A well known hardware leaker on X has posted preliminary performance details for Intel’s next generation desktop processors. The leak says the Nova Lake-S desktop configuration will carry a sixth-generation neural processing unit on one of its tiles that delivers 74 TOPS of INT8 performance. That figure is substantially higher than Intel’s previous desktop NPU shipments.
For context, Intel currently ships NPU 3 with Arrow Lake-S, which the article links to the 2023 Meteor Lake generation and offers 11.5 INT8 TOPS. Intel’s roadmap also shows an NPU 5 planned for Panther Lake in early 2026, which is expected to reach up to 50 TOPS for Copilot+ Artificial Intelligence PCs. The new NPU 6 number therefore represents a notable step above the planned NPU 5 peak and the present NPU 3 in desktop products.
The inclusion of NPU 6 in Nova Lake had been signaled by compiler patches discovered late last month, but the exact performance target was not previously public. Because Intel is enhancing the NPU IP on the same microarchitecture, the company can increase the TOPS budget while maintaining software compatibility. That continuity means software that already uses NPU acceleration on earlier generations should be able to benefit from the higher performance without major changes.
