Intel Bets Big with Nova Lake iGPU: A Game Changer Ahead?

The Intel Arc B390 graphics core has already proven its capability to handle any modern game. However, this year, according to fresh data, Intel might have something even more powerful up its sleeve. Enter Nova Lake processors, featuring an iGPU that insiders claim possesses the same 12 Xe3 cores as the Arc B390. This will, however, be part of the Xe3P architecture, a variant of Xe3 oriented towards greater performance. With increased frequency, this architecture should deliver a 20-25% performance boost compared to the Arc B390.

Such a core’s performance (potentially called Arc B490) might well reach the level of RTX 4060 and Radeon 8060S. With this iGPU, there would be little reason to use lower-end discrete graphics cards in most scenarios. Unfortunately, while for many years AMD ruled this market with little competition, things appear to be shifting now, as there are no rumors suggesting AMD could introduce something of a similar caliber in the foreseeable future. This could mean a return to having a clear leader rather than true competition.

Insider Raichu has previously been accurate in his data, precisely describing the parameters and performance of the Core i9-11900K and Core i9-12900KS long before their release, as well as the configuration of mobile Meteor Lake.