A new leak shows that Gigabyte is preparing at least eight Z890 motherboards for Intel Arrow Lake-S CPUs. The lineup is mainly comprised of Aorus models, with some AI-branded boards completing the set.
Spotted on Iranian news outlet Faceit.ir (via WCCFTech), which seemingly got taken down, the leak shows eight Gigabyte motherboards rocking Intel’s upcoming high-end chipset. Among this first wave of boards, we find seven Aorus branded ones alongside a new AI Top model. It’s not surprising to see Gigabyte following the artificial intelligence hype given AI is such a hot topic these days. Here’s the full list:
- Z890 Aorus Xtreme AI Top
- Z890 Aorus Master AI Top
- Z890 AI Top
- Z890 Aorus Master
- Z890 Aorus Pro Ice
- Z890 Aorus Elite WiFi7
- Z890 Aorus Elite AX
- Z890 Aorus Elite X Ice
This lineup will surely grow to include Gaming and Eagle models, not to forget mid- and entry-level chipsets. Thankfully the AI branding is not just for show since upcoming Core Ultra 200 series could feature a neural processing portion dedicated to AI tasks. Aside from Microsoft touting its (admittedly scary) Recall feature, it’s anyone’s guess how Gigabyte will contribute just yet.
Regarding functionality, we don’t know much apart from support for PCIe Gen 5 for graphics cards and Wi-Fi 7. The latter is quite interesting for those preferring wireless connectivity as it introduces a 6GHz band that’s less congested than the 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Also note that this time there won’t be any DDR4 support, as the industry has shifted to DDR5. Understandable since JEDEC is readying DDR6.
We can also hope for modern USB 4 ports alongside Thunderbolt 4 on high-end boards. Not to mention 2.5GbE LAN to counter the improved wireless connectivity.
You can expect these boards to hit retail alongside Intel Arrow Lake CPUs in Q4 this year. That said, product announcements and presentations may start as early as Computex next month.
