Z990 on IT News

Intel's Nova Lake desktop chip will pull 474W — and Z990 boards are ready with three power connectors

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Intel’s next flagship desktop processor is going to be a power-hungry beast. Nova Lake-S, the company’s upcoming Core Ultra 400 series, will ship with a dual-chiplet design that draws up to 474W under maximum turbo load — and the Z990 chipset boards being built for it will carry three 8-pin EPS power connectors to keep up.

Intel's Nova Lake Desktop CPUs Could Draw 474W — Z990 Motherboards Add Triple 8-Pin Power

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Intel’s next desktop architecture is shaping up to be a power monster. Nova Lake-S, expected to land as the Core Ultra 400 series, could pull up to 474 watts under full turbo load — and the motherboards built for it are getting serious about power delivery.

Intel's Nova Lake Flagship CPU Could Draw 474W — and Z990 Motherboards Need Three 8-Pin Connectors to Handle It

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Intel’s next-generation Nova Lake desktop processors are going to need serious power.

Intel's Nova Lake Flagship CPU Could Draw 474W — Z990 Boards Get Triple 8-Pin Power

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0800

Intel’s next desktop processor is going to need a lot of power — like, a genuinely shocking amount.

Leaked chipset design guidelines show the Nova Lake-S flagship, a 52-core dual-chiplet processor under the Core Ultra 400 series, could demand up to 474W at peak boost. That’s nearly double the thermal budget of current Arrow Lake-S chips.

The numbers come from LC Tech Leaks, who shared Intel’s revised Z990 power delivery specifications with motherboard makers. Nova Lake-S processors with a single compute chiplet will stick to more conventional power envelopes. The dual-chiplet variants, which pack 16 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores, and 4 low-power cores, are a different story.