Intel is seemingly planning to blend bits from its Xe3 Celestial and Xe4 Druid architectures inside its upcoming Nova Lake-S processors. Though rumours about Xe3 aren’t new, its mixing with Xe4 is something unseen until now. This unusual approach could give the brand’s desktop CPUs an advantage in media encoding and decoding as they would leverage a design ahead of its time.
The rumour comes from known leaker @jaykihn0 on X, who indicated that Intel’s Lova Lake-S (S standing for desktop chips) will feature Xe3 graphics plus Xe4 display and media. A surprising claim since even the Xe3 architecture has yet to launch in any product, let alone Xe4, which should still be in early development phases. Heck, even Xe2 Battlemage has yet to release its full potential through the much-awaited B770 GPU.
That said, Xe4’s display and media engine may already be finished, or at least close enough, making it a reasonable option for the brand’s Nova Lake-S processors. How so? Well, since the latter are desktop parts, many users would probably opt for a dedicated GPU to pair it with, subsequently relegating the iGPU to secondary tasks such as media acceleration. Thus, putting in a more advanced media engine should give Intel an advantage by delivering higher encoding and decoding capabilities alongside modern video output support.
Currently, there are no upcoming products known to feature Xe4 graphics in any capacity, making this rumour quite exciting. It indicates that Intel’s fourth-gen graphics architecture is well underway, perhaps even earlier than expected. But all of this wouldn’t be possible, or at least easier to implement, without Intel’s Tile designs. This ability to mix and match parts from different architectures can be a lifeline if something gets delayed, all while being cost-effective through the usage of less expensive manufacturing nodes on secondary Tiles.
Nova Lake-S is expected to pack up to 52 cores (16P + 32E + 4LPE), which would mark a move from the eight P-core limit Intel has stuck in for a long time. These are said to be based on the Coyote Cove P-core and Arctic Wolf E-core microarchitectures, further adding to the CPU’s multi-threaded performance.
Though Intel has yet to announce a release date for Nova Lake-S, rumours expect a launch sometime next year. Nova Lake-S will also require a new socket, and thus a new motherboard, but at least coolers may retain compatibility. Until then, the brand will likely fill the gap with its Arrow Lake Refresh later this year.
