Intel Nova Lake Processors
Nova Lake is Intel’s next desktop processor generation, expected from late 2026 with up to 52 cores on the new LGA 1954 socket and 900-series motherboards. Nova Lake CPUs will be listed here from launch. Building now? The current Intel Core Ultra CPUs are the ones to look at.
Intel Nova Lake: what we know so far
Nova Lake is Intel’s next desktop CPU generation, expected from late 2026 on the new LGA 1954 socket. The leaks are ambitious: up to 52 cores on the flagship, mixing performance, efficiency and low-power cores, a new tiled design, and platform support for very fast DDR5. If the top configuration ships as described, it would be the highest core count ever sold to desktop consumers.
The catch every buyer should know: a new socket means a new motherboard, so a Nova Lake upgrade is a platform upgrade, not a drop-in. Budget for a 900-series board alongside the chip. Our advice mirrors what we tell AMD buyers about Zen 6: if you need a PC now, buy now; the current Core Ultra chips are excellent and heavily discounted late in their cycle.
Every Nova Lake processor we range will be listed here with UK prices from launch day.