Questions surrounding the longevity of Socket LGA1851 remain unanswered as Intel hasn’t announced how long it plans to support the platform with new processors. This silence has naturally allowed whispers of a limited lifespan to fester, but it seems there may some unfortunate truth to them after all as far as Core Ultra 400S CPUs are concerned.
X user Olrak29_ spotted a recent shipping manifest containing references to ‘NVL-S’ (Nova Lake S). This is the codename for Intel’s next-generation processor architecture, which should arrive in productised form as Core Ultra 400. For context, the likes of Core Ultra 9 285K and its ilk are Arrow Lake S (ARL-S).
While it’s exciting to see progress continue on future Intel processors, it seems they won’t be compatible with existing motherboards. In this shipping manifest, mentions of NVL-S arrive alongside references to ‘Test Tool LGA1954’.
If true, it would mean LGA1851 would effectively support a single processor architecture as Arrow Lake Refresh will likely take up the moniker of Core Ultra 300S. Sales of Intel CPUs are already dire, and this development will likely see them continue to stall if not grow worse.
There are presumably technical reasons behind Intel’s switch from LGA1851 to LGA1954, but until the brand openly discusses them I’m just giving the company the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, it’s a poor look relative to AMD’s benchmark support for AM5 through 2027 with both Zen 4 and Zen 5 processors readily available for the platform. That’s not forgetting that Zen 6 SKUs will likely join their ranks too.
At the very least, I hope Socket LGA1954 marks a change of pace for Intel. Its competitor has set the bar twice now, through AM4 and AM5, supporting several generations of processor across the same platform. Additionally, Team Blue’s future chips will have an uphill battle to plug performance gaps, particularly against 3D V-Cache competition from the likes of Ryzen 9 9950X3D and its successor.
As soon as we hear more from Intel on the future of LGA1851 and the prospect of LGA1954, we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop. You can keep track of all our coverage via our Google News profile, so make sure to drop a follow.
