Intel’s next-generation processors may get a much simpler naming scheme than rumoured two weeks ago. VideoCardz reports that Intel’s Nova Lake chips will use four-digit model numbers across the whole lineup, after leaker Jaykihn retracted his earlier claim that mainstream laptop processors would keep three digits. The previously rumoured Core Ultra 400 split is no longer expected.
The correction undoes a split that looked awkward on paper. In an earlier report, VideoCardz said desktop Nova Lake-S and high-end laptop Nova Lake-HX chips would take four-digit names, while H-series and suffix-less mobile processors would stay on three-digit numbers under Core Ultra 400. That would have put a gaming laptop and a thin-and-light from the same generation in different numbering ranges, a point TweakTown raised at the time.
In a post published on 16 October 2026, VideoCardz reported that Jaykihn confirmed H-series and suffix-less Nova Lake mobile chips will also use four-digit names. When asked whether that makes every Nova Lake processor part of the Core Ultra 4000 family, he answered, “For Nova Lake, yes.” That would pull Nova Lake-P, Nova Lake-U, and Nova Lake-UL, previously listed under Core Ultra 400, into the same family as Nova Lake-S and Nova Lake-HX.
The desktop names are the only concrete ones so far. They come from a leaked list of seven Nova Lake-S chips, including the Core Ultra 9 4970K BFC, Core Ultra 9 4950K, and Core Ultra 7 4870K BFC. TechPowerUp says the BFC suffix seems to mark models with bLLC, or big last-level cache. No HX model names have surfaced yet, and VideoCardz says specific four-digit names for mainstream mobile variants also remain unconfirmed. Intel hasn’t confirmed the naming change.
Timing is the other open question. TechPowerUp notes that Nova Lake-S qualification samples are already appearing in HWiNFO, and that reports point to an early 2027 launch. Until Intel presents the lineup, the names remain a leaker’s claim, and the company could still change them before launch.
Will there be a Core Ultra 400 series for Nova Lake?
Not according to the latest claim. Jaykihn now says every Nova Lake chip, desktop and mobile, will fall under Core Ultra 4000, which removes the three-digit Core Ultra 400 tier from VideoCardz’s earlier list.
When will Nova Lake processors launch?
Intel hasn’t announced dates. TechPowerUp says reports point to an early 2027 launch, and Nova Lake-S qualification samples have already appeared in HWiNFO.
