Intel Reportedly Confirms March 30 Release Date for Rocket Lake-S CPUs

Intel might have finally set an official release date for its Rocket Lake chips that will soon vie for a spot on our list of Best CPUs. HardwareLUXX editor Andreas Schilling today reported that “the sales embargo for 11th Gen Desktop processors (Rocket Lake S) is March 30, 2021, at 6 a.m. PT / 9 a.m. ET."

The announcement was largely symbolic. Representatives from MSI and Gigabyte revealed the March launch window in January, Milwaukee PC leaked the line’s pricing a few days ago, and Mindfactory sold its entire Core i7-11700K stock last weekend.

Here are the leaked prices courtesy of Milwaukee PC, but be aware that this might not reflect official pricing:

Rocket Lake processors have popped up in benchmarks over the last few months, too, and some outlets recently published reviews of Core i7-11700K and Core i9-11900K samples to offer some idea of how Intel’s latest CPUs will perform. 

It's clear that the chips will place well on our CPU benchmarks hierarchy. Still, those reviews shouldn’t be taken as gospel—retail versions of the CPUs should offer greater performance than engineering samples—but they can help set expectations for Rocket Lake’s potential. (And its ability to compete with AMD’s offerings.)

Still, it's good to hear that Rocket Lake should arrive this month, even if some retailers let the cat out of the bag a little early. We've reached out to Intel to confirm the March 30 launch plans and will update this post with the company's response.

More information about all things Rocket Lake can be found right here.