In recent days, rumors about the Nova Lake-S generation Core Ultra 400 processors have been flying thick and fast. After speculation about peak power consumption and the configurations of the various chipsets, it’s now time for rumors about the CPUs’ performance in the AI sector. One leaker claims that this generation could feature a NPU enabling Microsoft Copilot certification.
Core Ultra 400: a NPU with 74 TOPs of power!
In addition to the increased number of cores and cache size, Nova Lake could benefit from a new NPU. That’s what our leaker of the day claims, presenting a series of CPUs with AI performance of 74 TOPS. These figures are more than enough to earn Microsoft’s Copilot certification, which, in our opinion, remains more of a marketing ploy than anything else. Furthermore, it should be noted that having a powerful NPU on your CPU only improves AI performance if you use models locally. If you use ChatGPT, Grok, or other online models, having an NPU is ultimately of little use.
In any case, this aspect is improving significantly. It should be noted that with Arrow Lake Refresh, Intel does not seem to be planning any upgrades in this area. As a result, we should see an NPU inherited from Meteor Lake with a performance of 13 TOPS.
However, our colleague states that AMD could well be the first manufacturer to offer Copilot-certified desktop CPUs with their Ryzen AI 400 APU, codenamed Gorgon Point. As for Nova Lake-S, we will have to wait a little longer before these processors hit the market. The screenshot mentions a date in the second half of 2026. Other rumors suggested a launch in early 2027, but in any case, it won’t be anytime soon.
