It's been a while, but Intel's response to AMD's X3D chips is starting to get tasty.

Reports say a 65-watt Ultra 9 Nova Lake chip with BLLC is on the way.

A 65W Ultra 9 Nova Lake chip with BLLC is reportedly on the way.

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With little sign of exciting new GPUs, and with rising memory prices affecting almost everything in a less-than-positive way, these are the new processors I'll be keeping my optimistic eye on. Now that we get Intel's next-gen Nova Lake specs, that's doubled.

According to Laurent's Choice technology leaker X, we can expect a range of Intel's next-gen processors to use the 4000-series naming scheme – though they'll still follow the Core Ultra nomenclature – and three of these will be 'BFC' chips with bLLC ('large last-level cache'). "BFC" probably stands for "big friendly cache" or... something to that, err, effect. I'll let you fill in the blanks.

This will be Intel's answer to the 3D V-Cache we see in AMD X3D chips like the current best CPU on the market, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Games like to bypass cache, so it's better. However, Intel's bLLC is said to be built into the die, rather than placed above or below it like AMD's 3D V-Cache solution. It's about time we saw a sign of that too, if you ask me, given that we've had AMD's X3D chips since 2022 and not the likes of Intel.

We saw similar specs earlier in the year, but there are additional models here, plus the name goes with it. Apparently, the top model will be the Core Ultra 9 4970K BFC, and this will go up to the Core Ultra 5 4650KF.

The most interesting of the bunch, which we haven't seen before, is the Core Ultra 9 4900 BFC (note the missing "K". Apparently, this will have fewer P cores and run at a base TDP of 65W compared to the 125W of the rest of the series, but will still have a large cache.

Given the low TDP, this is likely to be for specific professional workloads on smaller machines. Or maybe for SFF game rigs. Unless there's just a mix-up in the specs and the 65W should be for another CPU in the lineup.

Earlier in the year we heard a rumor that some of Nova Lake's heavy-duty chips could draw up to 700W, but only as a sort of theoretical limit for multi-core processors. This was confirmed by another rumor a few months later that the PL2 limit – the sustained power limit – would be double the current Intel CPU limits and would require an additional 8-pin connector to power the processor.

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That was said to be just for Big Boi's rumored dual-core, 44- and 52-core Nova Lake chips, but not the usual Core Ultra chips that will be in our gaming PCs. According to the latest rumours, all but one of the models listed here will run at a TDP of 125W (PL1) just like the current generation, where a similar 250W PL2 is also likely.

Anyway, it's exciting to see more references to future cached processors. This is definitely a place to play. We expect the processors to launch early next year, so hopefully it won't be too long.

Jacob put his hands on a gaming computer for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He quickly realized that the local computer repair shop had ripped him off with his build and vowed to never let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Yaqub the hardware addict was born. Since then, Jacob has led a double life as a hardware geek, semi-philosophical professional, first working as a hardware writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working on a PhD in philosophy for a few years while working for sites like TechRadar, Pocket-lint, Pocket-lint, and Pocket-lint. Eventually, he gave up the brutal mercenary life and joined the world's #1 PC gaming site full-time. He assures us that it is definitely not a carnal thing.

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