With Nova Lake-S, Intel could launch its first consumer architecture with a vertical cache like the Ryzen 5000X3D, 7000X3D or 9000X3D next year. For those of you who don’t know what’s coming next from Intel, Nova Lake-S should be the next desktop PC architecture. Expected in 2026, it will require a new motherboard. At this point, it’s possible that the current generation of processors (Core Ultra 200S/Arrow Lake) will benefit from a refresh, but nothing is official. Nova Lake, on the other hand, is well on Intel’s roadmap, and the timetable that seems to be taking shape indicates that this architecture should come up against AMD’s Zen 6.
Can Intel regain the lead with Nova Lake-S?
A new leak could tell us a little more about this future Nova Lake-S generation. We know that Intel will be using its 18A process for this generation, as well as its “stacking” technologies based on Foveros. What’s in it for you? Being able to add up the number of cores. There are a lot of rumours on this subject (56 cores for a possible Core 9 Ultra 400S) but objectively it’s too early to speculate. On the other hand, the addition of L3 cache is a real subject, and we could well have two ranges for Nova Lake-S. So, as with AMD, we could have a classic range and a range with an additional tile or layer for adding cache. As you can imagine, it’s this range that’s clearly targeted at gaming.
Two ‘variants’, including one with 3D cache… same as AMD
All this is obviously very vague, but Nova Lake-S should mark a turning point for Intel, just like Panther Lake should do at the end of the year. Several of the steps begun with Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake and will be implemented in the next generations, the aim is clearly to regain the upper hand over the Reds. At this stage, the timetable is for Nova Lake to arrive next year, probably around the second half of the year. Models equipped with a vertical cache will not see the light of day before the end of 2026, a timetable that could also be linked to that of its competitor. These processors will arrive almost at the same time as Zen 6, which also promises big changes… but in AM5 socket.
