Intel is back in the high-performance race with its upcoming Nova Lake-AX chips – a fresh take on Halo-class CPUs to rival AMD’s Strix Halo APUs and Apple’s M4. After shelving earlier plans to use Arrow Lake as the foundation for these enthusiast-class chips, Intel has shifted its focus to Nova Lake, expected to arrive in full swing by 2026–2027.
Leaked by known insider @jaykihn0, Nova Lake-AX aims to shake up the mobile and possibly desktop enthusiast space with high-end features, bigger iGPUs, and larger caches.
This isn’t just a refresh – it’s Intel swinging back hard.
Nova Lake will bring a comprehensive CPU lineup covering both laptops and desktops, unlike Panther Lake which will stick to mobile. The AX variant, however, stands out as the top-tier enthusiast offering, potentially exclusive to high-performance mobile workstations and gaming laptops – though a desktop version isn’t off the table.
What’s under the hood? Expect up to 52 cores – 16 high-performance P-Cores (Coyote Cove), 32 E-Cores (Arctic Wolf), and 4 low-power LP-E cores, all linked through Foveros packaging. These aren’t theoretical – this config is already laid out for Nova Lake-S and HX chips, and AX is likely to build on top of this with even more cache and a significantly upgraded iGPU.
The GPU part of the Nova Lake-AX is where things get serious. Intel is reportedly bringing the Xe3 ‘Celestial’ architecture with possibly over 12 cores, aiming to go toe-to-toe with AMD’s monstrous RDNA 3.5 iGPUs. That means we’re talking 20+ Xe3 cores on a dedicated tile, built for AI workloads, demanding creative apps, and next-gen gaming. Expect serious heat and power draw – but also serious performance.
Of course, all this sounds amazing on paper. But we’ve been burned before (20A, anyone?). Intel’s roadmap is ambitious, and while the idea of a CP2077-style redemption arc is fun, we’ll believe it when we see the silicon. For now, it’s a waiting game – one where AMD is also preparing to strike with Zen 6 and RDNA 4.