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Coffee Lake Not Supported by Intel’s 200-Series Motherboards

 by Ian Cutress on August 2, 2017 5:12 PM EST
134 Comments | Add A Comment
134 Comments

In a stunning bit of Twitter, a tweet from one of the leading motherboard manufacturers has stated that Coffee Lake, Intel’s 8th Generation Core processors, will not be supported on the current generation of 200-series motherboards.

Information like this is usually kept under wraps until an Intel reveal, but it seems to have been mindlessly posted to Twitter on July 31st, an account that last tweeted on April 11th before this tweet occurred. This tweet has since been deleted.

At this point, due to the similar microarchitecture to Kaby Lake being used in Coffee Lake, most of the technology press were under the impression that the Coffee Lake processors would be compatible with LGA1151 socket motherboards, namely the 100-series and 200-series. With the above tweet essentially confirming that Coffee Lake will not be supported, it means that either the new CPUs will not be LGA1151, or that the motherboards will lock-out the processors by firmware, or the CPUs and sockets will use a different notching system to ensure the wrong processor cannot be put in the wrong board. It does mean however that 200-series users hoping to upgrade to a Coffee Lake processor (which early reports are suggesting might be up to six cores, but this has not been announced) will not be able to.

There are many potential reasons for the change if the socket is still LGA1151. The obvious one would be product segmentation on Intel’s part, which would stick in the craw for a number of the user base. The second one that it might actually be a physical requirement for the processor – if previously unused pins are required for power and/or control for different elements of the DVFS in the chip. This would depend on new features on the chip, which could extend to different power management, different graphics, or different IP blocks that require separate pin-out connections. Intel might also be using a different power system for voltage regulators, which might not be compatible with current 200-series motherboards.

At this point, nothing has been made official. The fact that this was stated on Twitter so far from any launch date that we know of is an interesting development.

Gallery: Coffee Lake Not Supported by Intel’s 200-Series Motherboards

*The name of the manufacturer has been removed by request after this news was published.

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Source: Twitter

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  • Spunjji - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link

    Has nothing to do with either, unless they are substantially raising the TDP. More likely is that they have yet again decided to change how much of the voltage regulation hardware is on-die vs. on-board, for "reasons" that they will no doubt elaborate in some helpful powerpoints.

  • Shiitaki - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 - link

    I was amused by all of the complaining, Intel has been doing this for years now. Two processors cycles is pretty normal.

    You have the most relevant and useful information, better than the person responsible for the article, thank you.

  • FAQ-Kiddall - Friday, August 4, 2017 - link

    Meh. To be honest, it takes a sucker obsessed with maintaining his reputable nerd status to believe it's worth upgrading every year. I did an AMD build back in 2010 (regretfully confined to a $750 budget), a Haswell build in 2013, and the only real reason I see to upgrade now from my haswell is to take advantage of DDR4... That likely accounts for at least half of the 15-20% upgrade in performance from Haswell to Kaby Lake.

  • B3an - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link

    Intel are simply cunts, so this isn't remotely surprising news if true. I'll be ditching my 5960X soon and getting a Threadripper. Intels X299 platform is a complete mess and a joke, along with the ridiculous CPU prices.

  • Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link

    What isn't remotely surprising is that adding new features to your chip, like, oh, six USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, would require a new motherboard.

    I'm not saying Intel aren't c*nts, mind you.

  • blahsaysblah - Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - link

    Thats historically handled by the chipset on Intel side, it has absolutely nothing to do with the CPU. This is purely same old same old from Intel.

  • Samus - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link

    Yep. They are transitioning to a generational CPU/platform. Which is really just bad for consumers and overall entirely inefficient for OEMs and supply chains. This explains why motherboard prices are so high too.

    Sure, new platforms have new features and support new things, but there is NO reason a CPU should be designed specifically to NOT work with an old platform. Just like AMD's AM2+/AM3 (which supported 4 generations of CPU's) you lose features and some performance, but it was great you could put a new CPU in an old AM2+ system with more cores and a new micro-architecture in aging business systems to give them a few more years.

  • Spunjji - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link

    What would stop them enabling those features with a new chipset and still letting you opt out by using the new CPU in an old board? Not much, that's what. Not much at all.

  • mapesdhs - Thursday, August 3, 2017 - link

    Thing is, Intel failed to add such new tech to earlier chipsets again and again and again, tech sites criticised them for it but Intel just didn't listen. It's not a new phenomenon, eg. lack of native USB3 for revised X79 was just daft.

  • Meteor2 - Monday, August 7, 2017 - link

    Just so we're clear, Coffee Lake to offer six USB 3.1 gen 2 ports has been announced?
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