Alleged information regarding Intel's next-gen Z890 chipset has leaked out which points out slight I/O changes. Meanwhile, rumors regarding the Meteor Lake Desktop lineup still have the family in limbo as there's no confirmation if we will actually see them in action.

Alleged Intel's Z890 Chipset Features Detailed, No Confirmation For Meteor Lake-S Desktop CPUs

The latest information comes from leaf_hobby (TLC) who has tweeted out the details regarding the Intel Z890 PCH and the Meteor Lake-S Desktop CPUs. According to the details, the Intel Z890 PCH is going to offer a total of 4 additional PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes which will be dedicated to an additional M.2 slot and this would bring the total number of PCIe lanes to 24 lanes or four more than the existing Z790 PCH.

MTL-S has additional 5.0 x4 from CPU(for M.2?)

5.0 x16

5.0 x4

4.0 x4

From CPU Direct

No AVX512

Z890 has additional 4.0 x4 from chipset, x24 Gen4 lanes total

Wi-Fi 7 debut

It says support windows 12 on OS list(?)

Now only 6P+8E and 6P+16E, 8P under dev?

That’s everything I know

— TLC (@leaf_hobby) February 25, 2023

One interesting thing mentioned is that the Z890 motherboard will be the first to mark the debut of Intel's WiFi 7 technology. Existing Z790 motherboards feature WiFi 6E support and which could end up being one of the major selling points. There's also support for Microsoft's Windows 12 OS listed but that might be a placeholder for now. The bigger question is whether the Z890 PCH is made for the next-gen LGA 1851 socket or the existing LGA 1700/1800 socket.

We know that Intel has its Raptor Lake-Refresh lineup prepped for launch later this year and Intel is known to offer a refreshed platform each year. They already have two platforms with the LGA 1700 / 1800 socket, the 600 and 700 series so having the 800 series on the same socket won't make a lot of sense. Hence, it is likely that the Z890 chipset would debut with the next-gen CPU lineup for the LGA 1851 socket. The Intel LGA 1851 socket has already been leaked out and incorporates a similar design as the LGA 1700/1800 socket with minor changes besides the addition of the extra contact pins.

Intel Desktop Platform Chipset Comparison