Intel Nova Lake shipping manifest shows flagship is a 52-core CPU

Intel's Nova Lake flagship may indeed be a 52-core processor as previously rumored, as another piece of evidence has emerged indicating this could be the case.

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VideoCardz aired a shipping manifest which contains multiple mentions of 'NVL-S' chips - meaning Nova Lake-S desktop processors - with 28C and 52C flavors (28-cores and 52-cores).

As past speculation has detailed, the flagship Nova Lake CPU is theorized to run with 16 performance cores, 32 efficiency, and 4 low-power cores for that total of 52. The 28-core model mentioned is the Core Ultra 5 (i5) workhorse with 8 performance cores plus 16 efficiency and 4 low-power.

The manifest that VideoCardz shared dates back to June, and mentions the LGA-1954 socket, but it isn't made out for sample chips - rather it's parts for testing relating to Nova Lake which were shipped here. (Assuming this document is genuine, of course, and we must always be a bit cautious around leaks like this).

It's presumed Nova Lake will be the Core Ultra 400 series when it pitches up next year, because if the rumor mill is right, we will get an Arrow Lake Refresh later this year (which would be the Core Ultra 300 family - unless this refresh doesn't happen, and the grapevine has blown hot and cold on that prospect over time).

And yes, LGA-1954 is a new socket, which will be disappointing for some in terms of requiring a motherboard switch - though the socket maintains the same dimensions as the current-gen, so at least existing coolers will still fit Nova Lake CPUs (a small consolation perhaps).