While computer memory continues to get snapped up by server farms causing prices of DDR5 RAM to rise to record levels, Intel has promised that its upcoming Nova Lake generation will prioritise desktop chips, which will allow gamers to be some of the first to get their hands on Intel’s latest and greatest processors.
The favour for desktop PCs first over data centres was confirmed in an interview with Tom’s Hardware. Intel has usually followed this consumer chip-first pattern anyway, but the company’s reaffirmation comes as rival AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 architecture has been destined for use in server variants first, rather than debuting new architectures on its consumer Ryzen chips as it typically has.
Intel previously said that the Nova Lake generation would arrive in 2026, and with just over four months left in the year, we’re still waiting to hear a confirmed launch window from Intel. The consumer variant chips of this new generation are set to be badged as the Intel Core Ultra 400 series, taking over from the current Core Ultra 200 series of processors as the latest models available.
Recent leaked information has given us a hint at the kind of performance we can expect from these new Nova Lake-S chips, with increasing signals that the higher-end models within the range could become some of the best performing chips on the market, by offering significantly boosted core counts and cache levels compared to the Core Ultra 200 lineup. Those looking to upgrade will need to source a new motherboard, however, as the Nova Lake-S CPUs will use an all-new LGA-1954 socket.
Right now, AMD chips largely dominate our best gaming CPU roundup. Could this latest round of Intel processors change that?