Intel Unveils Next-Gen CPU Strategy! Nova Lake Prioritizes Desktop with 28 Cores and AVX-512 as Key Highlights

AMD recently officially launched its Zen 6 processors, breaking a decade-long tradition by introducing the Zen 6 architecture first in data center EPYC Venice, rather than starting with consumer-grade products as in the past. In response, Intel (INTC-US) Vice President Robert Hallock confirmed in an interview with Tom's Hardware that the new core architecture of Nova Lake will debut on desktop platforms before data centers.

Hallock’s remarks were highly suggestive: 'I think it’s a natural choice for them, and it makes perfect sense. But if you look at our own roadmap, I have a new core that will launch first on desktop. I hope enthusiasts will do the math themselves. That’s all I can say.'

In other words, while AMD is prioritizing data centers to maximize profits with its new architecture, Intel is choosing to deliver its new core to desktop gamers first.

Intel’s decision to prioritize the desktop stems from the explosive demand for CPUs in AI data centers. With NVIDIA shifting focus to Vera CPUs and AMD advancing Venice ahead of the Zen 6 desktop variant Olympus Ridge, the entire industry’s release rhythm has been disrupted by AI-driven data center demand.

However, Hallock emphasized that Intel’s desktop roadmap remains unchanged, stating that the company has product plans extending to 2030, with four consecutive generations of CPUs targeting gamers and desktop users currently in development—faster than any previous release cadence.

To realize this roadmap, Intel must first repair the reputation lost with Arrow Lake, whose gaming performance upon release was even worse than the previous-generation Raptor Lake, causing a significant crisis of trust among enthusiasts.

Hallock acknowledged this skepticism: 'I understand the hesitation over the past two years—I truly do. But what Intel wants to convey is that we are preparing for the most important desktop CPU launch in our history.'

Intel has already taken steps to recover with Arrow Lake Refresh. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processors have gradually reversed the negative impressions left by the initial Arrow Lake release.

Hallock revealed this was no accident—Arrow Lake Refresh was led by an almost entirely new team, with complete turnover in product management, marketing, and business operations. This same team will continue to lead the development of Nova Lake.

Intel has also established a dedicated organizational structure for its desktop business line, complete with its own budget and leadership, no longer sharing resources with other business units as in the past.

Hallock himself spent 12 years at AMD, overseeing key milestones such as the birth of Ryzen, the first Zen core launch, and the debut of the first 3D V-Cache processor. He joined Intel in 2023 as Head of Technical Marketing, where he does not handle low-level chip design but oversees product naming, branding strategy, and release timing.

Nova Lake may turn out to be a great product, but in the current climate of rising prices, its cost is also expected to be high. In the interview, Hallock frankly stated that the PC market is undergoing a split—mainstream segments are struggling under cost pressures, while the high-end market remains relatively unaffected.

Hallock said: 'The market is polarizing. Those with sufficient budgets can absorb the industry’s cost increases, but most people cannot. The low-end and mainstream markets are really getting hit hard, while enthusiasts and the high-end market are holding up—some device categories are even growing. The market split is very clear.'

It might be an exaggeration to say the high-end market is growing, but for users spending tens of thousands on a PC, paying extra for more memory is not a big deal.

The problem is that high-end consumers alone cannot sustain a business of Intel’s scale. During the memory price surge, manufacturers have already made compromises, but Hallock believes these are only short-term measures.

He predicts that if upstream costs do not fall, the entire industry will make a clearer split between mainstream and enthusiast platforms in the future: 'I believe the market will see this split—it’s an industry-wide judgment, not just Intel’s. Every company will introduce a high-end interface and a mainstream interface.'

Hallock stated bluntly: 'You have to make some compromises in your product lineup, purely to control costs and give people a genuinely affordable option. Otherwise, the result is that products simply disappear because no one can afford them.'

Judging from Intel’s strategy, interface splitting likely means LGA 1700 for mainstream and LGA 1954 for enthusiast platforms, though Hallock did not explicitly confirm this, only stating that Raptor Lake remains a core part of the product lineup and hopes to 'continue providing it for many years.'

LGA 1954 is expected to be the socket for Intel’s next-generation Nova Lake processors, possibly including bLCC as a competitor to 3D V-Cache and a 52-core flagship model—though none of these have been officially confirmed by Intel.

Hallock admitted that Nova Lake cannot serve all users in the current market environment: 'A product like Nova Lake cannot satisfy everyone in the market—it’s impossible under current conditions. But I hope and believe that when people look back, they’ll say, “Damn, that was pretty amazing.” That’s our goal.'

Additionally, the latest Linux kernel logs reveal that Nova Lake-S has successfully powered on internally and achieved real-machine boot on two engineering samples.

According to leaked log details, the two Nova Lake-S test motherboards had codenames bat-nvls-1 and bat-nvls-2, both running BIOS versions compiled on July 16, 2026.

In the XSAVE feature lists of both processor samples, AVX-512 and APX register save states were enabled, suggesting Nova Lake-S is likely to fully support the AVX-512 instruction set and APX.

In terms of specific specifications, the two engineering samples showed different core configurations. bat-nvls-1 used a 24-core, 24-thread setup with a base frequency of 3.4GHz, while the higher-spec bat-nvls-2 had 28 cores and 28 threads, with a slightly lower base frequency of 3.2GHz.

Notably, both chips showed equal core and thread counts, making it unclear whether the processors natively lack hyper-threading support or if hyper-threading was temporarily disabled in the test BIOS.

Looking back at Intel’s processor evolution, each generation’s desktop chip powering on typically precedes its official launch by 12 to 18 months. Based on current engineering sample performance, with expanded core counts, restored AVX-512, and added APX instruction support, Nova Lake-S is expected to significantly enhance multi-threaded and computational performance.

However, engineering sample frequency data is often conservative. By historical precedent, final retail versions typically achieve significantly higher boost clocks than the 3.4GHz seen in the ES stage.

Beyond desktops, according to the latest from Jaykihn, Intel is preparing a new Panther Lake processor for gaming handhelds, featuring a 4+0+4 CPU layout (4 performance cores, 0 standard efficiency cores, 4 low-power efficiency cores) paired with 4 Xe3 GPU cores.

Intel’s two currently released Arc G3 handheld chips—G3 Extreme and G3 Standard—both use a 14-core CPU layout (2P+8E+4LP), with 12 and 10 Xe3 cores respectively, corresponding to Arc B390 and B370 GPUs.

There is still room below the existing G3 Extreme and G3 models for a more affordable handheld solution, and this 8-core chip could be the down-market variant of the G3 family.

However, Intel has not yet confirmed the name, power limits, memory support, or whether it will use the G3 brand.

In fact, the 4P+0E+4LP configuration with 4 Xe3 cores is not entirely new to Panther Lake—Intel’s already available Core Ultra 7 365, Ultra 7 355, Ultra 5 335, and Ultra 5 325 all use the same CPU and GPU layout. The novelty lies in Intel potentially dedicating this configuration specifically for handheld devices.