Intel Nova Lake CPUs may require new motherboards with LGA 1954 socket
Intel’s upcoming Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs, rumored to launch in 2026, could introduce a brand-new LGA 1954 socket, marking yet another socket change for the company’s consumer platform. According to leaked shipping manifests and documentation from NBD.ltd shared by...
Konoly
Intel
Intel’s upcoming Nova Lake-S desktop CPUs, rumored to launch in 2026, could introduce a brand-new LGA 1954 socket, marking yet another socket change for the company’s consumer platform. According to leaked shipping manifests and documentation from NBD.ltd shared by VideoCardz, Intel has begun distributing early test kits labeled “NVL-S” — a strong indication that motherboard vendors and partners are already preparing for the next generation of CPUs.
The LGA 1954 socket would feature 1,954 electrically active contact pins, which is a notable jump from the current LGA 1851 socket used with Arrow Lake desktop CPUs. The total pin count could exceed 2,000 when debugging or non-functional pins are considered, and the larger socket may support new I/O features, increased power delivery, and more advanced chiplet designs.
NBD.ltdWhile Intel has not confirmed any details, this shift suggests that users who adopt Arrow Lake may find themselves needing a new motherboard once Nova Lake arrives. This may frustrate enthusiasts who hoped that LGA 1851 would have a multi-generation lifespan, similar to LGA 1700 that offered support for 12th, 13th and 14th-gen CPUs.
Intel hasn’t officially shared specifications for its upcoming Nova Lake CPUs, but early leaks and rumors suggest some major design changes. According to a report from earlier this year, the flagship Nova Lake chips could feature up to 52 cores combining 16-performance cores, 32-efficiency cores, and 4-low power efficiency (LPE) cores. Even lower-tier models are expected to retain a significant number of efficiency and LPE cores, with some reportedly including just 4-performance cores.
Some leaks also point to a dual-CCX (core complex) layout, similar to AMD’s chiplet-based Ryzen CPUs. This may be paired with a large 144MB L3 cache tile, potentially offering a gaming performance boost similar to AMD’s 3D V-Cache.
As for core architecture, the performance cores are rumored to use Coyote Cove, while the efficiency cores will adopt a new Arctic Wolf design, both succeeding the Panther Lake generation’s Cougar Cove and Darkmont cores.
There’s also speculation that Nova Lake may feature an off-die memory controller, which could introduce added latency. However, reports suggest that Intel has engineering solutions in place to offset any negative performance impact.
Although official specs remain unannounced, the introduction of LGA 1954 alongside a completely reworked CPU architecture hints at a significant evolution for Intel’s desktop lineup. More details are expected to surface as we approach 2026.
Kunal Khullar is a computing writer at Digital Trends who contributes to various topics, including CPUs, GPUs, monitors, and…
Intel’s promised Arrow Lake autopsy details up to 30% loss in performance
Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs didn't make it on our list of the best processors when they released earlier this year. As you can read in our Core Ultra 9 285K review, Intel's latest desktop offering struggled to keep pace with last-gen options, particularly in games, and showed strange behavior in apps like Premiere Pro. Now, Intel says it has fixed the issues with its Arrow Lake range, which accounted for up to a 30% loss in real-world performance compared to Intel's in-house testing.
The company identified five issues with the performance of Arrow Lake, four of which are resolved now. The latest BIOS and Windows Updates (more details on those later in this story) will restore Arrow Lake processors to their expected level of performance, according to Intel, while a new firmware will offer additional performance improvements. That firmware is expected to release in January, pushing beyond the baseline level of performance Intel expected out of Arrow Lake.
Intel Arrow Lake gets a surprise 33% gaming boost — with one caveat
Intel Arrow Lake has struggled to compete against some of the best processors from both AMD and Intel itself, but improvements are on the way. In fact, a completely unexpected update just gave the CPUs a major boost. Unfortunately, there's a caveat: That boost only applies to one game.
The update in question was just announced by CDProjektRed, which has dropped a surprise patch for Cyberpunk 2077. The game studio now promises to improve in-game performance on Arrow Lake CPUs by up to 33%, which is a tune-up that gamers badly need, considering that the CPUs generally failed to impress in gaming scenarios.
Intel admits defeat on Arrow Lake — but it’s not down for the count
Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs aren't off to a great start. As you can read in our Core Ultra 9 285K review and Core Ultra 5 245K review, Intel's latest CPUs miss the mark across productivity and gaming apps, and they're miles away from some of the best processors you can buy right now. According to Intel, there are several issues with the new platform that it plans to address within a matter of weeks.
In an interview with HotHardware, Intel's Robert Hallock was blunt about the release of Arrow Lake CPUs: "The launch didn't go as planned ... we have a number of things we got to go fix." Hallock, formerly of AMD, is near the top of Intel's technical marketing division. Although he didn't address exactly what's wrong with Arrow Lake, Hallock promised that Intel is working on updates that could significantly improve performance, and that they'll arrive in a matter of weeks.
