Intel Nova Lake-S 28-Core CPU Surfaces as Arrow Lake Refresh Looms

Intel is preparing its next moves on the desktop CPU battlefield, and early signs point toward a mix of short-term stopgaps and long-term comebacks. Recently spotted in shipping manifests, Intel’s upcoming Nova Lake-S and Arrow Lake-S Refresh chips are already entering the Pre-Qualification Sample stage, meaning the engineering phase is behind them.

That’s earlier than many expected, suggesting Intel is moving fast to reassert itself after the disappointing launch of Arrow Lake-S.

The original Arrow Lake-S chips were widely criticized for underwhelming gaming performance. Despite patches and optimizations – from tightened memory support to fabric speed tweaks – AMD’s Zen 5 lineup has handily outperformed and outsold Intel’s latest, leaving the blue team struggling in market share. The Arrow Lake-S Refresh, set for 2025 on the LGA 1851 socket, won’t rewrite the playbook. Instead, expect modest clock bumps on a more mature process, but without the rumored NPU upgrade.

Where Intel’s true ambitions lie is with Nova Lake-S. Built on a tile-based architecture, the platform will feature new Coyote Cove P-Cores and Arctic Wolf E-Cores, scaling up to 52 cores in dual-tile designs and 28 cores in single-tile variants. The 28-core configuration – confirmed in manifests – will reportedly include 8 P-Cores, 16 E-Cores, and 4 LP-E cores, plus at least 4 Xe3 GPU cores. This design echoes Intel’s mobile strategy, as the same dies are expected to power Nova Lake-HX laptops, albeit without the dual-tile option.

Nova Lake-S is also rumored to be fabbed at TSMC, while Intel’s internal 18A process is being showcased with future platforms like Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest. This split strategy highlights Intel’s pragmatic approach: keep the bleeding-edge process for certain projects, while leaning on TSMC for volume and stability.

Launch timing puts Nova Lake-S around mid-to-late 2026, with motherboard partners expected to tease boards at Computex 2025. Intel claims the lineup will finally close the performance gap with AMD by then, but history has taught enthusiasts to be cautious. For now, the Refresh is just a bump in the road – Nova Lake is the real destination.