Intel's 2025 to early 2026 chip generation will include the Panther Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh architectures, while the 2026-2027 generation will feature Intel's Nova Lake architecture.
So far, we know that Nova Lake will appear on Intel's S-series desktop chipsets, with rumors of laptop variants (for the H and U suffix variants) circulating as well.
But we now have confirmation that Intel's Nova Lake will also get an HX high-performance laptop variant, which is ideal for gaming laptops and mobile workstations.
And it's all thanks to shipping manifests.
On Sunday, a well-known tech leaker, x86 is dead&back, posted shipping manifests from May 23, 2025, that indicate Nova Lake's HX variant is in testing for high-performance laptops, utilizing the same motherboard socket as 2025's upcoming Panther Lake chipset.
Nova Lake HX BGA 2540 (Panther Lake socket). pic.twitter.com/Ti5WHcMPGpJune 22, 2025
Nova Lake -HX just makes sense
This shipping manifest leak is the first we've heard of a Nova Lake -HX series, but if anything, it's the most logical laptop variant for the architecture.
Intel frequently releases a variant of its desktop architecture for high-performance laptops.
It's not always the case, but more often than not, the desktop architecture will have a laptop version, at least for gaming laptops and mobile workstations that require the increased power of a desktop-class CPU.
While this is news, it's not exactly a surprise.
But it is welcome regardless. According to the latest rumors, Intel's Nova Lake architecture features up to 52 cores and will include a dual-architecture GPU tile, which may render discrete graphics obsolete.
Nova Lake -H is still rumored
Some years, Intel offers an -H suffix variant of its desktop architecture for high-performance, light, and thin laptops. And we also get a -U suffix version for more power-efficient laptop models.
Other years, the -H and -U suffix chips are running a laptop-specific architecture, like in the Meteor Lake and Panther Lake generations.
The 2024-2025 Intel generation was a bit unusual as we also threw in the Lunar Lake 200V series chips, but that appears to be a situation Intel won't be keeping up in the future.
There have been rumors of -H and -U versions of Intel Nova Lake, although those mobile variants may ultimately be served by a mobile architecture instead.
What this means for Intel's upcoming chip roadmap
Intel is still on track to release the Panther Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh generations starting this fall, with laptops likely to hit the shelves in early 2026. However, some early laptops may arrive in late fall.
Intel's 2026 generation is also still on track, with Nova Lake expected to release on desktop in fall 2026, with the rumored laptop variants likely launching in early 2027.
Intel's Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake chips are expected to be the first using its 18A fabrication process, with Nova Lake bringing the 18A process to desktops in 2026.
While we still don't have a concrete idea of Intel's 18A performance, new details indicate Intel's 18A is 25% faster than Intel 3. Unfortunately, the Intel 3 node is primarily used for Xeon data-center CPUs, so it isn't the best baseline for consumer performance.
However, it is a positive sign that Team Blue is continuing to make progress in power and performance.
