A new leak from hardware sleuth Jaykihn claims Intel is moving its planned 12-Xe3P desktop variant of Nova Lake to Razor Lake. The leaker says the change will not affect its launch timing, as the model was reportedly already scheduled to arrive around a year after Nova Lake.
Nova Lake is Intel's next-generation desktop CPU line, with the first chips expected to arrive around the end of this year and the desktop lineup following in 2027. Within that family, previous leaks pointed to an unusual desktop variant featuring a beefy 12-Xe3P-core iGPU, similar in scale to the 12-Xe Arc B390 graphics found in higher-end Panther Lake mobile chips.
The desktop design, however, was expected to use the newer Xe3P architecture, along with more L2 cache and considerably higher power limits. This would mark Intel's first serious attempt in years to offer a socketed desktop processor positioned closer to AMD's Ryzen G-series APUs.
While the move from Nova Lake to Razor Lake branding could initially suggest a delay, Jaykihn says the launch schedule itself has not changed. Much like the rumored Razor Lake-AX, which is said to reuse Nova Lake silicon, this 12-Xe3P variant was also planned for much later, making its timing a better fit for Intel's Razor Lake generation.
For context, Razor Lake is rumored to succeed Nova Lake while retaining many of the same core IP blocks, potentially making it more of a refresh than a clean-sheet generation and reportedly keeping the same socket.
Preliminary specifications point to a 4P + 8E + 4LPE CPU configuration paired with a 12-core integrated GPU based on the Xe3P architecture. Xe3P is expected to refine the Xe3 design used in Panther Lake while offering a modest performance bump.
The same leaker put the iGPU's PL2 limit at 40W and the chip-wide PL2 at 140W. Jaykihn also claimed the design requires two VCCGT phases on the motherboard VRM to sustain full performance. To keep the larger iGPU well-fed, Intel is also reportedly increasing its L2 cache from 16MB on Panther Lake's 12-Xe Arc B390 to 20MB on this variant, representing a 25% increase.
If the Razor Lake-S 12-Xe variant retains the Nova Lake silicon, we can expect Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores, rather than the rumored Griffin Cove and Golden Eagle cores expected on higher-end Razor Lake chips.
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Given that the chip was reportedly planned a year after Nova Lake, this could point to a late-2027 or early-2028 launch, potentially around CES, though no firm date has been confirmed.
