Shipping Log Leak Reveals Intel Is Aiming For High-Performance Laptops With Nova Lake “HX” Processors
The Nova Lake series will have a dedicated high-performance mobile family as seen in the latest NBD shipping manifest.
Intel Nova Lake-HX Leaked in NBD Shipping Manifest; Will Utilize the BGA 2540 Socket
Looks like Intel has started testing the power delivery systems for the Nova Lake processors. As seen in the latest NBD shipping manifest, Intel appears to be using its internal tooling and interposers to test Nova Lake “HX” chips. If you are familiar with Intel’s naming conventions, the HX series is specifically designed for high-performance laptops.
The next-gen Nova Lake is reportedly being prepared for both desktop and mobile platforms, and while the desktop lineup will be known by the Nova Lake-S naming convention, the high-performance mobile family will be tagged under the Nova Lake-HX name. As spotted in the NBD shipping manifest, the NVL-HX will utilize a much bigger package than the current-gen Arrow Lake-HX CPUs.
Intel will reportedly utilize the BGA2540 socket for Nova Lake HX, which is 20% bigger than the BGA2114 used for the Arrow Lake HX and around 29% bigger than the BGA1964 used for Raptor Lake-HX. It’s the same socket that Panther Lake mobile chips are expected to use. So, unlike the desktop version, where Nova Lake S is reportedly utilizing a slightly bigger LGA 1954 socket, the mobile package will be much bigger, i.e., the Nova Lake HX chips will be much bigger than the Arrow Lake-HX CPUs.
On the desktop, the LGA 1954 is reportedly retaining the same 45 x 37.5 mm dimensions as the LGA 1851 and LGA 1700. Therefore, users won’t likely have to change their CPU coolers if they are coming from previous-gen CPUs. As far as the specs are concerned, on the laptop, the Nova Lake-HX should probably bring a similar core configuration as the Nova Lake-S. One of the latest reports indicated that the Nova Lake S desktop CPUs can bring up to 52 cores.
Nova Lake Platform PCIE and USB Specifications pic.twitter.com/wgG2u5xINN
— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) June 17, 2025
With a flagship Nova Lake-HX processor featuring as many as 16 Performance and 32 Efficient cores, it is expected to be significantly superior in multithreaded performance compared to Arrow Lake-HX. The highest core configuration on Arrow Lake-HX comes from Core Ultra 9 285HX, which boasts 24 cores in total.
Nova Lake is also expected to bring up to 36 PCIe 5.0 lanes, but that’s right now for the desktop lineup, but the HX series should be a big upgrade in this area over Arrow Lake-HX. Nova Lake chips are expected to be released next year, including both desktop and mobile lineups.
News Source: @x86deadandback
