The timeline above is fairly straightforward. Intel has, short of 2025, launched a new generation of desktop processors in the fall every year for the past five years. This annual cadence was even more intense previously; 7th-Gen and 8th-Gen CPUs were both released in 2017, and 9th-Gen in 2018. Then, Intel took a year off and followed up with 10th-Gen in 2020 and 11th-Gen in early 2021. Keep in mind that we're talking about desktop CPU launches with a new microarchitecture here. Obviously, Intel has released a ton of other products in between the gaps.
The interesting bit about the timeline is actually the end with Arrow Lake Refresh. When we spoke to Robert Hallock earlier this year, he told us that a team that was "pretty much completely different" worked on Arrow Lake Refresh compared to Arrow Lake. That might explain the strangely large gap between Arrow Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh. Even looking at the Arrow Lake and Arrow Lake Refresh stacks side-by-side, it's obvious that a different mentality went into how they were positioned in the market. That team is in in-place now, and Hallock told us the team is "moving faster than we ever have in product, in release cadence."
Don't take Hallock's comments about Intel moving faster than ever at face value — he was probably being at least a little hyperbolic — but the sentiment is clear. Following the poor reception of Arrow Lake, Intel reorganized and set a new roadmap in motion that extends out to 2030, and now, that roadmap is being executed, starting earlier this year with Arrow Lake Refresh. That sets up Arrow Lake Refresh similar to 11th-Gen Rocket Lake, serving as somewhat of a stopgap before the next generation properly arrives (that is, thankfully, where the comparisons between Arrow Lake Refresh and Rocket Lake end).
Back to Nova Lake. Earlier this year at Computex, we saw two Z990 motherboards, one of which we confirmed was not a finalized unit. The complete development process takes generally four to six months for a motherboard, and you can add another two months or so on top of that for channel sales, as pallets of PCBs are loaded onto ships and swim across the Pacific Ocean. That was in June.
Intel's next-gen Nova Lake chips may skip bLLC for mobile SKUs and debut on Razor Lake-HX instead, leaker claims
Nova Lake CPUs with cut-down E-core clusters may still retain full cache pool, says new leak
Intel's next-gen 52-core Nova Lake CPU could pull up to 474W
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/details-about-intels-next-gen-nova-lake-cpus-keep-leaking-an-attempt-to-establish-a-timeline-based-on-what-we-know-so-far#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/my-account
- Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google face antitrust lawsuit for agreeing to slow AI development — plaintiffs say plan has been in motion for months before, c
- This week on Tom's Hardware Premium: September 19, 2026 — Steam Frame interview, killer AI models, and the DRAM crisis deepens
- University of Manchester Uses NVIDIA Earth-2 to Forecast Air Pollution Across the UK
- Skild AI Taps NVIDIA Physical AI to Teach Robots New Tasks From a Single Video
- ‘NBA 2K27’ With NVIDIA DLSS 5 Leads 28 New Games Coming to GeForce NOW
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.