It’s no secret that Intel’s on the ropes right now, as AMD continues to dominate performance charts and CPU sales, but the tide could very well turn if recent Nova Lake rumours prove true. The latest word on the grapevine is that the next-generation of Core Ultra desktop processors will push core counts and cache pools to new dizzying heights.
Hot on the heels of alleged information surrounding the Intel X3D equivalent tech, known as bLLC (big Last Line Cache), regularly accurate leaker kopite7kimi has provided further potential insight into Intel’s plans for Nova Lake. In short, Team Blue’s plans are ambitious and have the potential to usurp AMD Ryzen X3D processors, at least on paper.
Diving into details, kopite7kimi reaffirms prior rumours that Intel plans to launch 48-core Nova Lake CPUs, in addition to 40, 24, and 20 core models. These totals only refer to the amounts present in the compute die(s), with four Low Power Efficient cores bringing the grand total up to a maximum of 52. The brand apparently plans to achieve this through marrying two compute tiles, similar to the way AMD pairs two CCDs (Core Complex Dies) on chips such as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D.
These core counts are impressive in their own right, but the leaker also claims that some SKUs will benefit from a doubling of bLLC capacity. This means that some Nova Lake CPUs could rock a whopping 288MB of L3 cache. If true, this would dwarf the 144MB AMD currently offers on its current generation offerings and even beat the rumoured Zen 6 X3D 240MB capacity.
b+b
— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) November 26, 2025
kopite7kimi is keen to note that Intel apparently isn’t mirroring AMD’s stacked approach of using 3D-stacked cache, instead spreading the two compute tiles across a single plane. The relative flatness of these Core Ultra processors should provide some cooling advantage, but could come at the cost of speed and latency. Thankfully, these new processors bound for the upcoming LGA1954 socket won’t require new coolers, with brands such as Noctua already confirming backwards compatibility.
These Nova Lake processors sound like absolute monsters in every respect. I can’t wait to see a would-be Core Ultra 400K flagship in action, presumably leaving the likes of Core Ultra 9 285K in the dust. That said, I do hope Intel hasn’t forgotten the goodwill it’s built through Lunar Lake and even Arrow Lake (to an extent) through efficiency improvements. The last thing we need is a return to the Core i9-14900K playbook, with power consumption going through the roof.
Unfortunately, the Nova Lake release date won’t fall until “late 2026” at the very least. That gives AMD time to get up to full strength as well. In the meantime, we have Panther Lake on mobile and Arrow Lake Refresh to look forward to, with more details presumably to follow at CES 2026.
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