The CPU Core Wars return — Intel Nova Lake leak teases monster 52 cores, DDR5-8000, and 32 PCIe lanes rumored, would rival AMD's finest

Yesterday, it emerged that Intel's next-generation Core Ultra 9 'Nova Lake-S' processors for desktops will feature as many as 52 cores, which makes them quite formidable contenders both for gaming and for performance-demanding applications. It turns out that the whole Nova Lake-S platform will be quite beastly too, as it will support DDR5-8000 memory and will feature as many as 32 PCIe 5.0 lanes, according to Jaykihn, a blogger with an excellent reputation when it comes to Intel's plans.

Intel's range-topping Core Ultra 9 'Nova Lake-S' processors for desktop PCs are set to pack 16 high-performance Coyote Cove cores, 32 energy-efficient Arctic Wolf cores, and four low-power Arctic Wolf cores. Memory subsystem of the new CPU will feature two channels supporting up to one DDR5-8000 memory module per channel, though it is unclear whether Intel plans to support regular DDR5-8000 DIMMs, or DDR5-8000 CUDIMMs with a clock driver chip.

There is a small catch, though, as each pair of Nova Lake's high-performance cores will feature a shared 2MB L2 cache, according to HXL. Using shared L2 cache will affect the performance of Coyote Cove cores, though this is a necessary tradeoff to pack up to 52 cores into next-generation Core Ultra 9 and up to 42 cores into next-generation Core Ultra 7 CPUs, as well as double the number of high-performance cores in high-end CPUs. Hopefully, support for high-speed DDR5 memory will offset the smaller L2 cache, and the performance of Coyote Cove will not be lower than the performance of Lion Cove cores.

Furthermore, Intel's Nova Lake CPUs will feature 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes: x16 lanes for graphics cards (which can be bifurcated to two x8 or to four x4 lanes) as well as two x4 lanes for SSDs. In addition, the chipset will support eight PCIe 5.0 lanes and 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes for peripherals, which could enable rather monstrous systems with loads of storage and plenty of add-in cards and accelerators.

Intel's next-generation Core Ultra 'Nova Lake-S' processors for desktops will reportedly use the all-new LGA1954 packaging and a new socket, so those who want to have up to 52 cores will have to upgrade to a new platform.

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