Intel's Z790 motherboards will be launched as the flagship 700 series platform, designed for 13th generation Raptor Lake CPUs. These motherboards are expected to come with some new I/O specification upgrades, which will give people a reason to choose them over the existing 600 se

Intel ’s Z790 motherboards will be launched as the flagship 700 series platform, designed for the 13th generation Raptor Lake CPUs. These motherboards are expected to come with some new I/O specification upgrades, which will give people a reason to choose them over the existing 600 series products. Intel's 13th generation CPU lineup will arrive later this fall, and Intel will be ready to support it not only on existing 600 series motherboards, but also on the next generation 700 series motherboards.

Now, these motherboards have been exposed and will be available in three forms, namely Z790, H770 and B760. The H710 motherboards appear to have been cancelled, as the H610 motherboards will take their place and continue to be offered in the entry-level segment.

Intel's Z790 motherboards will add support for PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs , but just like AMD's AM5 platform, it looks like only top-tier motherboards (high-end products) will support 5th generation M.2, while mainstream products The line won't take advantage of PCIe Gen 5.0 because it adds more PCB layers and driver interface devices, which costs more.

All of AMD’s X670E-class motherboards will support PCIe Gen 5 M.2, but as we can see, only the high-end ones feature the X670E design, while the rest (X670/B650) are Gen 5 and Gen 4 PCIe /Hybrid of SSD solutions. It is said that Intel plans to demonstrate its first batch of Z790 products at the end of July or August, which means that this platform will be unveiled in the third quarter of 2022. This won't be a retail launch of any kind, more akin to AMD's reveal of its 600-series AM5 lineup.

Motherboard manufacturers will also be showcasing their designs and laying out specs for their next-generation Z790 motherboards. We've even learned about pricing from some manufacturers, but it's highly unlikely that pricing will be revealed in advance. The boards will allegedly begin validation in August before mass production, so that means we could see Intel's 13th-gen Raptor Lake CPUs launch in late October or November. We've seen countless engineering samples being tested and benchmarked, and Intel wants its board partners to be ready before the official launch. The hardware query tool HWiNFO also recently added preliminary support for ASUS Z790 motherboards, which will appear in an upcoming release.

That said, Intel's existing 600-series motherboards, the ones launched with the 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs, will retain support for the 13th-gen Raptor Lake CPUs, as they use the same LGA 1700 and 1800 socket layout. The Z690 motherboard is still very powerful and compatible with both DDR4 and DDR5 specifications. Currently, there are no PCIe Gen 5.0 SSDs to take advantage of the Gen 5 slots, but they are indeed coming, and AMD is working hard with Phison to usher in the Gen 5 storage era, which will also bring their smart access storage technology. Come for a miracle.

Intel also has a new AI M.2 module feature that will come with Raptor Lake CPUs, but details on this have not yet been revealed. So, in the end, if you're really interested in a PCIe 5.0 SSD, the Z790 is the choice for you, otherwise, your current motherboard will be more than adequate for a Raptor Lake chip. Additionally, some motherboard manufacturers have released BIOS for their motherboards to support upcoming chips.