AORUS Z890 leak
An Iranian website claims to have details on Gigabyte’s upcoming Z890 launch plans.
The company is preparing at least eight different Z890 motherboards, seven of which are apparently part of the AORUS lineup. It’s important to note that Gigabyte currently offers 45 different models of Z790 motherboards, which in many cases are just upgraded Z690 versions. In other words, the supposed Z890 lineup is definitely just the first wave of motherboards that Gigabyte is said to be preparing for next-gen processors.
Yesterday, Intel confirmed that Arrow Lake will be released in the fourth quarter. This claim was not strictly about desktop or mobile series, which probably means that both products will be available within a similar timeframe. However, there is a strong belief that motherboard makers may showcase their next-gen Intel motherboards already at Computex next month, which could take a covert or a public form.
As a reminder, it is common for motherboard companies to reveal the design or prototypes of unnamed motherboards. Just last year, we made several news reports about the then-upcoming Z790 X motherboards being shown at Computex. The X series had minor updates such as introduction of WiFi7 standard.
According to Faceit , Gigabyte is said to be introducing the following boards:
- GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS XTREME AI TOP
- GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS MASTER AI TOP
- GIGABYTE Z890 AI TOP
- GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS MASTER
- GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS PRO ICE
- GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS ELITE WIFI7
- GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS ELITE AX
- GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS ELITE X ICE
As highlighted by the media, there is a new family of motherboards supposedly called AI TOP. Other than stating that these boards focus on artificial intelligence, it is not clear what that focus could possibly be on. However, it is expected that next-gen desktop CPUs will also have a built-in Neural Processing Unit, just like the Meteor Lake and upcoming Lunar Lake CPUs for laptops.
All of these boards have the same LGA-1851 socket, and Gigabyte will launch new ICE boards, it is claimed. These are intended for the Arrow Lake-S series, also known as Core Ultra 200K and non-K processors. The socket is said to be maintained until at least late 2026. What may also be worth mentioning is that this is the first Intel series that will only support DDR5 memory on desktop, so for that reason alone there should be fewer boards than for Intel 700 series.
| Next-Gen Flagship Desktop Platforms | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz.com | Z890 | Z790 | AMD X770 | AMD X670 |
| Flagship Chipset |  |  |  |  |
| Launch | 2024 | Q4 2022 | 2024 | Q4 2022 |
| Socket | LGA-1851 | LGA-1700 | AM5 (LGA-1718) | AM5 (LGA-1718) |
| DDR5 Memory Support | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| DDR4 Memory Support | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Expected CPU Support | Core (Ultra) 200 “Arrow Lake-S” | 12th Core “Alder Lake-S” | Ryzen 9000 “Granite Ridge” | |
| TBC | 13th Core “Raptor Lake-S” | Ryzen 8000G “Hawk Point” | ||
| 14th Core “Raptor Lake-S Refresh” | Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” | |||
| PCIe Gen5 Support | ✅ 16+4 | ✅ 16 | ✅ TBC | ✅ 16+8 |
| Wi-Fi Support | WiFi 7 | WiFi 6E/7 | WiFi 7 | WiFi 6E/7 |