Intel Nova Lake-S: five die variants and up to 52 cores

Likely with a very wide spread of prices

Videocardz claims to have obtained exclusive information on Intel Nova Lake-S desktop processors, which are expected to arrive late this year or early next year. This time, the leak is said to include more concrete details on the make-up of the different dies and even how the line-up is likely to be structured.

Nova Lake is expected to look very different from anything Intel has shipped before, and the biggest change is the internal layout and overall construction of the CPUs themselves.

Nova Lake-S die options and core layouts

According to the report, there will be five separate die variants-something Intel has never done for its consumer CPUs. More broadly, offering five dies within a single desktop family is highly unusual.

The following die configurations are listed:

• 4+0
• 4+8
• 8+16
• 8+16+bLLC
• 2×(8+16+bLLC)

In every case, there are also four LP cores located on a separate chiplet, plus an NPU6 and an iGPU featuring two Xe3 cores.

Model line-up: what configurations to expect

Official product names are not yet known, but the leak indicates which configurations should appear across the range.

There are expected to be plenty of models, largely because the maximum core count is said to be more than double what Intel offers today. It is also noted that a higher tier within the family will not necessarily mean a higher number of cores.

Two flagship CPUs above Core Ultra 9

The information also points to two top-end parts with 44 and 52 cores that would sit above Core Ultra 9. There is no confirmed naming for these chips yet, but they may be branded Core Ultra X and positioned not as typical mainstream consumer CPUs, but as HEDT-class models.

That would effectively create two processor classes within the single Nova Lake-S family. It is an odd structure, but it is somewhat understandable given the very high core counts at the top. These processors are also expected to stand out with noticeably higher power consumption, which would align with that positioning.

A sizeable gap is also apparent between the 28-core Core Ultra 9 and the two highest-end models. In practice, that would mean the range will look familiar for most everyday users: up to 8 large cores and 16 small cores-plus the four LP cores present in any configuration.

Platform features: PCIe, Thunderbolt and memory

Beyond CPU core counts, the leak highlights 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes, a Thunderbolt 5 controller for two ports, DDR5-8000 support, and support for both CUDIMM and CSODIMM.

The source adds that Intel is emphasising that the new socket will also support future CPU generations, although it is not yet clear how many. Historically, Intel has tended to offer shorter socket longevity than AMD.