What We Know About Intel Razer Lake, Titan Lake, and Hammer Lake CPUs

As Intel rolls out Nova Lake in 2026, the next waves—Razer Lake, Titan Lake, and Hammer Lake—promise dramatic shifts in CPU architecture and platform strategy through the rest of the decade. Here’s a breakdown of the most credible leaks, industry speculation, and roadmap clues for these upcoming processors.

Intel Razer Lake (Expected 2027)

The last P-core/E-core hybrid: Razer Lake is rumored to be the final Intel desktop architecture using a mix of big performance cores (Griffin Cove P-cores) and efficiency cores (Golden Eagle E-cores). It is expected to be an incremental update to Nova Lake—focusing on efficiency, tuning, and performance scaling for both desktop and mobile.
LGA 1954 socket and DDR5 support: Will continue Nova Lake’s use of the LGA 1954 socket and DDR5/LPDDR5X memory, allowing users to upgrade CPUs without changing motherboards from the Nova Lake era.
Competing with AMD Zen 7: Launching alongside AMD’s Zen 7 CPUs, Razer Lake aims to maximize refinement before Intel transitions to a unified core approach.

Intel Titan Lake (Expected 2028)

Unified core architecture: Titan Lake will mark a paradigm shift by abandoning the hybrid big/little design entirely. All cores will be based on an enlarged version of Intel’s Arctic Wolf E-core architecture, scaled for high performance.
Higher density and efficiency: A unified design is expected to simplify silicon layout, improve power efficiency, and scale seamlessly to very high core counts.
Potential 100-core workstation SKUs: For servers and high-end workstations, Titan Lake could reach core counts of up to 100 cores, competing aggressively in parallel workloads.
Advanced manufacturing process: Likely to debut on Intel’s 14A process technology or equivalent, enabling higher clock speeds with better power efficiency.

Intel Hammer Lake (Estimated Post-2028)

Continuing unified core design: Hammer Lake is expected to be an iteration of Titan Lake, using the same unified core architecture with further IPC and efficiency gains.
LGA 1954 support: Will remain compatible with the same socket introduced by Nova Lake, supporting Intel’s stated multi-generation platform strategy.
Details still scarce: While specifics on clock speeds, cache sizes, and GPU configurations are not yet available, Hammer Lake is aimed at refining unified cores while adding next-gen platform features such as PCIe Gen 6 and faster DDR5+ memory.

Comparison Table: Intel CPU Roadmap (2026–Post-2028)

Platform	Launch	Core Design	Socket	Max Core Count	Notable Features
Nova Lake	2026	P-cores + E-cores + LP-E cores	LGA 1954	52	Up to 288MB L3 cache, dual big LLC dies, DDR5/LPDDR5X, improved iGPU
Razer Lake	2027	Griffin Cove P-cores + Golden Eagle E-cores	LGA 1954	Similar to Nova Lake	Last hybrid design, DDR5/LPDDR5X, refinement and platform polish
Titan Lake	2028	Unified large E-core (based on Arctic Wolf)	LGA 1954	Up to ~100 (workstation/server)	Massive core scaling, higher efficiency, likely Intel 14A process
Hammer Lake	Post-2028	Unified next-gen cores	LGA 1954	TBD	IPC and efficiency refinements, next-gen I/O, DDR5+ and PCIe Gen 6+

Specifications and timelines are based on leaks and may change before launch.

Summary

Razer Lake will close out Intel’s hybrid CPU era with incremental improvements and platform stability. Titan Lake will be a clean break into unified cores, offering massive scalability and efficiency, while Hammer Lake will extend and refine that architecture for the future. Together, these chips mark Intel’s most aggressive multi-year CPU strategy in over a decade, positioning it strongly against AMD and other competitors throughout the late 2020s.