Coffee Lake Not Supported by Intel’s 200-Series Motherboards
by Ian Cutress on August 2, 2017 5:12 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- LGA1151
- 200-series
- Core 8th Gen
- Coffee Lake
- 300-Series
In a stunning bit of Twitter, a tweet from one of the leading motherboard manufacturers has stated that Coffee Lake, Intel’s 8th Generation Core processors, will not be supported on the current generation of 200-series motherboards.
No，Coffee Lake CPU is not compatibilble with 200 series motherboards.
— July 31, 2017
Information like this is usually kept under wraps until an Intel reveal, but it seems to have been mindlessly posted to Twitter on July 31st, an account that last tweeted on April 11th before this tweet occurred. This tweet has since been deleted.
At this point, due to the similar microarchitecture to Kaby Lake being used in Coffee Lake, most of the technology press were under the impression that the Coffee Lake processors would be compatible with LGA1151 socket motherboards, namely the 100-series and 200-series. With the above tweet essentially confirming that Coffee Lake will not be supported, it means that either the new CPUs will not be LGA1151, or that the motherboards will lock-out the processors by firmware, or the CPUs and sockets will use a different notching system to ensure the wrong processor cannot be put in the wrong board. It does mean however that 200-series users hoping to upgrade to a Coffee Lake processor (which early reports are suggesting might be up to six cores, but this has not been announced) will not be able to.
There are many potential reasons for the change if the socket is still LGA1151. The obvious one would be product segmentation on Intel’s part, which would stick in the craw for a number of the user base. The second one that it might actually be a physical requirement for the processor – if previously unused pins are required for power and/or control for different elements of the DVFS in the chip. This would depend on new features on the chip, which could extend to different power management, different graphics, or different IP blocks that require separate pin-out connections. Intel might also be using a different power system for voltage regulators, which might not be compatible with current 200-series motherboards.
At this point, nothing has been made official. The fact that this was stated on Twitter so far from any launch date that we know of is an interesting development.
*The name of the manufacturer has been removed by request after this news was published.
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Gothmoth - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
2 intel mobo generations.... or 20 month.....Hurr Durr - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
How is this news? It was known for a while, even if unofficially that 1151v2 is not compatible with 1151.Gothmoth - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
yeah? can you point us to articles who made that clear? you can´t?... i see.your are talking about rumors and selling them as facts.
nevcairiel - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
Well this article isn't much better then a rumor either. The "source" has vanished.Hurr Durr - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
Calm your tits honey, I`m not selling you anything, intel will do that for me just fine.Source, from the top of my head, would be leaked presentation about three months ago.
Madpete - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
Anyone else think this is a big mistake if true? And typically arrogant from Intel.Their problem now of course is the landscape has changed, before they could do whatever they wanted because there was no real competition. Now that AMD is back in the game, this is no longer the case. And AMD have been taking back market share.
I have a Z270 system and have been thinking about changing up for something better, if the 6 core 8700k was available I would have bought it no questions as it would have been less hassle / expence. Now that it looks like that's off the table, I have been forced to reconsider my options. And lets be honest Ryzen / Thread Ripper is very very tempting. I'd bet there are a lot of others in the same boat.
Intel had an opportunity here to keep market share, keep customers happy, and reduce AMD sales in one hit. Instead it looks like the same old Intel, which is a shame for them and for us!
Gothmoth - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
sure it is a mistake.but there are a lot of not very bright people out there who think INTEL = the best. (*)
PR works on the weak minded.
(*)
same as some people think that english is the native langage of everyone.
mostly american who learn no other language than english....
TEAMSWITCHER - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
All this bitching about this First World Problem makes me sick just visiting this site. What a whiny bunch you are! If you don't like it ... there is a simple solution ... don't buy it. What I suspect is actually happening here is buyer's remorse. But ... it goes without saying that better stuff is ALWAYS coming "down the pike." Don't worry - the Coffee Lake adopters will be here bitching when the Ice Lake (10 nm) platform launches next year. Everyone takes a turn.HStewart - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
You just got take what is on Internet with grain of salt and make up your decision. No matter what platform you support, there are going to be complainers.pepoluan - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link
Intel to AMD: "You will NOT be nailing our coffin!! WE will be nailing or coffin ourselves!!!" (flash a birdy to AMD)