Intel confirms Nova Lake uses 18A-P process

Intel confirmed during an October 29 quarterly conference that Nova Lake is its first client product using the Intel 18A-P manufacturing process. The company stated more information will be available at CES in January, though it did not specify which individual tiles use the process.

Image: Igor's Lab

Reports say PassMark submissions from September for a generic "Intel 0000" processor, attributed to Nova Lake-S, show a 28-core sample scoring 5,210 points in single-thread tests. This is slightly higher than the 5,059 points reported for a Core Ultra 9 285K. However, the same Nova Lake sample scored 61,509 points in the overall CPU Mark test, which is lower than the 67,274 points for the Core Ultra 9 285K. These results come from different submissions and are not a controlled comparison.

Reports also say internal Intel projections from August suggest a 28-core Nova Lake-S could provide up to 16 percent more gaming performance than a Core Ultra 9 285K, while a DS variant could provide up to 33 percent more. These projections use a 285 or 296 watt PL1 and DDR5-8000 memory, whereas the comparison system uses 250 watts and DDR5-6400.

Additionally, Jaykihn reported on October 28 that Moon Lake may feature four Low-Power Efficiency cores and no Performance cores, with a 6 watt base configuration.