Intel Core Ultra 4000 Nova Lake CPU specs and model names just leaked

The full names and model numbers of seven forthcoming Intel Nova Lake desktop CPUs have just been leaked, potentially giving us a taste of what’s to come. The details include chips with up to 28 cores, and appear to corroborate previous rumours that Intel’s next-gen desktop CPUs will have four-digit model numbers.

This particular leak comes from LC Tech Leaks (and News) in a post on X, and has also been corroborated by regular, and often-reliable, Intel leaker Jaykihn on the same platform. The latter chimed into add that all the CPUs come with support for Intel’s vPro security tech, which was only implied on the bLLC (big last level cache) models in the table.

Jaykihn also says that all the models have LPE-Cores (low-power efficiency cores), which again wasn’t listed for the non-bLLC models. In other recent Intel CPU designs, such as Panther Lake, these four LPE-Cores form what the company calls a ‘low-power island’, which can happily run a number of tasks while consuming minimal power. At CES this year, Intel showed off a laptop running a Zoom call, YouTube video and Slack on this low-power island, without needing to call on the P-Cores and E-Cores at all.

We’ve collated the information from both tech leakers into our table below, so you can look at what’s now expected to arrive from Intel. All the models are packed with cores, including 22 found in the lowest-spec Core Ultra 5 model listed.

As with Intel’s last few CPU generations, there’s also a split between P-Cores optimised for performance and smaller E-Cores targeting multi-threaded workloads with power efficiency in mind.

Intel Nova Lake desktop CPU specs (rumoured)

One of the big new introductions expected to arrive with Nova Lake is Intel’s bLLC tech – a massive slab of extra cache that should bolster gaming performance in the same way as AMD’s 3D V-Cache on its X3D CPUs. From this leak, it looks as though Intel is using the ‘BFC’ suffix on these chips.

Three CPUs with bLLC are listed here. One of them is the Core Ultra 7 4870K BFC, which combines the extra cache with eight P-Cores and 12 E-Cores. That’s a similar configuration to Intel’s Core i7-14700K and Core Ultra 7 265K, but with the addition of four LPE-Cores.

The top-end bLLC chip in this leak is the Core Ultra 9 4970K BFC, which adds four E-Cores to the 4870K’s configuration. There’s also an interesting chip called the Core Ultra 9 4900 BFC, which has a TDP of 65W, compared to 125W on the other chips listed. According to the leak, despite is Core Ultra 9 branding, it has a similar core setup to a Core i5-14600K, with six P-Cores and 12 E-Cores, but also has the big cache.

Meanwhile, several chips look set to be available without the big chunk of extra cache. Only one ‘KF’ CPU without an integrated GPU is listed, the Core Ultra 5 4650KF. All the others appear to come with an Intel GPU comprising 32 execution units (EUs).

Just in case you’re not up on your Intel GPU lingo, in a typical Intel GPU structure, 32 EUs would mean you’re getting four of the company’s Xe cores, giving you 512 ALUs – the latter are the nearest equivalent to stream processors in Nvidia and AMD GPUs. You won’t be able to run much in the way of games on a GPU with 32 EUs – comparably, top-end Panther Lake mobile CPUs contain 96 EUs.

Hopefully we won’t have long to wait until the final launch now – it looks as though all the pieces are falling into place. We’ve already spotted Z990 motherboards shipping, as well as Nova Lake PCIe and USB devices passing compliance tests.

In the meantime, check out our guide to buying the best CPU if you’re looking to upgrade your chip now.