Two x16 Gen 5 slots? 14th Gen

[Melodist]

With the launch of the 14th gen CPUs, would it be possible for motherboard manufacturers to allow for 2 slot Gen 5 support at x16 with q simple bios update? Since 14th Gen will have 4 more lanes available.

[RONOTHAN##]

4 minutes ago, Melodist said:

would it be possible for motherboard manufacturers to allow for 2 slot Gen 5 support at x16 with q simple bios update?

No, the motherboards would have to be completely rewired for that to happen. 

 

5 minutes ago, Melodist said:

Since 14th Gen will have 4 more lanes available.

Source? I havent heard of that, and given what I know about LGA 1700 I doubt they'd do that. More lanes likely won't show up until LGA 18xx for 15th gen. 

[Tetras]

That sounds like from when 14th gen was supposed to be a new CPU instead of a refresh?

[Alex Atkin UK]

27 minutes ago, Tetras said:

That sounds like from when 14th gen was supposed to be a new CPU instead of a refresh?

Exactly.  This where the difference between a slightly tweaked motherboard compared to a completely new design is all about, utlising more pins on the CPU to offer more things such as PCIe lanes.

 

A refresh may sometimes use previously unused pins for stuff, but of course that would only work on revised (usually signified by a newer chipset) motherboard.  Usually more lanes only come with a completely new socket as there aren't necessarily enough spare pins, or in the right places to run traces to new PCIe slots.

 

A lot of the problems now is that with PCIe 5 it requires a much more complex design on the motherboard with better isolation (specifically, more ground planes) to route more lanes, in order to achieve those speeds.  It only gets harder as it gets faster.

[Melodist]

54 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Exactly.  This where the difference between a slightly tweaked motherboard compared to a completely new design is all about, utlising more pins on the CPU to offer more things such as PCIe lanes.

 

A refresh may sometimes use previously unused pins for stuff, but of course that would only work on revised (usually signified by a newer chipset) motherboard.  Usually more lanes only come with a completely new socket as there aren't necessarily enough spare pins, or in the right places to run traces to new PCIe slots.

 

A lot of the problems now is that with PCIe 5 it requires a much more complex design on the motherboard with better isolation (specifically, more ground planes) to route more lanes, in order to achieve those speeds.  It only gets harder as it gets faster.

That's what I was hoping for, unused pins that already tie in with bandwidth usage.

 

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, the motherboards would have to be completely rewired for that to happen. 

 

Source? I havent heard of that, and given what I know about LGA 1700 I doubt they'd do that. More lanes likely won't show up until LGA 18xx for 15th gen. 

To be honest I don't know whether the info was old but it was on a recent article but we'll see anyways once Intel officially introduces them.

[Alex Atkin UK]

13 hours ago, Melodist said:

That's what I was hoping for, unused pins that already tie in with bandwidth usage.

 

To be honest I don't know whether the info was old but it was on a recent article but we'll see anyways once Intel officially introduces them.

Its one of those in theory it could maybe be done, depending on if its practical to use those unused pins for PCIe lanes (this simply might not be practical to route from the CPU die without a complete redesign).

 

Generally with a refresh CPU, they're not going to try anything that radical as it would need a complete die redesign rather than just a few tweaks here and there.

 

This is more AMD territory where they like to do a lot more generational jumps on the same socket.  Although obviously using extra pins still needs a new motherboard, but that motherboard would be backwards compatible with old CPUs and old boards usually work with new CPUs, just unable to use the new functionality those pins enable.

[NavyCobra1417]

Nope. The board would have to be designed with dual x16 lane provision from the start. 

 

There are some boards offer dual gen5 x8 electrical (x16 physical), but that's the best you're gonna get on the current consumer intel platform.