Rumors have been circulating about Intel’s Nova Lake-S platform, and it looks like the Arrow Lake successor will feature many improvements. Of the many leaks, via VideoCardz (1, 2, 3), to surface, it’s been said that the next-gen consumer CPUs will continue the design trend begun with their predecessor by not supporting Hyperthreading and will require a new socket. Quite a bit has been revealed about the Nova Lake-S series in the last 24 hours, and as so-called leaks and rumors often tend to ramp up before an official launch announcement, Intel could already be prepping for one but has previously laid out a release schedule for next year following an Arrow Lake-S refresh.
For some time, it’s been reported that the flagship Core Ultra 9 SKU would feature up to 52 Cores. It’s said to comprise 16 performance cores, 32 Efficient Cores, and 4 Low-Power Cores. A new detail for this processor, and the Core Ultra 7 below it, featuring 42 cores, is that both will have a 150W TDP. The latest leak suggests up to a total of seven SKUs, but Intel could choose not to release certain models depending on market conditions. At the bottom of the list is a Core Ultra 3 with 12 cores, 4P+4E+4LP, and a 65W TDP. One thing that appears to be common to all is that each will have 4 low-performance cores. Given the precise core count breakdown, those details are quite plausible, but the broad power draw specifications are a little suspect, so folks shouldn’t be too surprised if official numbers end up being different.
| Nova Lake-S Processors | Core Counts/Configurations | TDP |
| Core Ultra 9 | 52 Cores (16P+32E+4LP) | 150W |
| Core Ultra 7 | 42 Cores (14P+24+4LP) | 150W |
| Core Ultra 5 | 28 Cores (8P+16E+4LP) | 125W |
| Core Ultra 5 | 24 Cores (8P+12E+4LP) | 125W |
| Core Ultra 5 | 18 Cores (6P+8E+4LP) | 125W |
| Core Ultra 3 | 16 Cores (4P+8E+4LP) | 65W |
| Core Ultra 3 | 12 Cores (4P+4E+4LP) | 65W |
Memory support for these Core Ultra 300 processors is reportedly being increased to DDR5-8000 MT/s, but overclocking options still remain unknown. The previous Core Ultra 200 series topped at DDR5-6400 MT/s with overclocking support for up to DDR5-9200 MT/s. It’s unknown if the support for faster memory is due to the new socket, LGA-1954, a new memory controller, or improved motherboard designs, but one other significant change is the number of PCIe Gen5 lanes available. Nova Lake is said to increase PCIe 5.0 lanes from the processor from 20 (Arrow Lake) to 32, with an additional 8 lanes via DMI for a total of 36 Gen5 lanes between the chipset and CPU. This configuration could allow for a GPU (PCIe 5.0 x16), 2x Gen5 x4 SSDs via the CPU, and then an additional 2x Gen5 x4 SSDs via the chipset. Otherwise, it will retain the previous 48 (24+24) total PCIe lane configuration.
Nova Lake Platform PCIE and USB Specifications pic.twitter.com/wgG2u5xINN
— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) June 17, 2025