Intel Nova Lake reportedly targets AMD’s X3D CPUs with rival bLLC tech

Intel bLLC rumours hint at Chipzilla’s plans for Nova Lake gaming dominance

Rumour has it that Intel is planning to secure gaming dominance with Nova Lake using its bLLC technology. bLLC stands for “big Last Level Cache.” Currently, this tech is exclusive to Intel’s Clearwater Forest Xeon CPUs, where bLLC adds extra cache to a CPU’s base tile.

AMD’s gaming dominance within the CPU market comes from the success of the company’s X3D gaming technology. With its X3D technology, AMD has added extra L3 cache to its CPUs, providing them with more on-chip storage. For gamers, this added cache accelerated gaming workloads by speeding up memory access times. With larger caches, games need to spend less time waiting for DRAM, allowing work to be completed faster.

How does this work? Think about getting a glass of milk. If you have milk in your fridge, getting a glass of milk is a fast process. If you don’t have milk in the fridge, you will need to go to the shop and get milk there. In this analogy, your fridge is your CPU’s cache, and your local shop is your system’s DRAM. Having more cache speeds up data access times, accelerating some workloads.

According to the latest rumours, which are unverified, Intel plans to use enlarged L3 caches to deliver increased gaming performance with its Nova Lake CPUs. These CPUs are due to be released sometime in 2026.

8p, 16e
8p, 12e

Both 4lpe, bLLC, 125w https://t.co/EQo4MiaGpq

— Haze (@Haze2K1) June 17, 2025

(Twitter/X post from @Haze2K1)

Will Intel bLLC enable “Leadership Gaming Performance” with Nova Lake?

A recently leaked Nova Lake CPU slide hints at “Leadership Gaming Performance” from Intel’s upcoming CPUs. Currently, it is unknown how Intel will achieve its gaming gains. Intel’s bLLC tech could be what gives Intel an advantage with Nova Lake. However, there are many ways that Intel could boost the gaming performance of its upcoming CPUs.

Will Intel boost its gaming performance with a bLLC cache? Who knows… Nova Lake isn’t due to be released until mid-late 2026, and before then, the company will be launching its Panther Lake family of CPUs. A refresh of Intel’s Arrow Lake CPU lineup is also expected later this year.

You can join the discussion on Intel’s rumoured “bLLC” technology in Nova Lake on the OC3D Forums.