Intel took an “arrow to the knee” with its Arrow Lake-S processors. The Core Ultra 200S chips perform worse than their predecessors in gaming workloads. As a result, AMD’s Ryzen X3D offerings have become the go-to for PC gamers. Of course, Intel isn’t giving up, and its next-gen Nova Lake-S family looks like a formidable upgrade.
The latest leak from @g01d3nm4ng0 allegedly reveals much of Intel’s Nova Lake-S lineup. The rumored specifications point to the following core counts:
- The Core Ultra 9 flagship will feature 52 cores, including 16 P-cores, 32 E-cores, and 4 LPE cores.
- The Core Ultra 7 will include 42 cores, including 14 P-cores, 24 E-cores, and 4 LP-E cores
- The Core Ultra 7/9 will have a base TDP of 150W, up from 125W in current offerings.
- The Core Ultra 5 will include at least three SKUs with a 125W base TDP and the following core configurations:
- 28 cores, comprising 8 P-cores, 16 E-cores, and 4 LPE cores- the equivalent of the Core Ultra 9 285K.
- 24 cores, comprising 8 P-cores, 12 E-cores, and 4 LPE cores- the equivalent of the Core Ultra 7 265K.
- 18 cores, comprising 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 4 LPE cores.
- The Core Ultra 3 lineup includes two SKUs with a 65W base TDP. Both feature 4 P-cores and 4 LPE cores, with 8 and 4 E-cores, respectively.
Coyote Cove P-Cores & Arctic Wolf E-Cores
Intel’s Nova Lake-S processors will leverage the LGA1954 socket, so a complete platform upgrade is required:
- Nova Lake will leverage a chipset design.
- The CPU tiles are expected to leverage TSMC’s 2nm (or 3nm) process, while the iGPU tile will likely be based on a 3nm (or 4nm) node.
- The P-cores will be upgraded to Coyote Cove (from Lion Cove), and the E-cores to Arctic Wolf (from Skymont).
- The Xe3 “Celestial” architecture should power the integrated graphics.
- The higher-end Core Ultra 7 and Ultra 9 SKUs are expected to feature a dual-die design, each featuring 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores. The former will utilize partially fused dies.
Nova Lake-S & Gaming Performance: Cores or Cache
Intel’s probably opted for a dual-die design to avoid revamping the core layout. However, like the Ryzen 7000 and 9000 processors, this will limit the gaming performance scaling to eight cores:
- Most games don’t utilize the E-cores, while the P-cores on the second die are usually parked to improve thread residency.
- Consequently, the Core Ultra 7 and Ultra 9 will likely be content creation chips akin to the Ryzen 9 lineup, leaving the Core Ultra 5 stack for gamers.
- Rumors point to a gaming-specific variant with a cache die (bLLC), but it’s unclear whether it’ll come to fruition.
- AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 processors are expected to leverage 12-core CCDs, potentially improving gaming performance by storing the game data on the same die (thread residency).
- Intel’s approach might not produce the best gaming performance, but content creation capabilities should reign supreme (sheer core counts).
- Intel Nova Lake-S processors are expected to launch in 2026 after the Panther Lake mobility lineup.
