Intel’s Core Ultra 400-series ‘Nova Lake-S’ desktop platform is shaping up to be the company’s most significant desktop launch in years, and a newly leaked slide has clarified when buyers can expect the chips to arrive. According to the slide, Intel plans to begin mass production of Nova Lake-S processors in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the first CPUs reaching the market in early 2027.
The rollout will differ from Intel’s usual approach. Rather than leading with its flagship parts, the company reportedly intends to release only a 28-core unlocked SKU (or SKUs) in the first quarter of 2027. The range-topping 52-core model is expected to follow later in the year, with some rumors pointing to a window between late May and September 2027. Reports suggest the 52-core chip will slot into a class above a typical flagship, aimed primarily at the high-end desktop (HEDT) segment.
What the Leaked Slide Shows
The information matches earlier roadmap disclosures that circulated throughout 2025, which already placed mass production in Q4 2026. The recently surfaced slide, published by @wxnod, does not appear to be an official Intel roadmap or presentation. A more likely origin is a motherboard maker or one of Intel’s OEM partners, which would have compiled details supplied by Intel. That makes the schedule probably accurate, though not necessarily final.
Nova Lake-S Core Configurations and Cache
Based on various leaks and the same slide, Nova Lake-S will reportedly combine up to 16 new high-performance Coyote Cove cores with 16MB of L2 cache, up to 32 energy-efficient Arctic Wolf cores, and up to four low-power Arctic Wolf cores. Each pair of Coyote Cove cores is said to share 2MB of L2 cache, an arrangement that could affect single-thread performance.
To compensate, Intel is reportedly turning to bLLC (big Last Level Cache), which is said to scale up to 288MB. That large cache pool is designed to boost performance in memory-bandwidth-hungry workloads, including gaming, and represents Intel’s response to AMD’s X3D processors, which currently lead the charts among the best gaming CPUs.
At the top of the stack, the Core Ultra 9 400-series processors are expected to reach up to 52 cores using two compute tiles. Core Ultra 7 400-series models are projected to offer up to 44 cores, also across two compute tiles, though exact configurations remain unconfirmed. The highest core counts across the lineup rely on a dual compute-tile design.
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Image: tomshardware.com
