According to IT Home, Intel’s B760 motherboards will cost around 10 percent more than the B660 chipset. This could make them even harder to justify since current information suggests the B760s will only be marginally better than their predecessors. Sources told IT Home that Intel has finalized B760’s specifications and that board partners should get them next week in preparation for public release in January. Previous reports indicated Intel will unveil H760 and B760 at or just before CES 2023 on January 5, along with the non-K Raptor Like processors, before launching them later that month. However, they could also be available to purchase on January 5. Raising the price will make the B760 a harder sell if, as current information suggests, it’s largely similar to B660. B760 will likely trade some of its PCIe 3.0 lanes for more PCIe 4.0 lanes but offer no other significant changes from its predecessor. It’s hard to say how much a potential B760 buyer will benefit from the upgraded lanes, as it’s a mid-range chipset for cost-sensitive consumers. Without spending extra money on more PCIe 4.0 components, a user might see little reason to pay the extra 10 percent for the newer board.
As a possible additional advantage, there’s a good chance B760 motherboards might come with a Raptor Lake-compatible BIOS pre-installed. It’s not much, but it’s one less step for those building new systems with Intel’s 13th-generation CPUs. Like the 600 series chipsets, B760 will support both Raptor Lake and the previous-generation Alder Lake processors. It will also retain DDR4 RAM compatibility along with DDR5, letting users save money by starting with DDR4 and upgrading to DDR5 when it’s more affordable. Any other improvements for B760 to justify its price hike will likely need to come from motherboard vendors. Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, and others could take the opportunity to improve the audio, power, or I/O ports to increase B760’s perceived value. Gigabyte has already revealed the packaging for its B760 Aorus Elite motherboard, which looks extremely similar to its B660 packaging.
