Intel's next flagship desktop chip is shaping up to be a power-hungry beast. According to Tom's Hardware, the upcoming 52-core Nova Lake processor could carry a 474W "PL2" power limit — the maximum draw a CPU is allowed during short bursts of heavy work.
To put that in plain terms: that's roughly the power budget of some entire gaming PCs from a few years ago, now allocated to a single processor at peak.
The report also points to a new motherboard platform called LGA1954, which would be the physical socket and surrounding circuitry the chip plugs into. Tom's Hardware says this platform may be split into tiers, with some boards built to handle CPUs drawing up to 175W and higher-end "enthusiast" boards going much further.
Feeding a chip that thirsty takes serious wiring. The outlet reports that top enthusiast boards may offer optional triple EPS power connectors — meaning up to three 8-pin cables running from the power supply just to keep the processor fed.
It's worth stressing these are reported, pre-release specifications, not finalized numbers confirmed by Intel. Power limits and board designs can shift before a product ships.
Why it matters: if accurate, these figures signal that Intel's pursuit of more cores and performance is colliding with rising power and cooling demands — a trade-off that shapes everything from your electricity bill to the size and cost of the PC you'd need to run it.