Intel is expected to move to a newer socket with its Nova Lake-S Desktop CPU lineup, which will be called LGA 1954.
Intel LGA 1851 Socket Only For Arrow Lake & Its Refresh, New LGA 1954 Socket For Nova Lake-S Desktop CPUs
Intel's LGA 1851 socket was first introduced last year with the Arrow Lake-S "Core Ultra Series 2" CPU lineup. The new socket was featured on the latest 800-series motherboards, and despite big expectations from the CPU family, it turned out to be lackluster in the gaming department.
However, it improved the multi-threading and efficiency of the desktop line. The Blue Team is also said to be working on a refresh of the Arrow Lake-S family, which will feature upgrades to the NPU and a few more capabilities, but it looks like after that, the company will be shifting to a new socket once again.
As per the latest listings within shipping manifests at nbd.ltd, it looks like Intel is already preparing a new socket that will be used by its next-gen Desktop CPU family, codenamed Nova Lake-S. This is the family replacing Arrow Lake and is expected to arrive later next year, so 2H 2026 to be precise.
For Nova Lake, we are hearing reports that Intel is planning to up the core counts, both P-Cores and E-Cores, by a huge margin. Current rumors suggest up to 16 P-Cores and up to 32 E-Cores & these chips will be coming to both desktops and laptops. It is revealed that the LGA 1954 socket is being used on the reference evaluation platforms running Nova Lake-S Desktop CPUs.
Do note that it isn't official yet which socket the Nova Lake-S chips will use, but Intel moving to a new socket after 2 generations sounds a lot like Intel. In addition to Nova Lake, we can also expect the successor, Razer Lake, to utilize the newer LGA 1954 socket, though time will tell. The LGA 1954 socket might utilize the 900-series chipset motherboards, & Nova Lake-S should be branded under the Core Ultra Series 4 family since Core Ultra Series 3 is going to be used by Panther Lake, which is a mobile-only launch.
Intel Desktop CPU Generations Comparison:
| Intel CPU Family | Processor Process | Processor Architecture | Graphics Architecture | Processors Cores/Threads (Max) | Platform | Memory Support | PCIe Support | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Lake (12th Gen) | Intel 7 | Golden Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 16/24 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2021 |
| Raptor Lake (13th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2022 |
| Raptor Lake Refresh (14th Gen) | Intel 7 | Raptor Cove (P-Core) Gracemont (E-Core) | HD 700 Series | 24/32 | LGA 1700/1800 | DDR5 / DDR4 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2023 |
| Arrow Lake (Core Ultra 200) | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 24/24 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2024 |
| Arrow Lake Refresh (Core Ultra 200 Plus) | TSMC N3B | Lion Cove (P-Core) Skymont (E-Core) | Xe1 (Alchemist) | 24/24 | LGA 1851 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2026 |
| Nova Lake (Core Ultra 400?) | TBA | Coyote Cove (P-Core) Arctic Wolf (E-Core) | Xe3 (Battlemage) | 52/52 | LGA 1954 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0 | 2026-2027? |
| Razer Lake (Core Ultra 500?) | TBA | Griffin Cove (P-Core)? Golden Eagle (E-Core)? | TBA | TBA | LGA 1954? | TBA | TBA | 2027-2028? |
| Hammer Lake (Core Ultra 700?) | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | LGA 1954? | TBA | TBA | 2029-2030? |
News Source: @Olrak29_
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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