Thursday, October 1st 2026
Intel Core Ultra 4000 "Nova Lake-S" Lineup Leaks With 28-Core 4970K BFC
A new leak by @laurentschoice lists seven desktop Nova Lake-S processors under what looks like Intel's new four-digit Core Ultra 4000 naming, led by a Core Ultra 9 4970K BFC. It apparently has 8 P-cores, 16 E-cores, and 4 LPE cores for 28 in total, plus bLLC (big last-level cache), a 125 W rating, and a 32 EU iGPU. That puts it above the Core Ultra 9 4950K, which first surfaced in a CPU-Z leak in August as a 28-core chip. This list shows the 4950K with 24 cores (8 P-cores and 16 E-cores), without LPE cores or bLLC.
The rest of the list follows a similar pattern. The Core Ultra 7 4870K BFC has 24 cores and bLLC, while the 4850K gets 20 cores without it. There is also a Core Ultra 9 4900 BFC with 22 cores, bLLC, and a 65 W rating. We currently don't know what BFC stands for, although the models carrying it appear to be the ones with bLLC, which Intel is introducing as its answer to AMD's 3D V-Cache. Intel hasn't confirmed any of these names, so they may well change before Nova Lake's official launch.
Earlier reports said the single compute tile models would arrive before the 52-core flagship, and the 28-core bLLC chip was reportedly set to pull up to 296 W at PL2 despite its 125 W rating. Regardless, Nova Lake's launch is inching closer and closer, with qualification samples now showing up in programs like HWiNFO. Earlier reports point to a Q1 2027 launch window for Nova Lake-S CPUs, with the 52-core flagship arriving later.
Sources:
LC Tech Leaks on X, via Videocardz
The rest of the list follows a similar pattern. The Core Ultra 7 4870K BFC has 24 cores and bLLC, while the 4850K gets 20 cores without it. There is also a Core Ultra 9 4900 BFC with 22 cores, bLLC, and a 65 W rating. We currently don't know what BFC stands for, although the models carrying it appear to be the ones with bLLC, which Intel is introducing as its answer to AMD's 3D V-Cache. Intel hasn't confirmed any of these names, so they may well change before Nova Lake's official launch.
103 Comments on Intel Core Ultra 4000 "Nova Lake-S" Lineup Leaks With 28-Core 4970K BFC
Why are the Ultra 7's named 48xx instead of 47xx? Same thing for the Ultra 5's being 46xx instead of 45xx? Is it to avoid confusion with Haswell or something? By making it more confusing? Or is to adhere to the 'Ultra X' moniker that's already confusing. Or just because. I just confused myself typing this.
I swear red and blue are having some sort of contest to see who can out bamboozle each other.
Naming has been @$$ for a long time now lol.,
Moving back to Intel :)
I expected ULTRA MEGA HYPER TURBO MAX
or MEGA ULTRA COSMIC OVERDRIVE
or HYPER GIGA OMEGA MAXIMUM
or ULTRA SUPER MEGA INFINITE
or TITANIC ULTRA HYPER OVERKILL
and so on!
But now all we get is just a single tiny ULTRA.
Man, that sucks!