There have been multiple reports about new Intel chips and they are all over the place when it comes to specifications and timeline. So, today in this short overview, let us take a bird’s eye view at Intel’s upcoming Arrow Lake Refresh, Panther Lake, Wildcat Lake, and Nova Lake series of CPUs and when you can expect them to hit the stores near you!
Intel’s upcoming chips for 2025
Arrow Lake will get a refresh with new AI capabilities
Intel announced its Arrow Lake processors not very long ago but rumors about new ‘refreshed’ versions are already widespread. S and HX class CPUs are likely to get refreshed under a new ‘Core Ultra 300’ tag while the other SKUs will sell as usual. Though we don’t know a lot, there’s one thing that’s for sure: Arrow Lake (Refresh) is getting an upgrade in the AI department. All current Arrow Lake chips feature the same NPU (Neural Processing Unit) which can push up to 13 TOPS. The Refreshed variants will have a much more powerful unit that’ll deliver up to 48 TOPS. But besides that, the chips aren’t getting any boost in CPU or GPU performance.
Intel Panther Lake to follow soon after
Panther Lake will be the next jump for Intel laptops from the current Arrow Lake CPUs. It’ll be a mobile-exclusive lineup (no desktop chips) and skip on-die memory that we saw in Lunar Lake. That means a return of upgradable RAM on notebooks. Leaks also mention the core configurations for the lineup which will be as follows:
Panther Lake H-class:
| Upcoming CPU | Performance Cores (P) | Efficiency Cores (E) | Low Power Efficiency Cores (LPE) | iGPU (Xe3 cores) | Total TOPS (System) |
| SKU1 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 180 |
| SKU2 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 100 |
| SKU3 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 100 |
So, top of the line Panther Lake chip will have up to 16 CPU cores, 12 GPU cores, and 180 TOPS of AI goodness. But leaks say that this high-end variant will only support LPDDR5X memory (soldered) while the other two (SKU2 and SKU3) will support both soldered and replaceable solutions. All SKUs will have four Thunderbolt 4 outputs and support Thunderbolt 5 via a discrete controller.
PatherLake will be announced in the second half of 2025 (July-Dec) and be the first to be fabbed on Intel’s 18A node bringing good performance and efficiency gains, especially with the new Cougar Cove P Cores and Skymont E cores. They will run at between 15-45W depending on the chassis configuration and thermal design.
Wildcat Lake for the budget lineups
Around the same time or soon after Panther Lake, we will get to see Wildcat Lake for entry-level options. It’ll feature 2 P cores, no E cores, and 4 LPE cores with two Xe3 GPU cores, two TB4 support, and a total AI of 40 TOPS.
| Upcoming CPU | Performance Cores (P) | Efficiency Cores (E) | Low Power Efficiency Cores (LPE) | iGPU (Xe3 cores) | Total TOPS (System) |
| Wildcat Lake | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 40 |
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Nova Lake in 2026
Lastly, we’ll get to see Core Ultra Series 4 CPUs likely in early 2026. These ‘Nova Lake’ processors will have tons of cores with the top-end configuration going up to 52. The 16 P cores will be based on Coyote Cove architecture with a huge amount of Artic Wolf efficiency and low power efficiency cores.
| Nova Lake | Total Cores | Performance Cores (P) | Efficiency Cores (E) | Low Power Efficiency Cores (LPE) |
| NVL-SK | 52 | 16 | 32 | 4 |
| NVL-HX | 28 | 8 | 16 | 4 |
| NVL-S/NVL-H | 16 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
We might also get to see a Nova Lake processor with all P cores and up to 144MB of cache. The family will also support AVX10.2 and APX.
Upcoming Intel CPUs: Conclusion
So, there’s a lot of new stuff coming from Intel with at least three different series of chips landing by the end of the year. While the initial Arrow Lake refresh might not be breathtaking, we think that Panther Lake and Nova Lake processors could definitely garner some attention if they meet the current expectations.
- Meanwhile, check out our impressions of the most powerful gaming laptop of 2024:
