MSI Z890 and B860 motherboards for Intel Arrow Lake-S leak via online database — devices certified ahead of Computex 2024

MSI's initial motherboard lineup for the coming Intel Core Ultra 200 series processors has appeared on the device.report online database. The list shows 12 new MSI motherboards for the LGA1851 socket: sporting four B860 mid-range and eight Z890 high-end chipsets. The company also registered a B760M-A for Intel's 12th to 14th Gen Intel processors, and an H610M-S mobo designed for business users.

The Z890 boards are slated to arrive as follows: MPG Z890 CARBON WIFI, MPG Z890 EDGE TI WIFI, MEG Z890 UNIFY-X, MEG Z890 GODLIKE, MEG Z890 ACE, MAG Z890 TOMAHAWK WIFI, MPG Z890I EDGE TI WIFI, AND PRO Z890-P WIFI. The following mid-ranger B860 boards are also listed: MPG B860M EDGE TI WIFI, MAG B860 TOMAHAWK WIFI, MAG B860M MORTAR WIFI, and MPG B860I EDGE WIFI.

Intel’s Arrow Lake chips are expected to arrive in the second half of 2024, and it looks like MSI is preparing for the imminent arrival of Intel’s first desktop gaming CPUs equipped with NPUs for AI processing. MSI’s upcoming motherboards are among the first leaks that show the Z890 and B860 chipsets in a consumer product context.

Gigabyte also teased a next-gen motherboard on X that is expected to come out in Computex 2024. This Aorus branded motherboard in silhouette is widely expected to have a Z890 chipset and AI branding.

While MSI’s new motherboards do not have AI tags in the database, these motherboards may fanfare their AI capability on packaging and product promotion material. This may be important to emphasize, given that Microsoft and Qualcomm are soon releasing Snapdragon X-powered laptops that offer greater AI processing power and efficiency than their x86 counterparts.

Furthermore, Microsoft is baking-in the AI Copilot+ feature into Windows 11, with the company adding support for a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard. So, if Intel wants its Arrow Lake chips to compete against Qualcomm’s offerings, it needs to ensure that the chipsets for the Intel Core Ultra 200 processors will get the most out of them.

There is no Snapdragon X desktop chip yet, except for in the Snapdragon X Elite dev kit. But if these new Arm chips perform as expected, people might be tempted to put them in desktop computers. This would give many users the advantage of a smaller, lighter mini-PC, but still have the power of a full-on tower computer — this development will threaten Intel’s supremacy in the desktop computing space.

We are excited to see what MSI, Gigabyte, and other board manufacturers have in store for the LGA1851 socket. While we don’t have any specifications yet, we hope to know more about these new mobos in the next few days at Computex 2024.