The test leaks confirms that Intel’s Z490 chipset does indeed feature support for PCIe 4.0, but the interface won’t work with the current 10th generation Comet Lake-S desktop CPUs, for the simple fact that it doesn’t come with PCIe 4.0 support. In the case of this particular Rocket Lake-S CPU, the processor was paired with a compatible Z490 motherboard, an ASRock Z490 Taichi, along with a Seagate FireCuda 520 PCIe 4.0 SSD. Now, the exact model of the Rocket Lake-S CPU is still a mystery, but the focus of the leak is clearly the sequential read and write speeds that are being achieved through the combination of components.
Specifically, the FireCuda 520 is seen achieving read and write speeds of 5000MB/s and 4266MB/s, respectively; speeds that we have come to expect of a PCIe 4.0 SSD. If that wasn’t further confirmation the setup also features an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, which was running via the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface. Sadly, there’s not a whole lot known about the Rocket Lake-S CPU in question, save for what is already out there: the CPU lineup will be the last of Intel’s 14nm process node, and besides supporting the PCIe 4.0 interface, it will also support Thunderbolt 4 and Intel’s 12th generation Iris Xe graphics.
Seeing as this is a leak, the standard rules of discretion and salt consumption apply. Until then, we just have to hold out until next year. (Source: ITCooker via Facebook, Hot Hardware)
