Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said Nova Lake was tracking ahead of schedule and would be the company’s first Intel 18A-P client processor product, with more information planned for CES in January. Speaking during Intel’s third-quarter 2026 earnings call, Tan positioned the forthcoming family as Intel’s answer to a gap in its high-end desktop lineup.
Alongside that roadmap, preliminary leaks describe desktop configurations reaching 52 cores, while a separate leaked benchmark concerns an early 28-core sample. Those details offer two different perspectives on the upcoming processors: a possible product range and a snapshot of one sample’s synthetic performance.
Intel’s desktop plans extend beyond the process node
Tan said Intel expected Nova Lake to secure twice as many design wins as Panther Lake at launch. A design win means a manufacturer selects a processor for a product design, so Intel’s forecast concerns adoption by system makers rather than a projected doubling of processor sales.
For desktop enthusiasts, Tan’s positioning is the more direct message: Intel intends Nova Lake to address the high end of its desktop portfolio. That puts demanding desktop users squarely within the family’s intended audience, although the performance numbers circulating so far come from early leaks.
Intel’s next stated disclosure milestone is CES in January, where Tan said the company planned to share more about Nova Lake. That is an information-sharing plan, rather than a scheduled retail launch.
What Intel claims for 18A-P
Intel describes 18A-P as a drop-in replacement for designs using its 18A manufacturing process. Its stated comparison offers two alternatives: 9% higher speed at the same power, or 18% lower power at the same speed, relative to 18A.
The fixed condition matters. In the first comparison, power stays constant while speed increases. In the second, speed stays constant while power falls. These are process-level targets, with the benefit depending on which operating point a design uses. Adding the percentages together would discard those conditions.
For someone assessing a future desktop upgrade, the practical distinction is between manufacturing potential and the behavior of a complete processor. Intel’s figures describe the former; the leaked PassMark sample provides an early, much narrower look at the latter.
The desktop leak points to several core configurations
Club386 reported a preliminary desktop lineup attributed to VideoCardz that spans configurations from 6 to 52 cores. The largest purported model combines 16 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores and four low-power efficiency cores in a dual-die package, meaning a package containing two silicon dies.
The same leak lists another dual-die configuration with 16 performance cores, 24 efficiency cores and four low-power efficiency cores, totaling 44. Both entries carry a leaked thermal design power, or TDP, of 175 W. Their configurations and power ratings remain preliminary leak claims.
Farther down that rumored lineup, a 28-core configuration combines eight performance cores, 16 efficiency cores and four low-power efficiency cores. This breakdown is useful when comparing the circulating numbers: a total core count combines different core types, each with its own role in the design.
The distinction also matters for gaming expectations. The 52-core rumor describes a possible configuration; Intel’s high-end desktop positioning describes its intended market. Neither supplies a game frame rate.
The leaked PassMark sample scored 5,210 in single-thread testing
In its October 29, 2026 roundup, Gamer Meld reported leaked PassMark submissions involving an early 28-core Nova Lake sample running at 4.8 GHz. The reported single-thread score was 5,210 points.
Gamer Meld characterized that result as approximately 3% ahead of the Core Ultra 9 285K in PassMark’s single-thread test. The channel also said the sample lagged current processors in multi-thread testing, where multiple processing threads work at once.
That split is the useful detail for anyone following performance rumors: this early sample’s relative position changed with the workload. Its single-thread result was stronger than its multi-thread standing, and the processor was an engineering sample rather than a finished retail chip.
Coral Rapids targets a separate server milestone
Tan’s comments about competing with AMD also covered Coral Rapids, a future Xeon server processor. He placed that product in 2028 on Intel 14A and said Intel expected it to be competitive with AMD.
That forecast concerns Intel’s server roadmap, a separate product track from Nova Lake’s client and desktop plans. Tan further forecast that the subsequent tick-tock generation would move ahead of AMD.
