Intel's next-gen Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs reportedly delayed until CES 2027 it seems

Intel was meant to launch its next-gen Nova Lake-S desktop processors this year, but according to the latest leaks, we'll be seeing Nova Lake-S unveiled at CES 2027 next year.

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In a new post by leaker "Golden Pig Upgrade" on Weibo: "It's alright, Nova Lake-S will also be released in 2027, they're all rushing to CES". We have been hearing about a "product winter" coming, meaning no major releases this year because of all of the headaches that the DRAM market is making... and now Intel is reportedly delaying its next-gen consumer desktop processor, and so too is AMD with rumored delays on Zen 6 until 2027.

Intel's next-gen Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake-S" was the biggest release of the year, as it will bring Intel up to a better competitive position in the consumer desktop CPU market against AMD and its mega-successful Ryzen CPUs. Nova Lake-S was rumored to also include a new X3D competitor with Intel's own "bLLC" cache on dual-tile, power-hungry 800W+ processors.

Nova Lake-S also introduces a new LGA1954 socket, so totally new motherboards and new chipsets, including DDR5 RAM as a minimum... versus LGA1854 which features support for both DDR5 and DDR4 memory. In the middle of a DRAM crisis where RAM prices are absolutely out of control, delaying your next-gen platform which requires DDR5 memory, is probably a good idea.

But, it means that Computex 2026 in a few months is most likely going to be boring, with no major releases in Taipei... it seems it's being saved until CES 2027 in January, to wait out the storm in the industry right now.

Right now, Intel's current-gen flagship Core Ultra 9 285K consumes upwards of 400W of power during full loads and overclocked, but the new dual compute die Nova Lake-S reportedly consuming over 700W of power is NUTS for a non-HEDT (Xeon, Threadripper) processor.

However, the new Nova Lake-S flagship desktop processors will feature twice as many CPU cores as the current 285K "Arrow Lake" CPU, with it looking like Intel is dumping a powerful new HEDT processor onto the market, but offered as a more flagship / mainstream design (more cores, more pools of cache, bLLC, and a much higher TDP).

Now the other question is: how do people keep this thing cool... 700W of power from the CPU isn't easy, so air-cooling is out (like any high-end Core Ultra 9 processor), but mid-range and even the 7800X3D + 9800X3D don't need exotic cooling to stay under thermal control. But, it looks like users will be wanting even more monster CPU cooling squeezed out of their Nova Lake-S processor... especially if it's hogging down 700W+ of power.

Intel is expected to support up to ultra-fast DDR5-10000+ memory on its new 900-series motherboards, with leaks of 7 new SKUs of Core Ultra 400 series with the flagship Core Ultra 9 SKU featuring 52 cores (16 P-Cores + 32 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores) with a 150W TDP.

Compare this with the current-gen flagship Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake-S" desktop CPU which features 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores for a total of 24 cores (with no LP-E cores), meaning we're in for a 2.16x increase in core count, with 2 x more P-Cores and E-Cores.

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The new Core Ultra 7 offering in the Nova Lake-S family rocks more CPU cores than the current flagship Core Ultra 9 processor, with 14 P-Cores and 24 E-Cores joined by 4 LP-E cores for a total of 28 cores, meaning we've got 4 more cores than the current Core Ultra 9 285K chip. The new Core Ultra 5 series CPUs in the Nova Lake-S platform should also impress, offering 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores joined by 4 LP-E cores.

Intel's next-gen Nova Lake-S desktop "Core Ultra 400" series CPU leaked details:

• Core Ultra 9 - 16 P-Cores + 32 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores (150W)
• Core Ultra 7 - 14 P-Cores + 24 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores (150W)
• Core Ultra 5 - 8 P-Cores + 16 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores (125W)
• Core Ultra 5 - 8 P-Cores + 12 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores (125W)
• Core Ultra 5 - 6 P-Cores + 8 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores (125W)
• Core Ultra 3 - 4 P-Cores + 8 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores (65W)
• Core Ultra 3 - 4 P-Cores + 4 E-Cores + 4 LP-E Cores (65W)