Flagship Intel Nova Lake mobile processors reportedly pack fewer cores than their desktop counterparts, limiting the flagship model to 28 cores. According to hardware leaker Jaykihn on X, Nova Lake-HX CPUs will offer up to an eight P-Cores for performance, 16 E-Cores for efficiency, and four low-power LPE-Cores.
Responding to a previous leak from Golden Pig regarding the Core Ultra 9 4995HX and Core Ultra 9 4970H, Jaykihn revealed that neither Nova Lake-H nor Nova Lake-HX will feature the 52-core configuration expected to be a part of Intel’s desktop Nova Lake-S range.
The leaker also indicated that the flagship Core Ultra 9 4995HX will offer the configuration mentioned above, with the Core Ultra 9 4970H dropping to 16 cores, split into four P-Cores, eight E-Cores, and four LPE-Cores. All models are expected to be based on Intel’s Coyote Cove P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E-Cores.
In addition, Jaykihn claims that the high-end Core Ultra 9 4995HX will only include a tiny 2-core iGPU, unlike the Core Ultra 9 4970H, which apparently houses 12 graphics cores. This is understandable, however, since the former is likely to power high-performance gaming laptops and workstations, which often feature a dedicated GPU.
This indicates that Nova Lake-H and HX won’t come in flavours with two compute tiles. Another uncertain aspect for mobile Nova Lake relates to bLLC (big last level cache, also known as BFC) variants. On desktop, these models are expected to pack up to 144MB of extra L3 cache per tile, but at the cost of larger compute silicon.
A previous post from leaker @9550pro on X indicated that standard Nova Lake bLLC-equipped tiles measure roughly 150mm², against 110mm² or so for standard Nova Lake compute tiles. Intel may want to save valuable silicon and skip this variant altogether on laptops.
On top of having more cores, the Core Ultra 9 4995HX, and the HX series for that matter, also look set to enjoy higher power limits compared to the H series, which should allow them to boost higher and thus maintain stronger performance.
The first Intel Nova Lake-HX and Nova Lake-H laptops are expected to launch soon, possibly at CES 2027, which is practically around the corner. Whether they will live up to the hype is another story.
