Intel Z490 Chipset Revealed - Should You Upgrade from LGA 1151?

Intel Z490 Chipset Revealed - Should You Upgrade from LGA 1151? The Intel Z490 chipset has been recently revealed, revealing the upcoming Skylake-X chips which are due to arrive later this year. But does that mean you should upgrade from your old LGA 1151 motherboard? The answer to that question is no! Here’s why...

The answer to your question

The Z490 chipset is indeed compatible with Intel's latest eighth-generation processors (though you'll need to wait until early 2019 to see some of those new chips in action). The new motherboard chipset is, however, an incremental upgrade from existing models, rather than a revolutionary leap forward. If you're planning on buying an eighth-generation CPU, you'll want to get it on a Z400- or Z300-series board for maximum compatibility. If your current PC has a seventh-gen processor or older installed, however, upgrading to a Z490 motherboard will give you access to all of Intel's newest features.

What are the differences between Skylake, Kaby Lake, and Coffee Lake?

These are three different processor families, but all of them are based on Intel's 14 nm lithography. For those curious about what that means and why it matters, I’ll break it down for you in plain English: 1) Moore’s Law predicts transistors will become smaller over time to fit more on a computer chip; 2) smaller transistors mean faster CPUs can be made using less power and space; 3) silicon technology is constantly improving. While there have been significant improvements in speed and energy efficiency with each subsequent generation, there aren't substantial differences between 14 nm chips and their 10 nm counterparts (Cannon Lake). The upcoming Ice Lake platform will be produced using an improved 10+ nm process.

How does Coffee Lake compare to AMD Ryzen 2700X on productivity apps?

One thing that really made Intel’s 8th Gen. stand out was its performance in multi-threaded productivity apps. The Core i7-8700K, for example, outperformed AMD’s Ryzen 2700X across many workloads and pricing was even worse for AMD’s chip as compared to Intel’s when both companies' top chips were compared. The problem with our previous benchmarks is that they didn't involve AMD's latest enthusiast chip: The Ryzen 7 2700X. So, we decided to run some tests on what would be a more fair comparison of these two high-end processors on our productivity suite: Cinebench R15 and Handbrake 1.0.7.

How does Coffee Lake compare to AMD Ryzen 2700X on gaming performance tests?

Coffee Lake processors were revealed a few months ago, and with new CPUs comes a new chipset to support them. Intel has announced its next-generation PCH dubbed Z390, which will support CPUs like Coffee Lake Refresh, while current owners of 300-series motherboards are wondering if they’ll have to upgrade to make use of their 8th generation Core processors.

With Intel rolling out its 9th generation Core desktop family soon, there’s also been questions about what new motherboard you’ll need to run them on. That brings us to today’s discussion: Will you need a new motherboard when moving from one CPU family to another? If so, will it be Intel or AMD based?