- Nova Lake’s flagship is rumored to hit 700W power consumption
- It’s a fleeting peak wattage figure though (and still just a rumour)
- The reality may be that the next-gen flagship is more of an enthusiast CPU than it has been in the past – but that won’t necessarily reflect the lower levels of Nova Lake
Intel’s next-gen flagship processor is rumored to reach eye-opening power consumption – although there’s a lot to unpack here, and we shouldn’t panic about CPUs eating outrageous amounts of watts just yet.
First of all, the rumor itself – and it’s only a rumor – comes from a regular hardware leaker on X, Kopitekimi7, as flagged by VideoCardz.
The top Nova Lake processor, rumored to have 52 cores (and is an unlocked ‘K’ model that can be overclocked, which is why the leaker refers to it as ‘NVL-K’), apparently reaches a power consumption of over 700 Watts at “full-load”.
I’ll get back to exactly what that means in a moment, but it’s obviously a huge number, bearing in mind that this is the power going to the CPU, and only that (not the full system load of watts on all the PC’s components, which someone on X asked for clarification on).
If you’re wondering how the Nova Lake desktop flagship has 52 cores, that’s because most of them are efficiency cores or low-power (small) cores – there are 32 and four of those respectively, plus 16 performance (normal) cores.
This Core Ultra 9 flagship is reportedly a dual-chip model, meaning those cores are split across two chiplets – as already seen with AMD’s top desktop CPUs – and Nova Lake features Big Last-Level Cache (bLLC), which is essentially Intel’s equivalent of AMD’s 3D V-Cache (X3D models).
Analysis: it’s too early to start worrying about ‘Supernova Lake’ heat levels
Okay, so what’s going on here, and what could it mean for the average PC buyer (or upgrader) when Nova Lake shows up? (These desktop chips may debut later this year, or possibly in 2027 – Intel hasn’t confirmed exactly when, though we should get some silicon in 2026, but it could be the laptop variants, for all we know).
The number floated by Kopitekimi7 – which may or may not be accurate, it should be noted – is 700W under full load, which the leaker states is with power limits removed. In other words, this is theoretically the absolute limit of power that can temporarily peak with the CPU (known as ‘PL4’), which, crucially, is a momentary load, not a working level of watts.
Of course, you still need a PC with a motherboard and power supply (plus CPU cooling) that can handle such a volatile surge. And on top of that, we can compare this to the PL4 from Intel’s flagship Raptor Lake processor, which saw a peak of 314W – so that’s quite a bit more than double.
In fact, this is a hint that Nova Lake could be more power-hungry than we expected. However, I don’t want to jump to conclusions yet because we don’t know if this leak is correct. And even if it is, the rest of Nova Lake might not be built that way.
Remember, this is a multi-core dual-chip flagship, and it’s a processor that seems to be more in HEDT (high-end desktop) territory – a very expensive CPU aimed at enthusiasts who need a processor to do. seriously heavy work.
The average consumer or gamer will then not look at this Core Ultra 9 flagship – even less than it would normally be the case with an Intel flagship. They will be much better served with the Core Ultra 7 model, which is rumored to be a single chiplet CPU, and that configuration may also work better for games with the bLLC cache setup.
So what this points to more than anything else is an even heavier, more expensive flagship coming with Nova Lake. Aside from the top-end CPU, it’s possible that Nova Lake could be more efficient in terms of power consumption, and in fact, I’d bet on it. I don’t think Intel is going to retread old ground – as seen with Raptor Lake (and its update), where the power envelopes were pushed way (too) hard – with its brand new Nova Lake desktop series built to try to take back the initiative from AMD’s Ryzen silicon (after a series of desktop mishaps on Intel’s part).
However, for high-end PCs, the Nova Lake flagship can be a handful for a power supply to handle when paired with a power-hungry GPU such as an Nvidia RTX 5090.
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