Intel's next-gen Nova Lake chips may skip game-boosting X3D cache rival for mobile SKUs and debut on Razor Lake-HX instead, leaker claims — new rumor says Razor Lake family reportedly uses TSMC's N2X node

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bLLC might remain exclusive to desktop for Nova Lake family.

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Update 18 Aug 12pm ET: Jaykihn has since revised his information regarding Razor Lake's node, stating it will be N2P V2, not N2X.

Intel's upcoming, next-gen Nova Lake CPUs are rumored to feature extra pools of L3 cache that the company is calling bLLC (Big Last Level Cache). It's Intel's answer to AMD's 3D V-Cache that has taken the gaming world by storm, but a new report from tipster Jaykihn implies that Nova Lake mobile chips will be skipping it entirely. Instead, the company is purportedly reserving bLLC's mobile debut for the generation after, codenamed Razor Lake.

That implies that only Nova Lake desktop processors will be the lucky recipients of bLLC, and even then, only a few higher-end SKUs are expected to feature it. Current rumors suggest a single NVL-S tile is said to house 144MB of bLLC when fully equipped, so dual-tile variants will double that to a whopping 288MB. But it seems like any laptop chip, or perhaps handheld, will be starved of this extra cache and rely on NVL-HX's native L3 cache.

In contrast, AMD first brought its 3D V-Cache over to laptops with the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D back in 2023, and has a Ryzen 9 9995HX3D chip today. Those two act as exceptions because, otherwise, the Red Team's additional cache is exclusive to desktops as well. AMD's flagship Strix Halo products aimed at gaming don't feature it either. Coincidentally, Intel's Halo-tier competitor is also said to debut with the Razor Lake family.

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Earlier this year, rumors suggested that Intel is developing Nova Lake-AX to take on AMD's dominance in the high-end APU space, but the project was subsequently cancelled. New information said Intel decided to pivot to Razor Lake for an "AX" category instead, so it stands to reason we might see bLLC power Razor Lake-AX SKUs later as well, alongside the mainstream Razor Lake-HX chips.

In the same thread, Jaykihn also claimed that Razor Lake will be fabricated on TSMC's N2X node across mobile and desktop. On the other hand, it's still unclear whether Nova Lake would use the in-house 18A process or TSMC's N2P. Initial rumors pointed toward yield issues forcing Intel to leverage TSMC's technology, but more recent claims suggest the company is confident in its own 18A tech for most of Nova Lake's tiles.

It's likely that the Blue Team will utilize some combination of in-house and outsourced fabrication. Anyhow, for Razor Lake, TSMC's process technology roadmap from earlier this year puts N2X in 2027, so the timelines align. Razor Lake is expected to use the same Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores that will be introduced on Nova Lake, while the generation after — Titan Lake — is rumored to finally unify the two.

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Hassam Nasir
Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer

Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • JRStern
    How about they use BOTH 18a and N2X and mix them up?
    Reply
  • usertests
    I hadn't given much thought about bLLC on mobile at all. Though it's a bit weird if they can't copy and paste desktop bLLC CPUs into BGA like every other HX chip.

    I'm not sure if Intel will pursue Razor Lake-AX with bLLC. Over at AMD, we haven't seen Strix Halo with X3D, maybe because it uses a custom Zen 5 chiplet with bridge dies. After the transition to Zen 6, Olympic Ridge and Gorgon Halo should be using the same chiplets, and that might mean Gorgon Halo can get X3D for some of the CPU cores in addition to its big L2 cache for graphics.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    usertests said:
    I hadn't given much thought about bLLC on mobile at all. Though it's a bit weird if they can't copy and paste desktop bLLC CPUs into BGA like every other HX chip.
    The only technical reason I can think of would be associated with voltage scaling. Not that there would much demand for it but of the leaked SKUs and segments we've seen there are no 35W parts with bLLC.

    I think more likely it'd be due to this being the first generation of additional cache parts and wanting to limit exposure. They probably don't have great numbers on what sales might look like for these parts, and they're also used in all of the dual Compute Tile SKUs which are known about. By limiting it to socketed parts they don't have to worry about balancing demand especially if there's a spike. Keep in mind that RZL is supposed to only have an S die so mobile with bLLC might be around a year out from NVL desktop launch as opposed to being on a mobile specific timeline.
    usertests said:
    I'm not sure if Intel with pursue Razor Lake-AX with bLLC.
    With the strategy that Intel is using for adding cache I highly doubt they'd be considering using a bigger Compute Tile with a large Graphics Tile even on the BGA side of things. I'm also not sure the additional CPU cache would be of much use for such a device since it should be GPU limited for gaming and I don't believe there are many ai uses for it.
    Reply