Next-gen Intel Core gaming CPU range set to have up to 52 cores, suggests leak

The next generation of Intel CPU, Nova Lake, could have as many as 52 cores, according to new leaks. Along with this massive core count total, the new processors will allegedly have up to 16 of its powerful P-Cores and feature a TDP of 150W, although the peak TDP is likely to be considerably higher.

These apparent Intel CPU architecture details suggest that the new chips will boast more than double the number of cores of its previous architecture, Arrow Lake. This increase greatly bolsters the chances of these upcoming processors finding a place on our best gaming CPU guide when they are released. Comparatively, the future AMD Zen 7 architecture is rumored to top out at 32 cores, though they're likely to all be full-fat cores, rather than being split between P-Cores and E-Cores.

The list of rumored Intel desktop CPUs appeared in a post on X (formerly Twitter) by chi11eddog, a well-known poster of alleged hardware leaks. According to their latest leak, Intel is planning a total of seven Nova Lake SKUs, topped by a Core Ultra 9 model with 16 performance cores (P-Cores), 32 efficiency cores (E-Cores), and four low-power efficient cores (LP-E Cores). This compares to its current flagship, the Core Ultra 9 285K, which has eight P-Cores and 16 E-Cores.

The three Core Ultra 5 SKUs will then reportedly be topped by a 28-core variant with eight P-Cores, 16 E-Cores, and four LP-E Cores. Then, even the lowest Nova Lake processor weighs in with 12 cores divided into four P-Cores, four E-Cores, and four LP-E Cores.

Intel hasn't confirmed any of these details so far. If the leaks are accurate, though, these upgrades could help close Intel's processor gaming performance gap to AMD. As our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review shows, that AMD chip currently dominates when it comes to game frame rates.

Just a day after chi11eddog posted this leak on X, another hardware leaker, jaykihn0, posted the supposed Nova Lake Platform PCIe and USB specifications, which appear equally ambitious. According to jaykihn0,  Intel Nova Lake-S CPUs will have 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes, 16 of which are for graphics cards, and two sets of four PCIe 5.0 lanes for compatible SSDs and other devices.

The motherboard chipset will then apparently add to these figures with a further eight PCIe 5.0 lanes, meaning you could install a PCIe 5.0 graphics card with the full 16 lanes, and also have four high-speed PCIe 5.0 SSDs running in the same system - comparatively, an Intel Arrow Lake CPU with a standard Z890 motherboard only has access to 20 PCIe 5.0 lanes, meaning you can only install one high-speed SSD if you want your GPU to have the full 16 lanes.

We'll have to wait and see if any of these leaks pan out, though we're already fairly certain from these and prior Intel Core Ultra 300 motherboard leaks that these next-generation CPUs will require a new motherboard. If you're considering an upgrade in the near future, check out our how to install a CPU guide.

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