Intel’s midrange motherboard offerings for Alder Lake may skimp out on PCIe Gen 5 support. This was indicated by a shot sent to Videocardz by an anonymous reviewer. The image includes a printed label of the ASUS PRIME B660-PLUS D4 motherboard, mentioning support for PCIe Gen 4 instead of Gen 5. As per the source, the AIB shipped a Z690 board in the wrong box, inadvertently revealing information on a B660 part:
Intel launched the Z690 board with the K series Alder Lake-S offerings earlier this month to a mostly positive response. The lower-end SKUs, plus the non-K parts are slated to arrive in the first half of 2022 along with the Alder Lake-P (mobile) lineup. These will be accompanied by the B660 and H610 boards for the mainstream audience.
The lack of support for PCIe Gen 5.0 on B660 boards is somewhat unexpected as the Gen 5 lanes come from the CPU rather than the chipset. Regardless, the lack of Gen 5 devices on the market means that most users won’t mind its absence on lower-end boards. In addition to PCIe Gen 5, the memory support on most lower-end boards is also likely going to be limited to DDR4. As already indicated by tests, the gains from upgrading to the much more expensive DDR5 standard are minor in most cases.
