Trusty snooper Jaykihn claims the Wildcat Lake lineup will sit at the low-power, low-budget end of the PC market and arrive close to the Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 parts. The chips are meant to pack Cougar Cove P cores, Darkmont E cores and Xe3 integrated graphics in a setup that mimics the higher-tier designs without the fancy trimmings.

Jaykihn said the refresh will appear in 2027 with an extra configuration. The first wave of Wildcat Lake under the Core Series 3 badge is shaping up as a 2+0+4 arrangement with only two Xe3 cores. That is about as exciting as a damp weekend in Margate.

Chipzilla’s refresh apparently bumps the top option to a 4+0+4 layout. That gives four P cores and four LP E cores, which should at least make the spreadsheet jockeys nod approvingly. No one knows yet whether the graphics block will change.

The original Wildcat Lake silicon carries two Xe3 cores with two RT units and XMX bits, although earlier chatter suggested ray tracing would not make the cut. Those Xe3 units are unlikely to shift in the refresh unless Chipzilla feels a sudden urge to sprinkle in a couple more to brighten things up.

One mildly interesting twist is that Wildcat Lake uses a chiplet design rather than a monolithic slab. The parts arrive with Thunderbolt 4, LPDDR5X or DDR5 support, and up to 40 TOPS of AI performance, split across four: 18 from the CPU, 18 from the GPU, and 18 from the NPU. Everything sits on a BGA 1516 package that keeps costs down compared to the larger Panther Lake H BGA 2540 footprint.

Chipzilla is expected to ship the first Wildcat Lake CPUs in the first half of 2026, which makes a 2027 refresh around CES entirely plausible. The company has a habit of rolling out tweaks when it fancies pretending that entry-level is getting some love.

In related muttering, the word on the street is that the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple might fancy Chipzilla’s 18A P process for its M series silicon is floating about, although that is another circus entirely.