Intel is changing the desktop platform again. The company from Santa Clara has included in its official plan the new Z990 and Z970 chipsets, which will use the brand new LGA 1954 socket. This practically means that the current LGA 1851 has a very limited lifespan and will soon be replaced.
New Z990 and Z970 solutions will be connected to the desktop platform Nova Lake-S will debut together with processors from the Core Ultra 400S series. Thus, Intel continues the practice of frequent CPU socket changes, which imposes on users the obligation to replace the motherboard with each major upgrade.
New platform, new restrictions for users
For now, no official technical details about the Z990 and Z970 chipsets are known. The number of PCIe lanes, USB controllers, as well as the exact differences between these two models are still a matter of guesswork and conjecture. However, the positioning of the Z970 is already visible. Given that Intel has not released the H870 chipset for Arrow Lake-S, the industry is increasingly saying that the Z970 will practically take over that role, as a sort of spiritual successor to the desktop H-series, but under a new name.
The introduction of the LGA 1954 socket also means a complete break in compatibility with existing LGA 1851 motherboards. Nova Lake-S processors will be able to work exclusively on new boards with Z990 and Z970 logic, which clearly tells users that any processor upgrade will require the purchase of a new motherboard.
Intel has already confirmed that the New Lake series will be launched at the end of 2026, which leads to the conclusion that Z990/Z970 chipsets will also appear then, as well as a whole new generation of motherboards. Thus, LGA 1851 practically becomes another in a series of “short-lived” Intel sockets, which is certainly not good news for enthusiasts and gamers.
Compared to that approach, AMD seems much more stable. The AM4 socket, introduced in 2017, supported five CPU architectures and four manufacturing processes, a rarity in processor history. Although AMD switched to AM5 with the Ryzen 7000 series and Zen 4 architecture, the company has already confirmed that future desktop processors based on the Zen 6 architecture will remain compatible with the AM5 socket, without the need to replace the motherboard.
For users planning a long-term upgrade, the difference in philosophy between Intel and AMD has never been more apparent, reports VideoCardz, .