Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake Chip Has Speed and Smarts

The 11th Gen Intel Core S-series desktop processors (code-named “Rocket Lake-S”) launched worldwide today, led by the flagship Intel Core i9-11900K. Out of the box, it reaches speeds of up to 5.3GHz with Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost technology requiring no user intervention. Traditionally such speeds were achieved by gamers and PC enthusiasts who manually increased voltages (overclocking) to achieve faster processing. The chip can even run faster with additional user tweaking in Windows PCs by-passing traditional cumbersome BIOS settings.

The chip is based on Intel’s traditional 14nm construction technology combined with 10nm technology in key areas, a compromise of traditional and new to achieve best overall performance.

Engineered on the new Cypress Cove architecture, 11th Gen Intel Core S-series desktop processors are designed to transform hardware and software efficiency up to 19% gen-over-gen instructions per cycle (IPC) – improving gaming and productivity tasks. Intel is introducing more 10nm chip technology in more chip variations.

At the top of the chip series the 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900K, features unmatched performance from competitors with up to 5.3 GHz, eight cores, 16 threads and 16 MBs of Intel Smart Cache. The unlocked 11th Gen Intel Core desktop processor supports fast memory speeds with DDR4-3200 to help enable smooth gameplay and seamless multitasking.

Improvements in this generation include:

  • Up to 19% gen-over-gen IPC performance improvement
  • Up to 50% better integrated graphics performance with Intel UHD graphics featuring Intel Xe graphics architecture.
  • Intel Deep Learning Boost and Vector Neural Network Instructions support​ to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) inference—vastly improving performance for deep learning workloads.
  • Enhanced overclocking tools and features for flexible overclocking and tuning performance and experience.

Through close collaboration with more than 200 of the top game developers, Intel brings a host of game, engine, middleware and rendering optimizations to gamers.

New Features

  • The chips have built-in Intel UHD graphics featuring Intel’s new Xe graphics architecture essentially doubling rich media and intelligent graphics capabilities with low latency without external third-party graphics cards.
  • Superior Tuning and Stability: 11th Gen Intel Core desktop processors introduce new overclocking tools and features for more flexible tuning to achieve faster speeds and much improved game performance. This generation includes real-time memory overclocking which enables changes to DDR4 frequency in real time, extending memory overclocking support (also for H570 and B560 motherboards in addition to the Z590 motherboards) allowing users to experience overclocking, Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) 2  and AVX-512 voltage guard band override, and an all new integrated memory controller with wider timings and Gear 2 support (in addition to Gear 1 support).
  • The new 11th Gen Intel Core S-series, now with PCIe 4.0 (20 lanes) allows hard drives, graphics cards and other peripherals to double the transfer rate for richer high-definition graphic experiences.  
  • Faster DDR4-3200 MHz RAM support.
  • Intel Quick Sync Video, enhanced media​ (10bit AV1/12bit high-efficiency video coding decode and end-to-end compression), enhanced display (Integrated HDMI 2.0, HBR3).
  • Discrete Thunderbolt 4and faster Intel Wi-Fi 6E support.