The latest version of HWInfo (v7.68) has rolled out, and it includes preliminary support for future Intel CPUs (Panther Lake and Nova Lake) and GPUs (Battlemage and Celestial). We've heard rumors about these new CPUs and GPUs, but having preliminary support mentioned in a diagnostic tool such as HWInfo usually means they're unofficially close to being official (though no SKUs have been mentioned, yet).
This update rolled out Dec. 19; the last update from CPU-Z was Sept. 26 and the last update from GPU-Z was Nov. 29, and neither mentioned the upcoming CPUs/GPUs. AIDA64 Extreme's recent Dec. 4 update, however, mentioned preliminary support for Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest Xeon CPUs.
Nothing is set in stone yet, so remember to take all of this with a spoonful of salt.
According to an Intel engineer's LinkedIn leak, Panther Lake will probably be using an iGPU based on Intel's Xe3 Celestial architecture, on track for the 2025 release. Nova Lake, which will likely be an enthusiast-centric desktop CPU, is speculated to arrive in 2026. Sources have indicated it will have up to 16-rentable Unit P-Cores, 32-eCores, 4 LP cores, and up to 180MB last level cache, yielding 60% IPC gains.
Both of these CPU architectures are likely to be made in Intel's 20A and 18A fabs, which will begin manufacturing in 2024. Both of these fabs will be using a new transistor called RibbonFET and a new wiring technology called PowerVia to interconnect. These architectures will be measured in Angstroms for accuracy, though the physical transistors aren't smaller than a nanometer.
Several new elements are associated with these CPU architectures, and will likely set a new standard.
