The first Intel Rocket Lake Z590 motherboard looks like an overclocking beast

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And it's got more than a few upgrades from the previous gen.

Z490 mobo
(Image credit: Gigabyte)

Meet the Gigabyte Z590 AORUS Xtreme, the first Intel Rocket Lake 500-series motherboard to make an appearance ahead of launch, likely at CES 2021. This Gigabyte board (uncovered by Videocardz) is the very first to have surfaced, but it's also likely to be one of the top SKUs available when the rest of its ilk do finally launch alongside the latest Intel CPUs over the next few months.

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With PCIe Gen4 exclusive to Rocket Lake CPUs on Intel's side, two of the three PCIe x16 slots on the Z590 will support Gen4, along with two of the three M.2 slots. That means more lanes and bandwidth for your setup. Currently only some Z490s come with PCIe 4 support for Rocket Lake, but expect some more mainstream Rocket Lake motherboards to boast this technology in future. 

In fact, a tweet from Komachi_Ensaka details some of the other motherboards in the 500-series line-up, some of which will be more affordable, and all of which are likely to support PCIe Gen4, but expect some lessened functionality as you move down the line. All are set to come with the LGA 1200 socket, however, the same one found on existing 400-series motherboards for Intel's Comet Lake chips.

But back on the Z590 AORUS Xtreme, not only is it the world's first Rocket Lake motherboard, it's also the first confirmed application of the as yet unannounced Realtek ALC4080 audio codec, successor to the ALC1220 codec. Lots of things to get excited about with this one then.

But for all this new-fangled functionality, don't expect it to be a steal. As the flagship of Gigabyte's 500-series, the Z590 AORUS Xtreme motherboard will likely go on sale for something in excess of $600, undoubtedly more than the current price of its Z490s.

Katie Wickens
Katie Wickens
Hardware Writer

Having been obsessed with game mechanics, computers and graphics for three decades, Katie took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni and has been writing about digital games, tabletop games and gaming technology for over five years since. She can be found facilitating board game design workshops and optimising everything in her path.