Rumor: Intel B560 chipset will be able to overclock memory

Intel’s upcoming B560 chipset is rumored to support memory overclocking. This was not possible with the previous B460 chipset. In addition, several engineering samples of Intel Rocket Lake CPUs have appeared.

The engineering samples were published on the Chinese social network Bilibili. The leaker reports that the Intel B560 chipset offers support for overclocking DDR4 memory, VideoCardz also writes. This was not the case with the previous B460 chipset; Intel officially only supported CPU and memory overclocking on Z-series chipsets. Competitor AMD has been offering this option for some time on its lower positioned chipsets. It is not yet clear whether users can also overclock their CPUs with a B560 motherboard.

In addition, the Bilibili user publishes details about various engineering samples of upcoming Rocket Lake CPUs. These are an alleged Intel Core i9-11900, i7-11700K and an i7-11700. The chips all have eight cores and sixteen threads.

Photos and specifications of the Rocket Lake engineering samples. Images via Bilibili

The Core i9-11900 and Core i7-11700K are relatively new ES2 samples, which would have been shipped in August. These chips support PCIe 4.0; this was not yet the case with previous engineering samples. The Core i7-11700 was previously handled by the leaker and is part of an earlier batch of engineering samples. This June ES1 chip did not yet support PCIe 4.0.

The Bilibili user also reports clock speeds of the samples, although these are not yet final. The release versions of the CPUs will be clocked higher. The i9-11900 sample currently has a base clock of 1.8GHz, with a maximum turbo frequency of 4.0GHz on all cores or 4.5GHz on a single core. The tdp would be fixed at 65W, with a PL2 of 225W. The latter is the maximum power, which can be used briefly to achieve higher turbo frequencies. Furthermore, the leaker reports that the chip performs at these speeds comparable to a current Core i7-10700K, which also has eight cores with hyperthreading.

The Core i7-11700K sample currently offers higher clock speeds, although these are not definitive either. The chip would have a clock speed of 3.4GHz with turbo frequencies of 4.3GHz and 4.8GHz on all cores or a single core respectively. The sample also has higher powers; the standard tdp is fixed at 125W with a PL2 power of 250W.

Intel is expected to announce its Rocket Lake chips and 500 series chipsets at CES in January. The CPUs use Willow Cove cores, which are presumably produced at 14nm. Intel previously confirmed that the Rocket Lake chips will get a maximum of eight cores. The chips are also equipped with an integrated Xe GPU.

Overview of current and upcoming Intel desktop processors, based on confirmed and leaked details and rumors