Word from serial hardware leaker chi11eddog, who usually gets it right, is that the Nova Lake processors, possibly branded as Core Ultra 300S, are a clean break from the mess that was Arrow Lake. Instead of recycling the same old core design, Chipzilla is wheeling out new Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores, along with those half-forgotten LPE-cores it first shoved into Meteor Lake.

For the first time, those LPE-cores are turning up in desktop chips. They sit at the bottom of Intel’s core pecking order and are designed to handle the kind of lightweight background tat that doesn’t need a full-fat core. It’s all about power efficiency, or at least that’s what Chipzilla wants you to believe.

At the top of the pile is a Core Ultra 9 chip allegedly having 52 cores (16 P, 32 E, and four LPE) more than double what the current Ultra 9 285K offers. That’s not without consequence, though, as the chip will need 150W of power which is 20 per cent more than before.

The rest of the stack gets a similar treatment. The new Core Ultra 7 jumps from 8 to 14 P-cores, doubles its E-cores, and adds four LPEs for good measure. Even the Core Ultra 5 line, Intel’s volume workhorse, gets split into three SKUs to suit different wallets, although all three now feature LPE-cores and a bit more muscle.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Chipzilla has finally remembered its Core i3 tier, now rebadged as Core Ultra 3, which it completely shafted during the Arrow Lake launch. Nova Lake Ultra 3 will get four P-cores and up to eight E-cores, plus four LPEs. These will stick to a more sensible 65W power envelope—unlike the rest of the line-up that’s increasingly leaning toward hairdryer-class power draw.

Under the bonnet, Intel is rumoured to use its upcoming Xe3 (Celestial) and Xe4 (Druid) integrated GPU tech, which might make iGPUs interesting again. But buyers will need to cough up for a new LGA1954 motherboard, because of course they will. At least the coolers should still fit.

Nova Lake is on Intel’s roadmap for 2026, just in time to go head-to-head with AMD’s Zen 6 chips—assuming Chipzilla doesn’t fumble the launch or get stuck rewriting its drivers for the fifth time.

Intel Nova Lake Processor Specifications

Toms Hardware has been looking into this and points out that none of this has been confirmed yet.