It’s a (bad) tradition at Intel: sockets have an ultra-limited lifespan. Introduced last year with the arrival of Arrow Lake-S, the LGA 1851 is not expected to last long. This socket should only support Arrow Lake-S and its refresh (expected soon). From the second half of 2026, a new LGA 1954 socket will be launched to accommodate Nova Lake-S. At the same time, as early as 2023 there was already talk of a limited life expectancy of 2 years for this socket…
From 2026, Intel’s future will be LGA 1954
There are still a lot of grey areas concerning Nova Lake-S. However, rumour has it that we could be in for a major generational leap. Intel’s main gain in this generation will be a considerable increase in the number of cores, both P-Cores and E-Cores. Current rumours suggest up to 16 P-Cores and 32 E-Cores, and these chips will be available on desktops and laptops. As for the 1954 LGA socket itself, it’s even harder to say. However, it seems that the successor to Nova Lake will still use LGA 1954. This successor, known as Razer Lake, could arrive in 2027. This will depend on how Intel’s roadmap develops.
So obviously this umpteenth socket change isn’t going to help Intel improve its image among enthusiasts. Especially since the contrast with AMD has been cruel for several years now, especially when you consider that the Reds continue to support the AM4, which has been around for 9 years now. The performance argument doesn’t hold water either, because despite its undeniable promise and progress, Arrow Lake-S hasn’t really won anyone over. Yet a few days ago, a rumour suggested the unexpected arrival of Bartlett Lake-S, a range of processors on the old LGA 1700 socket, capable of competing with AMD in the gaming market while offering a ‘low-cost’ upgrade…
