[Hardware] Intel 400-Series Chipsets Including Z490 With I225 2.5Gbe Have A Networking Bug, Fix To Be Issued In 2H 2020

[Mark-x]

It looks like Intel's Z490 and various other 400-series chipset based motherboards that feature the Intel I225 2.5Gb Ethernet controller have an underlying issue that may potentially affect networking performance.According to XFastest (via Videocardz), Intel has reportedly issued an update on its Foxville network controller which would be more commonly referred to as I225-V in the upcoming 400-series boards that are launching this week. The I225-V 'Foxville' is a 2.5Gbe network controller which is designed to standardize 2.5Gbe LAN across the mainstream platform. Intel's network controllers are used on both Intel's own chipset based motherboards and also those that feature AMD's chipsets.

 

A slide showcasing Intel's internal assessment of the Foxville 'Inter Packet Gap (IPG)' reveals that the I225-V has an issue which would lead to packet loss and reduced network performance in the range of 1-10 Mb/s.A list of mitigations with current silicon of the I225-V controller are mentioned which simply advise users/OEMs to set the Foxville Controller link to operate at 1 Gb/s however, a proper hardware-level fix needs to be issued through an updated HW stepping which is stated to arrive in 2H 2020, close to the launch time frame of Rocket Lake-S CPUs. While Rocket Lake-S CPUs will be compatible with the Z490 platform, it looks like proper functionality would require users to get the revised Z490 motherboards with the latest HW stepping for the I225-V controller that fixes the IPG Variance networking issue.

 

It's also interesting that this slide had to be leaked by someone to make the public aware of the issue. If not, users would've bought the upcoming Z490 motherboards and could've faced issues that cannot be resolved by software-level fixes. With that said, there would be several Z490 options that don't solely rely on 2.5Gbe controllers as there would be 1/5/10 Gbe options to select from. But those who are waiting for cheaper and more mainstream options with the 2.5Gbe controllers should beware and wait for an official response from Intel on this matter.