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Intel’s next-gen Nova Lake needs new motherboards — what we expect from Nova Point and Z990, Z970, and B960 chipsets

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Intel’s next-gen Nova Lake needs new motherboards — what we expect from Nova Point and Z990, Z970, and B960 chipsets

Intel’s new Nova Lake-S CPUs are rumored to be on track to start mass production in Q4 2026, with a launch expected in Q1 2027. Unlike previous launches, we’re supposed to see mid-range SKU(s), supposedly an unlocked 28-core product(s), first in Q1, followed later in 2027 by flagship-class models that allegedly use two compute tiles and feature up to 52 cores.

Lip-Bu Tan, Intel CEO, said earlier this year that Nova Lake is “coming at the end of 2026.” Despite the growing number of rumors and statements, we still don’t have a concrete date, but we can expect to see the CPUs soon, and with them, a brand-new socket and motherboard chipsets.

Regardless of how many cores they have or when they arrive, you will need a new motherboard for Nova Lake. The LGA 1851 socket is at the end of its life with the release of Core Ultra Series 2 processors like the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, released earlier in 2026; that means no more new processors and a dead end. A new socket, LGA 1954, is necessary because Nova Lake CPUs have a significant increase in I/O and power needs. It’s also Intel’s first bLLC (big last-level cache) intended to take on AMD’s X3D CPUs.

We haven’t seen many details about the boards themselves, like pricing, official configurations, or product stacks, and we've only caught glimpses of one or two early models at Computex. Still, we have seen a few interesting platform details and rumors. To that end, we’ve put together a table of what we know so far about the specifications.


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