"Zen 6 is done": Intel's return to top with Nova Lake looks possible with more IPC uplift vs Zen 6

The most recent Intel Nova Lake and AMD Zen 6 leaks have pushed the official release dates of next-gen Intel Core Ultra and AMD Ryzen CPUs to 2027. When the Intel Nova Lake and AMD Zen 6 CPUs do launch, they will reportedly bring more cores, higher clock speeds, and IPC uplifts, potentially resulting in huge performance gains over the current-gen CPUs.

Leaker HXL (@9550Pro) claims on X that the Intel Nova Lake CPUs could beat the AMD Zen 6 CPUs in terms of gen-on-gen IPC uplift. HXL is referring to the IPC uplift of the Coyote Cove P-cores here.

On the flip side, HXL reports that the AMD Zen 6 chips will feature faster clock speeds than the Intel Nova Lake CPUs. It is interesting to note how the roles seem to have reversed here, as Intel was the one pushing insane clock speeds like 6 GHz out of the box one generation ago with the 14th-gen processors.

The Intel Nova Lake Core Ultra 400 desktop CPUs have a real chance to beat AMD in all categories thanks to up to 52 cores, higher clocks, and better IPC uplift than Zen 6. Since some of Intel’s next-gen chips are also rumored to pack big Last Level Cache (bLLC), AMD’s gaming advantage with the X3D chips could also vanish.

Intel has also improved its CPU architectural design with the latest Arrow Lake Refresh Core Ultra 200S Plus processors. This has resulted in a notable performance increase over the standard Core Ultra 200 Arrow Lake chips. So, we can also expect Team Blue to bring these tweaks to next-gen Nova Lake chips.

In other words, it won’t be surprising if Intel Nova Lake dominates the next-gen everywhere, from single-core workloads like gaming to heavily threaded applications. Silicon Fly, for instance, remarks on X that "Zen 6 is done", as Nova Lake CPUs could even catch up to Apple M5 in single-core and beat the M5 in multi-core performance.

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