Intel’s next-gen CPUs are starting to look… kinda ridiculous. And in this case, that’s a good thing. A fresh Nova Lake leak has spilled a ton of details, and if even half of it holds up, Intel might be gearing up for a serious comeback in high-end desktop CPUs.
Nova Lake leak shows Intel going all-in on cache
The biggest headline here is cache. A lot of it. The leaked lineup, courtesy of reliable leaker Jaykihn on X, suggests Intel’s top-end Nova Lake chip could pack up to 288MB of total cache, which is actually more than what AMD currently offers on its X3D chips. That’s thanks to what Intel is calling bLLC (big Last Level Cache), which is basically its answer to AMD’s 3D V-Cache strategy. Instead of stacking cache like AMD, Intel is integrating massive chunks of it directly into the chip design.
And it’s not just one SKU. The leak shows a wide range of chips, from entry-level 6-core parts all the way up to a 52-core flagship with multiple compute tiles and varying cache configurations. Here’s the full list of the expected Nova Lake desktop chips, compiled by NotebookCheck.
| Tentative SKU name | Core Count (P+E+LPE) | bLLC | Cache |
| Core Ultra DX9 400 | 52 (16+32+4) | Yes | 288 MB |
| Core Ultra DX7 400 | 44 (8+24+4) | Yes | 264 MB |
| Core Ultra D9 400 | 28 (8+16+4) | Yes | 144 MB |
| Core Ultra 9 400 | 28 (8+16+4) | No | 36 MB |
| Core Ultra 9 400 | 22 (6+12+4) | Yes | 108 MB |
| Core Ultra D7 400 | 24 (8+12+4) | Yes | 132 MB |
| Core Ultra 7 400 | 24 (8+12+4) | No | 33 MB |
| Core Ultra 7 400 | 16 (4+8+4) | No | 18 MB |
| Core Ultra 5 400 | 22( 6+12+4) | No | 27 MB |
| Core Ultra 5 400 | 12 (4+4+4) | No | 15 MB |
| Core Ultra 5 400 | 8 (4+0+4) | No | 12 MB |
| Core Ultra 3 400 | 6 (2+0+4) | No | 6 MB |
This looks like Intel taking the fight back to AMD
If this all sounds familiar, that’s because Intel is clearly going after AMD’s biggest strength right now: gaming performance driven by a large cache. For years, AMD’s X3D chips have dominated gaming benchmarks thanks to their massive cache pools. Nova Lake looks like Intel’s way of saying, “Cool, we’ll just add more.” And in some cases, significantly more.
Add to that, the leak also points to support for DDR5-8000 memory, next-gen NPUs for AI workloads, and improved integrated graphics, suggesting these chips are being built for a mix of gaming, productivity, and AI-heavy tasks. Of course, there’s a catch. Power consumption is expected to be high, with some leaks pointing to TDPs going up to 175W or more, which means cooling is going to be… fun. Still, if this leak is even close to accurate, Nova Lake doesn’t look like a minor upgrade. It looks like Intel is trying to reset the narrative.
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