Intel and Nvidia Team Up for a Mega APU
The world of PC hardware is gearing up for some major changes, and a lot of it revolves around Intel and its new partnership with Nvidia. While much of the information is still based on leaks and early reports, there is a clear pattern emerging for the future of gaming and high performance PCs.
One of the most exciting rumours is a joint Intel and Nvidia chip codenamed Serpent Lake. This is said to be an APU aimed at powerful PCs, similar in spirit to AMD's upcoming Strix Halo. An APU combines CPU and GPU technology into one package, which can be a big deal for gaming laptops and compact desktops.
According to these reports, Serpent Lake will feature:
- Nvidia's next generation Rubin GPU architecture
- A cutting edge TSMC N3P manufacturing process
- CPU technology derived from Intel's future Titan Lake generation
- Support for next generation LPDDR6 memory
If it lands anywhere close to these claims, Serpent Lake could be a serious all in one gaming and productivity solution. It would also mark a major shift in how Intel and Nvidia approach the PC market, combining their strengths on a single platform instead of just pairing separate CPUs and GPUs.
There is some confusion around earlier rumours of another Intel design called Hammer Lake being the first Intel Nvidia collaboration. That leak suggested Hammer Lake would be retrofitted to work with an Nvidia GPU after the deal was announced. With Intel's roadmap now shifting quickly, it looks more likely that Serpent Lake is being designed from the ground up with Nvidia tech in mind.
The Next Intel Desktop Generations
Alongside Serpent Lake, there is a leaked roadmap for Intel's upcoming desktop CPU families. While dates and details can easily change, the broad outline paints a picture of Intel trying to claw back performance leadership after several underwhelming generations.
The immediate focus for Intel is single threaded performance. This quest really gets going with Panther Lake on the mobile side, which Intel has already begun talking about publicly, but for desktop gamers the key names to know are Nova Lake, Razer Lake and Hammer Lake.
Here is how the lineup is currently rumoured:
- Nova Lake: The next official desktop generation, targeted for late 2026. This is expected to continue Intel's Performance core and Efficient core design, which started with Alder Lake.
- Razer Lake: Slated for 2027 or 2028, Razer Lake reportedly sticks with the P core and E core split but brings a sizeable performance bump. New Griffin Cove P cores are said to deliver a double digit IPC boost over Nova Lake, which means more work done per clock cycle. The Golden Eagle E cores are also rumoured to gain even more efficiency and performance.
- Hammer Lake: Expected around 2029, Hammer Lake is where things get really interesting. It is reported to ditch the mixed core approach entirely and return to a unified core architecture.
For gamers and power users, that return to a single type of core could simplify performance scaling and scheduling. Today, operating systems and apps have to decide which tasks go to P cores and which to E cores. A unified core design might make more consistent frame times and smoother responsiveness easier to achieve, especially in demanding games that spike CPU usage.
Before Intel introduced separate core types with Alder Lake, all cores were equal, so in some ways Hammer Lake would be a return to that older philosophy, but with modern architectures and much higher performance.
Titan Lake and the Future of Integrated Graphics
Another piece of this evolving puzzle is Titan Lake, which sits alongside Razer Lake and Hammer Lake on Intel's leaked roadmap. Titan Lake is described as a mobile only refresh of Razer Lake, still using Griffin Cove P cores and Golden Eagle E cores, but with extra tweaks for laptops and handheld devices.
The standout feature for gamers and creators is not the CPU cores, but the graphics. Titan Lake is rumoured to be the debut platform for Intel's Xe3P graphics architecture. If Intel delivers a strong uplift here, future gaming laptops might rely less on separate GPUs for solid 1080p and even 1440p performance in many titles.
Combine that with the potential of Serpent Lake and Nvidia Rubin graphics in a joint APU and you start to see a future where integrated or semi integrated solutions can rival some of today's mid range dedicated GPUs, especially when paired with fast LPDDR6 memory and advanced power management.
For PC gamers this could mean:
- Thinner and lighter gaming laptops without massive performance compromises
- More capable small form factor desktops with serious gaming chops
- Better baseline graphics performance on mainstream systems
It is also notable that all of this comes at a time when Intel appeared to be struggling. Just a year ago there were real concerns about Intel's competitiveness in both CPU design and manufacturing. Now there are reports that Intel's fabs have secured deals with major customers like Apple, Broadcom, Google and possibly even Nvidia itself.
If these leaks are even half correct, the second half of this decade could see a very different Intel, pushing hard against AMD in both CPUs and graphics, and working with Nvidia instead of just competing against it in the GPU space.
As always with future hardware rumours, nothing is guaranteed until products ship and real benchmarks arrive. But for anyone building or upgrading gaming PCs in the coming years, names like Nova Lake, Razer Lake, Hammer Lake, Titan Lake and Serpent Lake are worth watching closely. They could define the next big leap in performance and the way CPUs and GPUs work together inside our rigs.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/processors/intels-serpent-lake-is-rumoured-to-be-its-first-chip-developed-in-collaboration-with-nvidia/
