Intel's next-generation 900-series chipsets have leaked, and include Z990, Z970, W980, Q970, and B960 for upcoming Nova Lake-S Desktop CPUs.
Intel Preps Two Premium 900-Series Chipsets For Nova Lake Desktop CPUs, Z990 & Z970 - W980 For Entry Workstations, Q970 For Businesses & B960 For Mainstream
Intel's 900-series chipsets will be replacing the existing 800-series family, which was featured on the LGA 1851 socketed motherboards for Arrow Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh CPUs. The 900-series chipset will be featured on the next-gen LGA 1954 motherboards, which will support Nova Lake-S Desktop CPUs in late 2026.
According to Jaykihn at X, the 900-series chipset family will include five PCH SKUs, which include the Z990, Z970, W980, Q970, and the B960. All of these chipsets are designed to cover various segments, so let's get going with the details.
Intel 900-Series Chipset Specs
Starting off with the premium lineup, we have the Z990 and Z970 chipsets, which will be featured on OC-ready motherboards, featuring vastly higher capabilities than the rest. The flagship Z990 chipset will offer a total of 48 PCIe lanes, two USB4/TB4 ports, 12 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes, 8 SATA 3.0 ports, up to 5 USB 3.2 20 Gbps ports, and will come with IA OC, BCLK, and Memory OC support.
For the Z970 chipset, Intel is going to offer 34 PCIe lanes with a single USB4/TB4 port, no PCIe 5.0 lanes on the chipset but 14 PCIe 4.0 lanes, half the SATA III ports (4 vs 8), and up to 2 USB 3.2 20 Gbps ports. In terms of OC features, the platform will retain IA OC and Memory OC support, but BCLK OC will be limited to Z990 motherboards.
For W980 motherboards, these will match the Z990 in terms of specifications, minus the CPU overclocking capabilities. Memory overclocking will be offered on W980 workstation motherboards. The Q970 chipset is going to aim at the business segment with better PCIe and USB capabilities than Z970, but without any OC capabilities. Following is what the OC capabilities on the chipsets look like:
- Z990 - CPU IA OC ✅ / BCLK OC ✅ / Memory OC ✅
- Z970 - CPU IA OC ✅ / BCLK OC ❌ / Memory OC ✅
- W980 - CPU IA OC ❌ / BCLK OC ❌ / Memory OC ✅
- B960 - CPU IA OC ❌ / BCLK OC ❌ / Memory OC ✅
- Q970 - CPU IA OC ❌ / BCLK OC ❌ / Memory OC ❌
It's definitely a highlight that Intel is going one tier up with the Z990 chipset, and if BCLK OC is supported, that would mean that Non-K CPUs should also be able to take advantage on such boards though it is very unlikely that users with a non-K CPU will invest in a premium Z990 board considering those CPUs are mostly aimed at budget and mainstream users.
Lastly, Intel will be offering its B960 chipset, which will be very similar to the Z970 chipset, which means that users will retain the baseline IO capabilities of Z970 but without any CPU overclocking support. The motherboards based on the B960 chipset will offer memory overclocking capabilities, though.
Based on the list and specs, it looks like Intel is really going the AMD route with its classification of PCHs. The difference between the Z990 and Z970 almost feels like the X870E and X870 chipsets, where X870E is a dual PCH implementation, though Intel will retain all features on a single chipset, while the X870 is more similar to B850 with a single-PCH implementation, and hence cuts down on the IO capabilities. AMD does offer better CPU overclocking support, with even its B850 series supporting these features, while Intel's B960 is limited to just memory overclocking.
Jaykihn also states that there are no entry-level H-series motherboards within the 900-series family, such as H910, H970, etc.
As for the launch, we anticipate the Intel 900-series motherboards to be announced around the launch of the next-gen Nova Lake-S Desktop CPUs, which should be later this year, though we can expect a teaser or two at upcoming tech shows such as Computex 2026.
Intel 900-Series Chipsets (Source: Jaykihn):
| Chipset Name | Z990 | W980 | Q970 | Z970 | B960 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total PCIe Lanes | 48 | 48 | 44 | 34 | 34 |
| CPU USB4/TB4 Ports | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| DMI Gen5 Lanes | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| PCH PCIe 5.0 Lanes | 12 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| PCH PCIe 4.0 Lanes | 12 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 |
| SATA 3.0 Lanes | 8 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| USB 3.2 20G Ports | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| USB3.2 10G Ports | 10 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| USB3.2 5G Ports | 10 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 6 |
| IA OC | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| BCLK OC | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Memory OC | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| ECC Support | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Displays Supported | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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