Intel Nova Lake-AX Tipped For 28 Cores And A Big GPU But Will It Launch?

Just yesterday we learned of the existence of an "AX" model of Intel's upcoming Nova Lake processors. Intel uses letters to describe its mobile processors' power budgets, scaling through "Y", "U", "P", "H", and then "HX" at the top with the highest power limits. "AX" was new to us, and it apparently describes a high-end competitor to AMD's "Ryzen AI Max" chips. Yesterday's leak didn't include any specifications, but today another reclusive leaker has spoken up to provide some interesting context.

Raichu, known as @OneRaichu on Xwitter, is a well-known and highly-accurate leaker, particularly for Intel products. In a tweet yesterday, Raichu revealed that the planned specifications for Nova Lake-AX would include 8 P-cores, 16-E cores, and a 384-EU Xe3P integrated GPU, fed by a 256-bit LPDDR5X bus running at a scorching rate of either 9.6 Gbps or possibly 10.67 Gbps.


What this sounds like to us is that it has one Nova Lake compute tile as well as a completely massive GPU tile and a custom NGU tile. 384 execution units, assuming Xe3P maintains the same proportion of parts as Xe2, would mean 48 Xe-cores. That would be 50% larger than even the rumored BMG-G31 "Big Battlemage" GPU, to say nothing of the extant Arc B580, which is 'only' 20 Xe2-cores. It's worth pointing out that there are rumors floating around that Intel is changing the fundamental structure of Xe once again with Xe3, though, so it may ultimately be a smaller number of Xe3-cores.

Of course, there's also the first part of Raichu's message to talk about: "I don't think it will launch." This makes a lot of sense from the perspective that the chip would be expensive to produce and have a lot of downsides in terms of performance-per-dollar, even if it offers superior performance-per-watt. Apple is able to get away with "okay" performance-per-dollar because of its premium status and exclusive branding. Intel and AMD don't necessarily have the same benefits, and a chip like this might be a hard sell in a market where gaming users can go buy a PC with a discrete GPU that simply performs better for less money.


It does make you wonder why fellow respected Intel leaker Jaykihn elected to reveal the existence of Nova Lake-AX in the first place, though. If the chip doesn't launch, it only reflects poorly on his reputation as a leaker. It is interesting to ponder the possibilities of a single-chip Intel laptop with RTX 4070-class gaming performance, though.