There is a new rumour surrounding Intel Nova Lake and, more specifically, alleged details surrounding a specific 8P+12E SKU. Supposedly, that SKU will retain its 36MB L3 cache, rather than have it reduced.
According to serial leakster Jaykihn, the Nova Lake SKU will be disabling a cluster of four E-Cores, dropping the core configuration from 8P+16E+4LP-E to the aforementioned 8P+12E+4LP-E configuration. For those of you struggling to understand the terminology, the “P” refers to the P-Core, “E” to E-Cores, and “LP-E” to the low-power E-Cores. This is despite initial rumours that the blue chipmaker was planning on knocking down the L3 cache a peg.
Jaykihn says that this retention remains the same with another SKU, specifically the 4P+4E+4LP-E, with an 18MB L3 Cache, like the 4P+8E+4LP-E. These, by the way, and if it wasn’t obvious, are in reference to the non-bLLC models and also apply to the Nova Lake-HX series. However, it should also be noted that not all SKUs will retain similar L3 Caches; Jaykihn says that the 6P+12E+4LP-E SKU will have 27MB L3 Cache, instead of 30MB.
Intel Nova Lake is more or less confirmed to launch under the “Series 4” moniker, with the lineup shipping out under the Core Ultra 400 Series name. Earlier reports also suggest that Intel is planning on releasing an SKU with 52 cores, while the P-Cores will be called Coyote Cove, and the E-Cores will be called Arctic Wolf. Additional details include a new Neural Processing Unit (NPU) called NPU 6, and support for DDR5 memory speeds of up to 8,000MT/s.
And then there are the rumours of Nova Lake sporting the bLLC or big last-level cache, which is supposed to be Intel’s response to AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology. If true, then we could be looking at SKUs with as much as 288MB of L2+L3 cache on a single CPU which, to speak plainly, is a lot for caching, especially for gaming.
(Source: Videocardz, X)
