Both Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh have marked a welcome return to form for Intel, but Nova Lake could see the company shift gears from comeback to conqueror, with an army of processors boasting excitingly large core counts. A new leak suggests the next batch of Core Ultra CPUs will be a baker’s dozen strong, while also providing some insight into chip and platform specifications.
Hardware news site Videocardz claims to have the inside scoop on updated Nova Lake-S roadmaps, with Intel now apparently communicating the full model list and more to partners. Apparently called the Core Ultra 400 series, these processors look set to succeed the Core Ultra 200 Plus lineup and leapfrog the Core Ultra 300 series, which will reportedly remain mobile-only. I’ve listed these rumoured specs in the table below.
| SKU | Cores (P+E+LP) | TDP | Codename |
|---|---|---|---|
| TBD | 16+32+4 (52)* | 175W | P3DX |
| TBD | 16+24+4 (44)* | 175W | P2DX |
| Core Ultra 9 | 8+16+4 (28) | 125W | P2D |
| Core Ultra 9 | 8+16+4 (28) | 65 / 125W | P2K |
| Core Ultra 9 | 6+12+4 (22) | 65W | P2 |
| Core Ultra 7 | 8+12+4 (24) | 125W | P1D |
| Core Ultra 7 | 8+12+4 (24) | 65 / 125W | P1K |
| Core Ultra 7 | 4+8+4 (16) | 35 / 65W | P1 |
| Core Ultra 5 | 6+12+4 (22) | 65 / 125W | MS2K / MS2KF |
| Core Ultra 5 | 4+4+4 (12) | 35 / 65W | MS2 |
| Core Ultra 5 | 4+0+4 (8) | 35 / 65W | MS1 |
| Core Ultra 3 | 2+0+4 (6) | 35 / 65W | T1 |
The table above is what Videocardz describes as a ‘preliminary SKU list’. While some of this information echoes prior leaks, this is the first time we’ve seen potential Nova Lake models matched with branding, codenames, core counts, and TDP.
At the top of the table sits the long-rumoured 52-core beast, codenamed P3DX. The leak states this processor will ship with a dual-die package design, featuring eight Coyote Cove P-cores and 16 Arctic Wolf E-cores on each die. Four Low Power Efficient-cores will also reportedly sit in their own tile, across all Nova Lake models.
Intel told us earlier this year of its plans to make the fastest gaming CPU again, and the P3DX certainly seems like a potential candidate for that title. While such a high core count will make the CPU a formidable force in multi-threaded software, that big Last Level Cache (bLLC) technology should help Intel’s chips catch up with AMD’s X3D CPUs with 3D V-Cache. The likes of AMD’s Ryzen 7 9850X3D are the current reigning champions in games, thanks to all that extra cache, after all.
While forward Nova Lake cooler compatibility looks like a given for Socket LGA1954 motherboards, cooling requirements for P3DX could prove troublesome for some cooling systems. Its rumoured 175W base power suggests the TDP PL2 will likely dwarf the 250W ceiling that the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus currently sets.
On the other side of the spectrum, the lone Core Ultra 3 has caught my attention. With just two P-cores in the proverbial driver’s seat, I wonder how well the four LPE-cores can make up the difference in the face of modern workloads. Could this be a proper budget darling? I’d love to know.
Shifting focus from processors to platform, the Nova Lake roadmaps apparently contain explicit references to “forward socket compatibility.” This echoes comments Intel provided to us earlier this year, while discussing this very subject. Should these claims hold water, I’ll be glad to see the back of LGA1851’s poor longevity.
We should expect dual Thunderbolt 5 ports on some motherboards too, according to Videocardz, providing 80Gb/s of bandwidth each. Upcoming chipsets will also apparently feature support for ECC CUDIMM and CSODIMM memory, the latter being an unusual standard for desktop systems.
Rounding off the rumoured platform upgrades are three PCIe Gen 5 x4 channels, providing ample room for the speediest storage on the market or demanding add-in cards. Once you include PCIe Gen 4 channels, across your processor and motherboard, we could see up to a whopping eight SSDs in a Nova Lake system.
The timing of Intel’s alleged briefing of partners is no indication of when Nova Lake CPUs will hit store shelves. The company last said the chips will arrive in 2026, but more-recent rumours suggest we may be waiting until 2027 for Nova Lake processors to materialise.
In any case, taking this leak at its word, Nova Lake is shaping up to be an impressive CPU architecture in its own right. Clashing against Zen 6 offerings from AMD, I believe we’re in for a long-overdue competitive bout between the two titans of the processor market.
Until Intel reveals all on Nova Lake, check out our picks for the best CPU you can buy today.
