You hopefully won’t have to cough up big bucks for the pleasure of overclocking Intel Nova Lake CPUs, as recent rumours suggest the feature will make its way to mainstream motherboards, specifically those running the Z790 chipset. Despite rocking the typically premium ‘Z’ prefix, this chipset will apparently serve as a successor of sorts to current B860 offerings.
While prior Intel 900 series chipset specs leaks included references to overclocking on Z970 motherboards, via ‘IA OC’, there was no indication as to how Intel planned to price these boards relative to Z990 and B960 alternatives. However, recent comments by jaykihn0, the same leaker who provided the aforementioned specs, indicate we can expect mainstream prices for this chipset.
はい。ただし、次世代向けとして一般消費者向けにリリースされる予定のZ970チップセットは、現在B860がカバーしている市場の大部分を置き換えることになるでしょう。
— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) April 21, 2026
In response to a now-deleted X post, jaykihn0 highlighted that Z970 will “replace most of the market currently covered by the B860” [machine translation from Japanese]. It’s important to note that the rumoured Z970 and B960 specifications are almost identical, with the only difference we know of thus far being support for ‘IA OC’. As such, I can foresee B960 motherboards launching at similar, albeit slightly lower, prices.
It looks as though ‘IA OC’ refers to a means of multiplier overclocking, meaning Z790 would forgo classic bCLK (base clock) overclocking, while the more-premium Z990 chipset offers both. Meanwhile, B960 would skip CPU frequency tweaks entirely, supporting only memory overclocks.
We know Intel has a desire to launch overclockable budget CPUs, following recent comments from the company. To help such products succeed, accompanying budget/mainstream motherboards with overclocking support must also hit the market. As such, the alleged move to make Z790 motherboards relatively affordable looks shrewd.
With the Nova Lake release date expected to arrive in 2026, it hopefully won’t be long now before we get our first glimpse at Z790 in action, complete with pricing. Leaks suggest Intel has a whopping count of 13 Core Ultra 400 CPUs planned for the LGA1954 platform, but curiously only one Core Ultra 3 SKU. It’s possible that more could arrive down the line, and I certainly hope that’s the case given excitement around budget overclocking.
Until Intel lifts the lid on everything Nova Lake, be that chipset, motherboards, and processors, check out our best CPU guide to refresh your mind on where the company’s offerings currently stand.
