Leak: Intel Razor Lake packs up to 52 cores, but most mobile chips may reuse Nova Lake silicon

Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID) has laid out detailed coverage of Intel's client CPU plans through the late 2020s. Since some of these processors are still years away, it is important to take this leak with a grain of salt.

Rumored to launch roughly a year after Nova Lake (targeting late 2027), Razor Lake is described not as an architectural revolution but as a modest refinement step, similar to Panther Lake. The leaker says the jump from Nova Lake to Razor Lake is like the jump from Alder Lake to Raptor Lake.

Razor Lake is said to feature Griffin Cove P-cores, which, according to the leak, deliver a noticeable IPC boost over Coyote Cove in Nova Lake. The report claims that Razor Lake's E-cores are called Arctic Wolf, while earlier rumors referred to them as Golden Eagle. Both designs are believed to be similar, so final branding will be up to Intel.

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As previous leaks indicated, Intel's Razor Lake architecture is set to span the entire client spectrum, from premium enthusiast desktops to ultra-thin portables. According to MLID, the lineup keeps pin-compatibility with the LGA 1954 socket and mirrors Nova Lake's massive 52-core ceiling.

Aside from a newly designed compute tile, Razor Lake reportedly relies heavily on Nova Lake's established IP, carrying over the exact same GPU, HUB, and PCD tiles. The updated compute die introduces Griffin Cove P-cores paired with Arctic Wolf/Golden Eagle E-cores, but it remains exclusive to high-performance parts. The standard mobile lineup (RZL-U, RZL-H, RZL-P) and lower-tier desktop models (such as the entry-level Core Ultra 3 and 5 variants) won't see this new die at all. Instead, they'll roll out as pure Nova Lake rebadges.

For desktops (S) and high-performance mobile (HX), Intel is reportedly developing three new compute dies. These include a standard 8+16, an 8+16 variant with bLLC, and a flagship dual-8+16 (bLLC) model. Razor Lake, therefore, maintains feature parity with its predecessor, using the same core counts, dual-tile designs, and bLLC setups.

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For ultra-portables, MLID highlights a new Razor Lake-UL family built around Nova Lake's compact 2+0 die. The leak notes that this silicon is tied to an internal Intel process node codenamed 1280.3 (PNC), which is rumored to be Intel 14A. Since this entry-level chip relies entirely on Nova Lake IP, it is expected to skip the newer Griffin Cove P-cores found in high-end desktops.

While industry rumors are painting the 32 Xe3-core Razor Lake-AX as a brand-new architecture featuring Memory-on-Package (MoP), MLID clarifies it is actually rebranded Nova Lake-AX, a project previously thought dead. Despite the name change, the high-end mobile chip remains fundamentally unchanged, relying on Nova Lake's Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores.

Either way, based on these leaks, most of Razor Lake will be rebranded as Nova Lake. It remains to be seen whether these CPUs can hold their own against AMD's Zen 6, and possibly even Zen 7, since Intel's next desktop family is rumored to be Hammer Lake, which may not debut until 2029 or later.