Intel Nova Lake BFC CPUs Leak With BLLC Cache

The PC hardware market continues to bring new developments across desktop CPUs, graphics cards, used hardware, and AI-focused systems. Intel's Nova Lake desktop CPU lineup has reportedly leaked with a new BFC suffix, while EVGA's past has returned to the spotlight through a former employee's account.

We are one step closer to Intel's Nova Lake launch this week, with a major leak and rumor posted Thursday by LC Tech Leaks. It included a purported seven-CPU launch lineup and further verification of a new naming system, though Intel hasn't confirmed it officially yet.

Intel Nova Lake-S Lineup Leaks With BFC Suffix

A BFC suffix also appeared on three of the SKUs, which happen to be the ones with the BLLC (big last-level cache), as the rumors have often referred to it this year. BLLC is Intel's answer to AMD's 3D cache, which has allowed Ryzen X3D chips to dominate CPU-limited PC gaming benchmarks for the past three generations or so.

Of course, we now have to decipher what BFC might stand for. Logically, per the existing BLLC definition, B stands for "big" and C stands for "cache". But what the F stands for remains unknown. Back to that SKU list, the four-digit part numbers are up from the three-digit system used by the Core Ultra 200 series.

Intel clearly pines for the heady days of 2013 with the 4000-series nomenclature here, back when Haswell was dominant. Nobody needed a quad-core CPU more than anyone, and AMD's future was questionable at best. Hopefully, there won't be too much confusion between, for example, the 4790K from the Devil's Canyon lineup and this soon-to-launch 4970K.

If this list is accurate, we'll have some interesting parts to test.

Core Ultra 9 4970K BFC is clearly the flagship 28-core model with BLLC and a 125W TDP. Ultra 7 4870K BFC loses only four E-cores, and we'd assume it loses some clock speed as well. Ultra 9 4900 BFC seems like an odd duck, with only 6 P-cores and 22 cores total.

It also has a much lower 65W TDP and no K, likely meaning it's not multiplier-unlocked for overclocking. These two BFC chips will likely compete with AMD's gaming-focused parts like the 7800 X3D and 9800 X3D, as well as whatever the 10-series brings.

It's not shown here, but per previous leaks, the 4950K has also been listed with BLLC in the past, as well as the four low-power E-cores that VideoCardz shows, though LC Tech Leaks did not include those. So, just a reminder: early leaks can be inaccurate. However, they use device IDs, so there is no further confirmation of the CPU naming.