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One of the long-term differences between Intel and AMD has been their approach to motherboard sockets and upgrade cycles. Generally speaking, Intel switches between chipsets and socket iterations far more quickly than AMD does.
This has always been a pain point for Intel enthusiasts. There have always been questions about how necessary these CPU socket upgrades actually were from generation to generation, and a new video from overclocker der8auer argues that Intel’s Z370 motherboard was simply unnecessary based on tests of how the CPU socket behaves under load.
First, some background. One of the changes Intel made with Z370 was to increase the number of pins devoted to providing power and ground.
The company’s latest socket has 18 additional pins reserved for power and 14 for ground (this is also true for Z390). The reason Intel could make this change without changing the number of pins in the socket is that these pins were previously reserved and didn’t function.