Intel Nova Lake alleged performance shows massive improvement, could answer AMD 3D V-cache

Intel’s next-generation Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs are shaping up to be a major overhaul if a recently leaked slide is to be believed. According to the leak, which appears to be a cutout portion of Intel's presentation slide, the top-end Core Ultra 9 SKU could deliver roughly 1.1x or 10 percent better single-threaded (ST) performance and a 1.6x or 60 percent boost in multi-threaded (MT) workloads over Arrow Lake-S.

Assuming this is true, in order to achieve this big MT jump, core counts are expected to go significantly up compared to the current gen (Arrow Lake-S). A previous report outlines up to 52 total cores on the flagship part, 16 performance “P-cores,” 32 efficiency “E-cores,” and four ultra-low-power “LP-E” cores, yielding 52 threads in all (If you recall, Intel has dropped hyper-threading, its version of SMT or simultaneous multi-threading on the Lunar Lake architecture).

There is no information regarding clock speed though, so we can't guess what kind of IPC (instructions per cycle) Nova Lake may be delivering.

Nova Lake-S is also said to support DDR5-8000 memory by default and bring 32 PCIe 5.0 lanes plus 16 Gen 4 lanes for I/O, on a new socket,1954.

Nova Lake aims to succeed Arrow Lake’s combo of Crestmont P-cores and Skymont E-cores with new microarchitecture, codenamed “Coyote Cove” and “Arctic Wolf,” respectively, along with the addition of LP-E (Low Power Island) cores that debuted on Meteor Lake. If the internal slide’s performance claims hold true, Intel could close the single-threaded gap against AMD’s Zen 6 Ryzen 9000 X3D parts and redefine desktop gaming leadership.

For now, these performance numbers remain unverified rumors even though it sort of does look like the real thing (the font matches). Intel has yet to share any official Nova Lake-S benchmarks or architectural deep dives.

Finally, Nova Lake is also rumored to debut a large LLC (last level cache) somewhat similar to AMD's 3D V-cache which helps in boosting gaming performance and other tasks.

If you recall, Intel has been working on an L4 (level 4) cache for a while.

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