The image of the alleged Z690 was first posted on the Chinese social media platform, Bilibili, and despite the user’s claims, it is important to note that the motherboard is devoid of any labels or indicators that would normally help one to identify the make and manufacturer. Having said that, the components in the image do paint a picture of what we can expect from Intel’s board partners. Firstly, the motherboard looks like it is leaning into the high-end spectrum, sporting as many as 20 power stages, all clustered around the CPU socket. On another note, we can also see the CPU socket, which Intel confirmed will be LGA1700, but devoid of the usual latches and clamps that would keep the CPU in place. We can also see that this particular Z690 motherboard has three M.2 connectors, with a PCIe 4.0 slot separating them.
Z690 pic.twitter.com/vCf6zlKxG7 — La Frite David 🇫🇷 (@davideneco25320) July 30, 2021 Again, the picture doesn’t paint a full picture and we still don’t know what other features this Z690 will ship out with. What we do know, of course, is that Intel’s 12th generation Alder Lake-S lineup will support next-generation features, including PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory. Further, the 600 series motherboards are expected to be backwards compatible with the following 13th generation Raptor Lake-S lineup, once it becomes available. (Source: BiliBili via Videocardz)
