Intel’s Nova Lake-AX CPUs In The Works, To Compete With AMD’s Halo APUs With Bigger iGPU, Caches & More

Intel seems to be preparing its enthusiast-class "AX" chips with the first product arriving in the form of Nova Lake-AX, to compete with AMD's Halo APUs.

Intel Nova Lake-AX To Be Enthusiast Class SoCs With Large CPU Clusters Packaged Alongside Big iGPUs & Caches

Last year, there were reports that Intel was working on its own Halo-class enthusiast CPUs, which would compete with AMD & Apple SoCs such as the Strix Halo and M4 lineup. The initial plans included Arrow Lake-class products, which would've combined a 6+8 core die with a top-tier "Xe2" iGPU, and to further boost performance, the chip would have packed Adamantine cache "LLC". This was ultimately scrapped.

However, there was further clarification that while Arrow Lake's Halo offering was canceled, the plan in itself was still ongoing. And now, it looks like we have a clue as to when we can expect Intel's Halo outing.

Preliminary

Nova Lake -AX

— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) July 16, 2025

As per @jaykihn0, who is known for his insider information on Intel products, it looks like it won't be Arrow Lake or Panther Lake that will get a Halo product, but it will be Nova Lake. Intel's Nova Lake CPU lineup is expected to launch next year and will include a full top-to-bottom stack, unlike Panther Lake, which is going to be aimed at the laptop/mobile segment. The Nova Lake lineup will be similar to Arrow Lake in the sense that it will launch on both mobile and desktop platforms, and won't be restricted to a certain segment.

This also makes Nova Lake a potential candidate for a Halo-class product. The product that Intel is working on will be called Nova Lake-AX and will be positioned in the "Enthusiast" category. The likely segment will be laptops, but there might be a possibility that Intel extends Nova Lake-AX's application to desktop platforms, too, though that is something only time will tell.

In terms of what to expect from Intel's Nova Lake-AX SoCs, well, they will allow the Blue Team to fully utilize its engineering prowess on the integration level. Foveros will play a key role in the packaging of the chip, and based on similar reports, Intel is also leveraging the same technology for its "X3D-Like" CPU experiments within the Nova Lake family.

Standard Intel Nova Lake-S/HX CPUs will feature as many as 52 cores in combinations of 16 P-Cores based on the Coyote Cove architecture, and 32 E-Cores based on the Arctic Wolf architecture, with an additional 4 LP-E cores. These chips will pack two compute titles, each with 8 P-Cores, and 16 E-Cores, while the 4 LP-E cores will be situated on a low-power island. We are unlikely to see a change to these configurations in the Nova Lake-AX chip, but there might be additional cache on a separate tile that is essential for the iGPU.

The iGPU will also be bigger, based on the Xe3 "Celestial" architecture, and packing more than 12 Xe3 cores. AMD went with some massive RDNA 3.5 GPUs on its Strix Halo offerings, so we could see something like 20 or 24 of these cores packaged on its exclusive tile. The TDP for such a chip would be very high, so it would make sense to pack them on enthusiast-class platforms such as AI Workstation, mobile workstations, and gaming PCs.

As much as the Intel Nova Lake-AX lineup sounds exciting, we should still wait for official confirmation. These chips shouldn't land before 2026, and more realistically, I believe we should see some form of "AX" offering by 2027. Intel would mostly focus on its standard "S", "HX", "H", and "U" series Nova Lake CPUs before going the "AX" route. AMD will also be offering an enhanced or upgraded version of its Halo APU by then, possibly based on the Zen 6 core architecture, along with RDNA 4 or UDNA graphics architecture.

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