{
  "id": 18497963,
  "title": "Intel’s next-gen Nova Lake needs new motherboards — what we expect from Nova Point and Z990, Z970, and B960 chipsets",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/06/intels-next-gen-nova-lake-needs-new-motherboards-what-we-expect-from",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-11-06T12:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Hardware",
    "slug": "tom-s-hardware",
    "url": "https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/chipsets/intels-next-gen-nova-lake-needs-new-motherboards-what-we-expect-from-nova-point-and-z990-z970-and-b960-chipsets"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Intel's upcoming Nova Lake-S processors are set to enter mass production in Q4 2026, with a launch anticipated in Q1 2027. This marks a significant shift from previous releases, as mid-range SKUs with up to 28 cores are expected to debut in Q1 2027, followed by flagship-class models utilizing two compute tiles and potentially reaching 52 cores. Industry leader Lip-Bu Tan announced the project's arrival at the end of 2026. New LGA 1954 socket and chipset designs, codenamed \"Nova Point,\" are required to accommodate the increased I/O and power demands of Nova Lake CPUs. The new chipset package is smaller (600 mm² vs. 658 mm²) and features reduced die-on-package size (72.5 mm² vs. 92.9 mm²). The base power consumption is increased to 7.9 Watts with a maximum of 14 W. The motherboard market is yet to unveil specifics on pricing, configurations, and product stacks, but a glimpse of early models at Computex has revealed some platform details. The new chipsets offer 34 PCIe lanes in the 900 series (mainstream), 48 lanes in the 960 series (mainstream), 48 lanes in Z990 (enthusiast), 34 lanes in Z890 (enthusiast), and 34 lanes in Z970 (enthusiast). The chipset includes TB4/USB4 support and DMI Gen5 lanes, with PCIe 5.0 lanes and 8 Gen5 lanes. The platform's memory speed reaches DDR5-8000 and supports simultaneous displays, PCIe RAID, and SATA RAID configurations. The chipset's active-cooling guidelines suggest that higher power-dense configurations may require additional fan noise mitigation.",
  "summary": "New Intel CPUs mean a new LGA 1954 socket and new motherboards. Here’s what we know about Nova Point’s Z990, Z970, and B960 chipsets, including more PCIe 5.0, Thunderbolt 5, faster base RAM speeds, and active cooling",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}