rocket Lake specs – What are the specs?
We’ve compiled a table to detail all of the core specs for the new Intel Rocket Lake processor line-up. Take note that this isn’t the entire range of the new 11th Gen chips, as there are alterations of every chip model with various specs. Check out Intel’s official website for the full breakdown. 
Intel Rocket Lake performance – How powerful will it be?
It’s difficult to establish how powerful the new Rocket Lake processors are before testing them. Intel has provided its own metrics for now, but we advise retaining some scepticism for now. Intel suggests the Rocket Lake processors are ‘designed to game’ and has so shared some of its own benchmark figures to emphasise the performance jump from the 10th generation. The Intel i9-11900K reportedly saw a 13% performance increase when running Total War: Three Kingdoms (Dynasty, 1080p high) when compared to the 10th Generation Intel Core i9-10900K processor. Gears, 5, Grid 2019 and Microsoft Flight Simulator all apparently saw performance boosts of 9%, 8% and 14% respectively. But how does the performance differ compared to AMD? Intel claims Total War: Three Kingdoms saw a 10% boost with the Intel i9-11900K when compared with the Ryzen 9 5900X. Intel also claims the i9-11900K saw an advantage over AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X processor when it came to creative applications, with video creation / photo creation workloads reportedly seeing a 35% / 14% performance jump. Of course, Intel is always going to pick and choose the benchmark tests to favour its own desktop processors, so we advise you keep an open mind about the performance results until we get a chance to test it out for ourselves. 
Intel Rocket Lake features
Rocket Lake isn’t just increasing the performance, but also adding new features to Intel’s desktop chips. Rocket Lake will support up to 20 CPU PCIe 4.0 lanes, while also including the enhanced integrated graphics in the form of Intel Xe. The latter means that any desktop processor with Xe graphics will be capable of gaming without a graphics card, albeit at low performance settings. Other features include DDR4-3200 support, new overclocking features and support for Resizable BAR. The 11th generation desktop processors will use the new Intel 500 Series chipset, which brings further new features such as support for Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6E and new overclocking features. Intel 500 Series chipset is also confirmed to be compatible with 10th Gen Intel Core processors.  Comments are closed.
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