Good news: You can hold on to that Noctua cooler a little bit longer, as it'll still work with Intel Nova Lake

A Noctua NH-L12S cooler with mounting accessories. — (Image credit: Future)

Now that we know Intel is reportedly getting ready to challenge AMD's X3D chips, gamers might start clamoring to buy Intel processors again. And if that happens, they'll need a cooler, because if there's one thing a good CPU can do, it's run hot.

To that end, Noctua has just quietly shared some good news for those who are already on an Intel platform: its coolers will still work with Intel's upcoming LGA1954 socket.

The Noctua NH-D15 G2 all put together. — (Image credit: Future)

Intel Nova Lake really does sound exciting, so this is good news for gamers who are willing to give Intel another go. Arrow Lake's gaming performance was disappointing, but Intel seems to be making big strides toward ensuring that Nova Lake—aka Core Ultra 400 series—doesn't repeat those mistakes.

Rumoured to launch in late 2026, Nova Lake is said to be boosting the cache in a big way, which is something that helped AMD pull ahead in the first place. The top chip is said to sport up to 52 cores and 288 MB of combined cache. Oof, that's a lot.

On the other hand, Intel fans are once again being put through a test of patience, because even though the coolers may stay the same, the motherboards won't. Arrow Lake's LGA1851 socket will still welcome another refresh (Intel Core Ultra 300), but after that, it's game over, as Intel will move on to LGA1954.

Being able to at least save money on the cooler is a nice bonus. The other good part is that if Noctua's coolers will remain compatible with LGA1954, chances are that other manufacturers also won't gatekeep Nova Lake.

A CPU cooler is one of those things that can migrate with you from build to build, so this will be a neat little perk and a bit of savings when Intel Nova Lake hits the shelves around a year from now.

Best CPU coolers 2025

1. Best AIO:
Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro

2. Best budget AIO:
Cooler Master MasterLiquid Core II

3. Best high-end AIO:
Be Quiet! Light Loop

4. Best screen:
NZXT Kraken Elite RGB (2024)

5. Best air:
Noctua NH-D15 G2

6. Best budget air:
Arctic Freezer 36

👉Check out our full CPU cooler guide👈

Monica started her gaming journey playing Super Mario Bros on the SNES, but she quickly switched over to a PC and never looked back. These days, her gaming habits are all over the place, ranging from Pokémon and Spelunky 2 to World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. She built her first rig nearly two decades ago, and now, when she's not elbow-deep inside a PC case, she's probably getting paid to rant about the mess that is the GPU market. Outside of the endless battle between AMD and Nvidia, she writes about CPUs, gaming laptops, software, and peripherals. Her work has appeared in Digital Trends, TechRadar, Laptop Mag, SlashGear, Tom's Hardware, WePC, and more.

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