Intel’s latest Nova Lake lineup is making waves, and we’ve finally gotten a glimpse at the rumored core counts for several CPU models.
Heading into the future, Intel’s Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs are set to take over where the Arrow Lake-S series left off, and the buzz is there might be a significant leap in performance, possibly by doubling both P and E cores.
The Arrow Lake series didn’t exactly hit a home run. Many expected more, but it left a lot to be desired. The silver lining, however, seems to be the Nova Lake lineup. Intel has been keeping details close to the chest, but thanks to a fresh leak from Reddit user @Exist50, passed along via HXL, we might know a bit more about the Nova Lake-S, HX, U, and H variants, and they appear promising.
Intel is rumored to be rolling out configurations maxing out with 2*8 P-Cores paired with 16 E-Cores, a welcome improvement over the Core Ultra 9 285K of the Arrow Lake-S lineup. This breath of fresh air extends to mobile with the Nova Lake-H line. Here’s a quick look at Nova Lake’s potential core setup:
– NVL-SK: 2*8+16
– NVL-HX: 1*8+16
– NVL-S/NVL-H: 4+8
– NVL-U: 4+0
If these details hold, the Nova Lake-S setup could boast up to 16 P-Cores and 32 E-Cores. Intel seems poised to adopt a dual compute tile approach to boost core counts, undoubtedly a strategy to rival AMD’s expected Zen 6 releases, projecting up to 32 cores per CCD.
Nova Lake-S is on track to become a true successor to Arrow Lake-S, fitting into the “Core Ultra 400” series, while the “Core Ultra 300” series plans to introduce the Panther Lake design — though these won’t hit mainstream desktop platforms. Expect to hear more about their Coyote Core P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E-Cores as Nova Lake’s anticipated release next year edges closer.
Here’s a rundown of Intel’s desktop CPU generations for a bit of perspective:
| Intel CPU Family | Processor Process | Processor Architecture | Graphics Architecture | Processors Cores/Threads (Max) | Platform | Memory Support | PCIe Support | Launch |
|——————|——————-|————————|———————–|——————————–|———-|—————-|————–|——–|
| Alder Lake (12th Gen) | Intel 7 | Golden Cove (P-Core) | Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series 16/24 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2021 |
| Raptor Lake (13th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) | Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2022 |
| Raptor Lake Refresh (14th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) | Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2023 |
| Arrow Lake (Core Ultra 200) | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) | Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) 24/24 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake Refresh (Canceled) | TSMC N3B? | Lion Cove (P-Core) | Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | TBD | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2025 |
| Nova Lake (Core Ultra 400?) | TBA | Coyote Cove (P-Core) | Arctic Wolf (E-Core) | TBA | TBA | TBA | DDR5? | PCIe Gen 6.0? | 2026 |
| Razer Lake (Core Ultra 500?) | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | 2027? |
The landscape of desktop processors is clearly poised for exciting changes, and Nova Lake is shaping up to be a big player in that future.
