Hardware Monitors Drop the Veil: Panther Lake, Nova Lake-S and AMD’s Next-Gen Zen 6 Platforms All Surface in Latest App Updates

15 October 2025 — Hardware utilities have become the unofficial leak mill of the CPU world. Two quiet patch-notes—HWMonitor 1.60 and HWInfo 8.32—just published the most complete spec sheets we have yet seen for Intel’s 2026 Panther Lake mobile stack, its enthusiast Nova Lake-S desktop line, and AMD’s first Zen 6 platforms. Below is everything the tools confirm, what it means for buyers, and when you can actually buy the silicon.

1. Intel Panther Lake – three tiers, one 18A die

HWMonitor’s INF database now recognizes 14 Panther Lake part numbers, grouping them under the new Core Ultra X / H / U badges that Intel will carry into the Meteor-Lunar-Panther era.

Core Ultra X (38 W base, up to 55 W)

• X9 388H / X7 368H / 358H / X5 338H
• 4 Cougar-Cove P-cores + 8 Darkmont E-cores + 4 LP-E cores (4+8+4)
• Xe3 iGPU: 12 cores on every SKU except the X5 338H (10 cores)
• Target: 16–18-inch creator and gaming laptops

Core Ultra H (28 W base, up to 45 W)

• 9 375H / 7 355H / 345H / 5 325H
• Same 4+8+4 CPU tile, but iGPU cut to 4 Xe3 cores
• Target: 14–16-inch premium ultraportables that still need CPU grunt

Core Ultra U (15 W base, up to 30 W)

• 7 360U / 5 350U / 340U / 3 320U
• 4 P-cores + 4 LP-E cores only (the 320U drops to 2 P-cores)
• 4 Xe3 GPU cores across the stack
• Target: 13-inch convertibles and fan-less clamshells

All three tiers are etched on Intel 18A (1.8 nm-class) with PowerVia back-side power delivery and RibbonFET gates. The GPU tile is fabbed externally—either on TSMC N3E or Intel 3, depending on risk-build dates. Intel’s own slides promise >50 % Xe3 graphics uplift versus Lunar Lake’s Xe2, a claim the HWMonitor tables now back by exposing 12-core top parts for the first time.

2. Intel Nova Lake-S – the ‘real’ high-end desktop return

HWInfo 8.32 adds preliminary recognition for “Nova Lake-S (LGA1954)”. The new socket (1954 pins vs. 1700 on Raptor/Arrow) implies a memory change: most insiders expect quad-channel DDR5-6400 and 48 PCIe 5.0 lanes native to the processor. Core counts are not listed, but Intel road-maps circulating at Vision 2024 showed 32 P-core configs for the halo Nova chip; the utility entry at least confirms the platform is past the drawing-board phase.

3. AMD Zen 6 – AM5 lives on, 900-series chipsets arrive

The same HWInfo build drops strings for “AMD Zen 6 900-series chipset,” matching the long-standing AMD pledge to keep AM5 socketed until “at least 2026.” Expected lineup:

• X970 / X970E (enthusiast, PCIe 5.0 throughout)
• B950 / B950E (mainstream, hybrid 5.0/4.0)
• B940 (value, PCIe 4.0 only)

CPU IDs are still masked, but previous kernel patches point to a 16-core dual-CCD mobile part and 32-core single-socket desktop chip—both on TSMC N2P. If the schedule holds, Zen 6 will share 2026 shelves with Panther Lake and Nova Lake-S in a rare three-way node jump year (Intel 18A, TSMC N2P, Samsung 2 nm).

4. Timeline – when you can buy

• Panther Lake: ES2 silicon is already booting in OEM labs; mass production starts Q4 2025 for a CES 2026 launch, on-shelf by March 2026.
• Nova Lake-S: Tape-out believed to be Q1 2026, launch late Q3 2026, availability Q4 2026—effectively the 16-month “tick” after Arrow Lake-S.
• AMD Zen 6: Risk production of N2P wafers starts Q2 2026; chips should appear at Computex 2026 and retail by September 2026.

5. Bottom line

Hardware monitor updates used to be footnotes; today they are product briefs. The utilities prove that Panther Lake is locked, Nova Lake-S is real, and AMD’s Zen 6 platform is already in the hands of board partners. For anyone planning a laptop or desktop purchase in the next 18 months, the message is clear: if you need something now, buy it—2026’s socket, node and core-count shake-up will be the biggest since 2017’s Ryzen and 12th-gen Core reset the market.