Intel appears to be gearing up for a new wave of enthusiast-class processors, with the imminent arrival of its Nova Lake-AX chips designed to take on AMD’s leading Halo APUs.
Intel Nova Lake-AX: Next-Gen Enthusiast SoCs with Advanced CPU Clusters, Powerful iGPUs, and Extensive Caches
Reports emerged last year indicating Intel’s ambitions to develop Halo-class enthusiast CPUs that would rival the likes of AMD and Apple’s flagship SoCs, notably the Strix Halo and M4 series. Initially, the project focused on Arrow Lake products, which aimed to integrate a 6+8 core configuration alongside a premium “Xe2″integrated GPU (iGPU) and a significant Adamantine cache. However, the Arrow Lake initiative was ultimately shelved.
Recent updates confirm that while the Arrow Lake Halo project has been abandoned, Intel’s overarching plan to launch high-performance chips remains in motion. The recent buzz suggests we are nearing a release timeline for these highly anticipated chips.
Preliminary Nova Lake -AX
— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) July 16, 2025
According to industry insider @jaykihn0, it seems that Nova Lake, rather than Arrow Lake or Panther Lake, will be Intel’s platform for its new Halo product. Anticipated for release next year, the Nova Lake series is set to encompass a comprehensive stack that targets both desktop and mobile markets, contrasting with Panther Lake’s more narrow focus.
This focus indicates promising potential for the Nova Lake-AX, which is being positioned within the “Enthusiast”realm. While initially aimed at laptops, there is speculation that desktop applications for Nova Lake-AX will also be explored as development progresses.
Regarding specifications, intel’s Nova Lake-AX SoCs are expected to showcase advanced engineering integrations making extensive use of packaging technologies such as Foveros. Reports suggest that Intel is poised to utilize this technology for its experimental “X3D-Like” CPU designs within the Nova Lake series.
The standard Nova Lake-S/HX CPUs may incorporate as many as 52 cores, organized as 16 P-Cores based on the Coyote Cove architecture, 32 E-Cores using the Arctic Wolf architecture, plus an additional 4 LP-E cores for low-power tasks. This configuration is likely to remain consistent across the Nova Lake-AX lineup, potentially supplemented with extra cache that would enhance the iGPU’s performance.
Furthermore, the integrated graphics in the Nova Lake-AX SoCs will be substantial, featuring a larger configuration based on the Xe3 “Celestial”architecture, with more than 12 Xe3 cores anticipated. In contrast, AMD has incorporated powerful RDNA 3.5 GPUs in its Halo offerings, which might lead Intel to also introduce configurations with 20 or 24 cores dedicated to graphics processing, designed for high-performance applications in AI workstations, mobile setups, and gaming PCs.
While the upcoming Nova Lake-AX series promises exciting advancements, it is essential to await official announcements. These chips are not expected to launch before 2026; more realistically, the first “AX”offerings may appear by 2027. Prior to that, Intel is likely to concentrate on its standard Nova Lake “S”, “HX”, “H”, and “U”series CPUs. In response, AMD is also projected to release an enhanced version of its Halo APU by that time, potentially based on the forthcoming Zen 6 core architecture, along with RDNA 4 or UDNA graphics technologies.
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