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Last year NVIDIA introduced a mini PC that the company called an “AI Supercomputer” thanks to its high-performance processor that combined a 20-core Arm-based CPU with NVIDIA Blackwell graphics and up to 128GB of unified memory with 273 GB/s bandwidth. Designed for running local AI models, the NVIDIA DGX Spark sold for $3,000 and up at launch, and currently sells for $4699.
Now NVIDIA is bringing mobile chips based on the same architecture to Windows laptops. NVIDIA and Microsoft are expected to make an official announcement at Computex in Taiwan soon, but details about the first four NVIDIA N1X and N1 series chips and the first laptops powered by the processors have been leaked a little early by publications including VideoCardz and WinFuture.
VideoCardz says its information is based on a preview of the presentation slides NVIDIA plans to release, while WinFuture has spotted retail listings for one of the first laptops powered by the new processors.
NVIDIA’s new flagship mobile processor is the NVIDIA N1X (675). It’s a high-performance chip with a 20-core CPU and an integrated Blackwell 2.0 GPU with 48 Streaming Multiprocessors with 6144 CUDA cores. With a TDP range of 45 to 80 watts for both the CPU and iGPU, theoretically this chip could be used for high-end, relatively energy-efficient gam ing laptops. But given the high price of the DGX Spark, I imagine that laptops with this chip be prohibitively expensive for gamers that don’t have very deep pockets. It’s probably best to think of it as a mobile workstation.
NVIDIA is also introducing several chips that could be used in lower-cost laptops and mini PCs. Just don’t expect cheaper to mean dirt cheap. Qualcomm just introduced a new line of Snapdragon C series Arm-based chips for laptops priced as low as $300. But it seems like NVIDIA isn’t interested in competing for the budget market, instead focusing on high-end chips for developers and other professionals.
Here’s what we know about NVIDIA’s new N1/X chips so far:
NVIDIA N1X (20-core)NVIDIA N1X (18-core)NVIDIA N1 (12-core)NVIDIA N1 (10-core)Performance CPU Cores10 x Cortex-X9259 x Cortex-A9258 x Cortex-X9257 x Cortex-X925Efficiency CPU cores10 x Cortex-A7259 x Cortex-7254 x Cortex-A7253 x Cortex-A725GPU Streaming Multiprocessors48 SM40 SM20 SM16 SMCUDA Cores6144512025602048Memory16 – 128GBLPDDR5x16-channel8-64GBLPDDR5x8-channelPCIe12 x PCIe Gen 55 x PCIe Gen 48 x PCIe Gen 53 x PCIe Gen 4TDP45 – 80W18-45WWindows laptops with Arm-based processors have been around for a while – I published a review in 2018 of one of the first to run a (mostly) full version of Windows. But up until now they’ve all shipped with Qualcomm processors. So NVIDIA’s entry in this space provides some competition and gives PC buyers more options.
But this also isn’t the first time NVIDIA has made a play for the Windows PC space.
More than 15 years ago Microsoft and NVIDIA announced plans to bring Windows to devices with Arm-based processors. By the time those first Windows devices with NVIDIA processors were ready to ship though, we found out that they were actually running a pared down version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system called Windows RT. They weren’t very popular and Microsoft killed off the platform a fter a few years.
Things have come a long way since then – these days the Windows 11 operating system that runs on laptops like the Asus Zenbook A16 with a Snapdragon X Elite Extreme processor is pretty much the same as what you’d get on a model with an Intel or AMD processor. But there are still some down sides.
For one thing, some hardware drivers haven’t been updated to support Arm, which means that if you’ve got an old printer, scanner, or other device that relies on outdated drivers, you may not be able to use it with a Windows on Arm PC. For another, many Windows applications haven’t been compiled to run natively on Arm. So while Windows includes x86 emulation that will allow many of those applications to run, they might not perform as well on an Arm-based PC as they would on one with an x86_64 processor.
Given those constraints, it’s too soon to tell whether NVDIA’s N1/X series processors are going to be widely adopted by PC makers or consumers anytime soon. But I could certainly see them gaining some niche market share from people like AI developers looking for the equivalent of a DGX Spark in a laptop form factor.
As for whether the lower-cost N1 series chips can make a dent in the consumer space, that will all depend on what kind of performance they can deliver and how much systems with those chips will cost.
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