Core Ultra 400 series, Intel plans a change of scale in addition to DDR5-8000 – GinjFo

The new information around Nova Lake-S attempts to provide a first complete portrait of Intel’s future Desktop processor offering. The range is expected under the commercial name of Core Ultra 400 with solutions ranging from 6 to 52 cores. Intel has provided native support for DDR5-8000 (without OC), an NPU6 and high-end references reaching up to a thermal envelope of 175 W.

These various data announce a much more powerful desktop platform than the current generation Core Ultra 200 series (Plus). If faster memory is interesting, Nova Lake-S above all promises a strong increase in the number of cores and new ambitions around local AI.

A range that would go up to 52 cores

The Nova Lake-S range would include several levels, with at the top an ultimate Core Ultra 9 capable of offering a total of 52 cores. This figure is not a surprise and it is in line with previous indiscretions on the subject. At the time there was talk of an architecture combining P-Cores, E-Cores and LP-E Cores, all in a processor in LGA 1954 format and usable through a new platform around the 900 series chipsets.

Such an identity card repositions Intel at the top of the range against AMD no longer on frequency or IPC, but by an increase in parallelism

Support for DDR5-8000 is also once again on the table, which reinforces its credibility. We already talked about it a few days ago: Core Ultra 400 series, iGPU Xe3, DDR5-8000 and up to 52 cores.

NPU6 : AI becomes a topic

One of the “new” points of this leak concerns the presence of a NPU6. This new Neuronal Processor Unit block suggests that AI acceleration will become a standard component of this future platform and probably subsequent ones.

For the moment it is still difficult to know whether NPU6 will change uses but its presence confirms that AI will no longer be a sort of “bonus” reserved for a few segments.

What is credible, what is not yet

Faced with all this, we must remain cautious and consider what is plausible and what is confirmed. What begins to become credible are the main lines with the Core Ultra 400 series, an LGA 1954 socket, support for DDR5-8000 and a significant increase in the number of cores.

What Intel has officially confirmed is much more limited at the moment. We know that Nova Lake will arrive at the end of 2026 while the idea of ​​​​advancing Nova Lake to fill the gap on the high-end desktop has been put forward. However, Intel has not confirmed the list of references, the DDR5-8000, the NPU6 or the 175 W TDP for the most powerful references.

VideoCardz claims to have had an exclusive leak from an unpublished “preliminary SKU list†/ internal Intel document listing the full range. Here it is.