Intel Core Ultra 400 (Nova Lake) Desktop Launch

• Intel's Nova Lake-S desktop generation is reported to launch in stages through 2027, with only the 28-core version arriving in the first quarter of 2027 and the 52-core model "arriving later in the year"^[1]
• The July 2026 leak breaks the staggering down further: a 28-core DS package between January and March 2027, 28-core K-series (unlocked) models between March and April 2027, 16-core and 8-core variants between late March and May 2027, and the flagship 52-core DS "potentially between late May and September 2027"^[2]; the later September report gives the same window for the flagship, "between late May and September, 2027"^[1]
• Intel is "reportedly on track to start mass production of its Nova Lake-S CPUs in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to a slide published by @wxnod"; earlier 2025 leaks and roadmap disclosures also placed mass production in Q4 2026, "so the new slide confirms that plan"^[1]
• The sources disagree on when Nova Lake arrives at all: Wikipedia states "The first Nova Lake processors are expected to launch in late 2026", while both Tom's Hardware reports, which are newer and specific to the desktop parts, put the first Core Ultra 400 desktop launch in Q1 2027^[1][2][3]
• The branding is also given two ways - the leak reports say Intel "could introduce it under the Core Ultra Series 400 branding", following Core Ultra Series 200 for Arrow Lake and 300 for Panther Lake^[1][2], while Wikipedia calls the family "Core Ultra Series 4"^[3]
• The leaked slide "does not look like an official Intel roadmap or an Intel presentation slide"; the "more plausible explanation" is a motherboard maker's or OEM partner's deck, "which means that while it is most likely accurate, it is not final"^[1], and Intel "is yet to officially confirm a launch date for Nova Lake"^[2]
• Unlike Intel's usual practice of launching flagship and unlocked models first, the 52-core model "will fit in a different class above a typical flagship, primarily targeting the HEDT crowd"^[1]
• Successors: the slide lists Razor Lake and Hammer Lake following Nova Lake-S "sometime after the fourth quarter of 2027" with no technical details^[1]; Wikipedia names Razor Lake as the successor and Panther Lake (mobile) and Arrow Lake (desktop and mobile) as predecessors^[3]

Notable features

• The range-topping part reportedly carries up to 52 cores across two compute tiles - 16 Coyote Cove performance cores, 32 Arctic Wolf efficiency cores and four low-power Arctic Wolf cores - against the 24 cores of the current Core Ultra 9 285K, with a Core Ultra 7 400-series part projected at up to 44 cores^[1][2]
• Coyote Cove and Arctic Wolf point to "an entirely new CPU architecture, replacing the Lion Cove and Skymont cores found in Arrow Lake"^[2]; Wikipedia lists the same two microarchitectures and an Intel 18A technology node, though its own roadmap navbox instead files Nova Lake under "Intel 18A and/or TSMC N2P"^[3]
• Cache: up to 16MB of L2 on the P-cores, with each pair of Coyote Cove cores reportedly sharing 2 MB (a commenter disputes this, saying "It's 2MB per P-core, but they're clustered in pairs so each has access up to 4MB"), plus bLLC (big Last Level Cache) scaling to 288 MB as Intel's answer to AMD's X3D gaming chips^[1]; Wikipedia likewise expects bLLC SKUs "to compete with AMD's 3D V-Cache"^[3]
• Power figures conflict: the September report says dual-compute-tile CPUs "will reportedly consume up to 474W of power and will require motherboards featuring three 12V EPS power plugs"^[1], while the July article gives the flagship a 150W Processor Base Power and 253W Maximum Turbo Power and itself flags the 474W headline as "a different power figure"^[2]; the 474W claim is the newer of the two^[1]
• Platform: a new LGA1954 socket and Intel's new 900-series chipsets, with Z990 boards already seen and Intel "reportedly intend[ing] to keep LGA1954 around for a longer time than it usually does"^[1]; the other two links also give LGA 1954, Wikipedia as the expected socket and the July report noting buyers "will likely need a new motherboard to upgrade from the existing Arrow Lake platform"^[2][3]
• I/O and features: dual-channel DDR5 up to DDR5-8000 and up to 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes from the CPU (16 for graphics, splittable two x8 or four x4, plus two x4 SSD links)^[1][2], with Thunderbolt 5, next-generation Xe3 Celestial integrated graphics and an upgraded NPU5 also expected^[2]; Wikipedia's infobox instead gives the GPU as "Intel Arc" while one of its cited references says "Xe3 GPU"^[3], and it expects Nova Lake to be the first consumer platform supporting AVX10.1, AVX10.2 and APX (its own infobox lists AVX10.2 and APX but not AVX10.1)^[3]