Intel's next-gen Nova Lake family of desktop CPUs is shaping up to be the company's most exciting launch in years, with a major performance leap expected across the board. A new leak from Jaykihn now claims that one of the SKUs from this lineup will have an iGPU so strong that it will require 65W of power delivery to achieve full performance. It will also apparently need two VCCGT phases to handle said power.

The SKU in question is a 16-core part composed of 8 P-cores, 4 E-cores, and 4 LP-E cores, while the iGPU is said to have 12 Xe3P cores. Just as a reminder, Xe3, also known as "Celestial," is an enhanced, optimized version of the Xe3 (Battlemage) graphics architecture that already debuted on Panther Lake. Similarly, Nova Lake is expected to use Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores (and LP-E cores).

Top-end Panther Lake SKUs come equipped with the Arc B390 iGPU, which also has 12 Xe3 cores, so this Nova Lake SKU with 12 Xe3P cores should perform even better. Especially when you consider the thermal and power headroom at its disposal. AMD's desktop APUs, the Ryzen G-series, are usually 65W parts as well, but that's the TDP for the entire chip, not just the integrated graphics.

Requiring 65W of dedicated power delivery via two VCCGT phases would constitute a kind of top-end iGPU performance we haven't seen before. In fact, this rumored Nova Lake chip is arguably veering into Strix Halo territory where the up to 40 Compute Units on flagship SKUs can sip around 70W-80W of power. However, that's still a mobile part with an integrated SMU that can dynamically allocate power between the CCD and iGPU.

| SKU | Core Config (P+E+LP-E) | bLLC | TDP (Unlocked/Locked) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52 Cores (dual-tile) | (8+16)+(8+16)+4 | 288MB | 175W |
| 44 Cores (dual-tile) | (8+12)+(8+12)+4 | 264MB | 175W |
| 28 Cores | 8+16+4 | 144MB | 125W |
| 28 Cores | 8+16+4 | - | 125W / 65W |
| 24 Cores | 8+12+4 | 132MB | 125W |
| 24 Cores | 8+12+4 | - | 125W / 65W |
| 22 Cores | 6+12+4 | 108MB | 125W / 65W |
| 22 Cores | 6+12+4 | - | 125W / 65W |
| 16 Cores | 4+8+4 | - | 65W / 35W |
| 12 Cores | 4+4+4 | - | 65W / 35W |
| 8 Cores | 4+0+4 | - | 65W / 35W |
| 6 Cores | 2+0+4 | - | 65W / 35W |

Nova Lake-S would likely use a traditional desktop rail split where the motherboard's VRMs must deliver up to 65W via two separate dedicated VCCGT phases (since one wouldn't be sufficient) to power the integrated graphics tile independently from the VCCCore CPU phases. That's unprecedented territory, and it serves as just one of many rumors from the Nova Lake launch that have us excited for the competition that's brewing for next year.

Current reports pin both AMD and Intel's next-gen releases to show up at CES 2027 instead of later this year. Therefore, take everything with a grain of salt; a lot could change between now and then, and we don't have confirmation on any SKU from Intel. The last time we saw Intel put out a strong desktop APU was 2015's Core i7-5775C, so a product like this has been a long time coming.

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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.