Videocardz recently brought its exclusive report on Intel’s upcoming plans, pertaining “Nova Lake” CPUs that will likely be referred as Core Ultra 400 (or Series 4 in official speak). Some of the information corroborated earlier reports, while there are plenty of new information never-seen-before, so here’s what you need to know.
What We Know About Intel Nova Lake (Core Ultra 400) So Far
The report points out, first and foremost, the new desktop-bound Nova Lake-S lineup will indeed be referred as “Series 4”, skipping number 3 (which refers to Panther Lake, exclusive to laptops only) for the desktop segment altogether. These processors will also get all-new designs for its cores, with the new P-core codenamed “Coyote Cove”, whereas the new E-core is codenamed “Arctic Wolf”. Memory support is further increased to DDR5-8000, along with CUDIMM and CSODIMM support already seen on Arrow Lake.
Adjacent to the main processing unit is the new NPU 6 for matrix (AI) compute, and allegedly, up to 12 Xe3P-based GPU cores on select models. Given what we’ve seen with Panther Lake’s Arc B390 GPU on laptops today (featuring 12 Xe3-cores), this should allow Intel to spin up a new line specifically targeting AMD’s Ryzen G-series processors, which hasn’t seen an update since the Ryzen 8000G series launched back in January 2024. That’s over 2 years ago!
The I/O and connectivity is packed, too, with the report stating that Nova Lake-S will feature integrated Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi based sensing and Bluetooth Low Energy Audio support, along with PCIe 5.0 x16 for GPUs, 4×4 CPU bifurcation, three PCIe 5.0 x4 links from chipset, with support for up to eight SSDs in both PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 connections, plus two Thunderbolt 5 connections that, in theory, allows the CPU to power up to four displays simultaneously.
Furthermore, there are at least six known core configurations in the works, including the 12 Xe3P-core GPU variant (targeting Ryzen G-series), big low-level cache (bLLC) variants (targeting Ryzen X3D models), and even a super-large dual-die variant looking to compete at the very top of the desktop CPU chain. Based on the information gathered so far, here’s what that looks like:
| Die Config. | Max. CPU Config | GPU | TDP | Branding | Shared Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8-core | 4P + 0E + 4LPE | 2 Xe3 | 65W/35W | Core Ultra 3/5 | – DDR5-8000 2ch – 24x PCIe 5.0 – 2x Thunderbolt 5 – Intel NPU 6 – Socket LGA1954 – 900 series Mobo |
| 16-core | 4P + 8E + 4LPE | 2 Xe3 | 65W/35W | Core Ultra 5/7 | |
| 16-core (Arc GPU) | 4P + 8E + 4LPE | 12 Xe3P | ? | ? | |
| 28-core | 8P + 16E + 4LPE | 2 Xe3* | 65W/125W | Core Ultra 5/7/9 “K/KF-series” | |
| 28-core (bLLC) | 8P + 16E + 4LPE large cache | 2 Xe3 | 65W/125W | Core Ultra 7/9 “D-series” | |
| 52-core (Dual-die) | 16P + 32E + 4LPE (2x 8P+16E dies) large cache | 2 Xe3 | 175W | New branding |
*Note: There is a potentially binned variant of 8P+16E+4LPE under the KF-series which features 6P+12E+4LPE cores, lacks graphics, and will be exclusively positioned under Core Ultra 5 with 65W/125W variants available.
These six configurations are currently known to split up into 13 SKUs, with the two uppermost to feature an all-new branding beyond “Core Ultra 9”. The dual-die configuration is set to spawn two SKUs – one full-size 52-core and another 44-core (16P+24E+4LPE) – with 175W TDP by default, and likely enough performance to match or even exceed AMD’s upcoming offerings. In other words, good news for HEDT builders who wants plenty of compute horsepower without splurging for Ryzen Threadrippers.
Keep in mind that all of these could very well be preliminary information, and product plans will likely change given that we’re still several months away from a projected mass production of Q4 2026, so launch is likely happening by year-end or early 2027. Expect more information to appear as time goes on, but treat everything unofficial with a pinch of salt, as usual.
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