Intel confirms Arrow Lake refresh set for 2026, Nova Lake later that year — company admits there are 'holes to fill on the desktop front,' says it is 'confident in the roadmap'
Though the next-generation chip launch looks set to extend into 2027, too.
Intel confirmed at a recent Goldman Sachs Technology conference that it plans to launch a refresh of its Arrow Lake processors "next year," with its true next-generation Nova Lake designs to follow along before the end of 2026, as per a transcript of the presentation. Although this likely means at least another year of AMD's Ryzen 9000 CPUs holding the gaming performance crown, Intel maintains that it's "confident in the road map," as it stands.
The statement came from Intel's Corporate Vice President, Investor Relations, John Pitzer. He said: "We've got a couple of holes we've got to fill on the desktop front. But quite frankly, we feel confident in the road map [...] We'll have a refresh of Arrow Lake next year, which will help start the process on the desktop side, and then we'll conclude that with Nova Lake when we launch late next year into 2027."
We've been hearing hints about a refresh of the Core Ultra 200 generation of CPUs for some time now, with various rumors about what it might involve. Improved binning and clock speed tweaks should result in a higher boost clock for CPUs involved in the refresh, though that may be limited to just K and KF-series models if some rumors are to be believed.
There was some talk about Intel introducing a newer, more capable neural processing unit (NPU) for AI workloads, but the most recent reports suggest that this is no longer happening, or was never officially planned.
The upgraded Core Ultra 200 CPUs are expected to maintain the same core counts, though we may see increased power limits in some models.
A 2026 launch for such a refresh, though, feels quite late. By the middle of 2026, Intel's Arrow Lake generation will be almost two years old, and AMD will likely be well on its way to launching its next-generation Zen 6 CPUs. Although some recent rumors suggest mobile Zen 6 CPUs might not launch until 2027, giving Intel some breathing room to launch Nova Lake, the desktop versions should arrive before the end of the year. AMD will release more concrete roadmap details this November, giving us a clearer outline of what to expect over the next 18 months.
Whether Zen 6 and Nova Lake debut before the end of 2026 or just after, though, that's not a huge lead time for any Arrow Lake refresh processors to gain much ground. They'd need to be notably faster than existing Core Ultra 200 CPUs to be particularly relevant, so far from the original launch date, and pricing would need to be exceedingly favorable to attract buyers who can see so many shiny next-generation CPUs just over the horizon. Especially since Nova Lake is expected to use an entirely new socket, severely limiting upgrade paths for Arrow Lake buyers.
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Jon Martindale is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. For the past 20 years, he's been writing about PC components, emerging technologies, and the latest software advances. His deep and broad journalistic experience gives him unique insights into the most exciting technology trends of today and tomorrow.
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bit_user This is giving me Rocket Lake flashbacks, which launched only like half a year ahead of Alder Lake.Reply -
S58_is_the_goat Reply
Honestly too many lakes, better to just say the processor name like 14th gen, 13th and so forth 😅bit_user said:This is giving me Rocket Lake flashbacks, which launched only like half a year ahead of Alder Lake. -
jp7189 Reply
Nah, because they aren't beyond releasing a last gen proc with next gen retail packaging. At least in the enthusiast space its better to talk about what's inside.S58_is_the_goat said:Honestly too many lakes, better to just say the processor name like 14th gen, 13th and so forth 😅 -
bit_user Reply
Intel mixes multiple different SoCs with in a generation. So, knowing the product code name tells you things the generation # doesn't.S58_is_the_goat said:Honestly too many lakes, better to just say the processor name like 14th gen, 13th and so forth 😅
It's not only about rebadging older products, but also having different products for different market segments. Laptops are a good example, where the current lineup includes Lunar Lake, Arrow Lake, and an Intel 3 port of Meteor Lake (which they unfortunately just call Arrow Lake).jp7189 said:Nah, because they aren't beyond releasing a last gen proc with next gen retail packaging. At least in the enthusiast space its better to talk about what's inside.
Both Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake are newly introduced in this generation and have distinct SoC architectures. and specs. -
closs.sebastien so.. I understand that nova lake is for 2027...Reply
we are hearing and waiting a (in-house) Intel < 7nm since.... 2018.. -
Amdlova Don't worry guys We will have another batch of 10nm++++++++++++++++ Before we can get anything new...Reply
But wait they will place a thunderbolt 5 port and wi-fi 7 on the chip to keep us in check. -
Thunder64 "...and then we'll conclude that with Nova Lake when we launch late next year into 2027." That isn't exactly inspiring confidence. What will we get, a limited batch of K SKU's in late 2026 with real availability in 2027?Reply -
thestryker Reply
Same here, but in this case I cannot fathom why it's taking them so long to bring the refresh product to market. You'd think if it was for the OEMs they'd want it this month or next and that waiting until next year wouldn't be good for them unless NVL wasn't going to have any volume. I'm still waiting to see what they're doing with the refresh to decide on a bunch of system juggling, but I cannot imagine there being anything notable coming with the refreshbit_user said:This is giving me Rocket Lake flashbacks, which launched only like half a year ahead of Alder Lake. -
bit_user Reply
Let's hope it's because they're replacing one or more of the tiles, in order to deliver more substantial gains. I don't think it's likely, but we can dream...thestryker said:Same here, but in this case I cannot fathom why it's taking them so long to bring the refresh product to market.
Agreed. That's a good point about potential bad news for Nova Lake. I'm not going to dwell on that.thestryker said:You'd think if it was for the OEMs they'd want it this month or next and that waiting until next year wouldn't be good for them unless NVL wasn't going to have any volume.