Nvidia's upcoming CPU could offer RTX 4070 mobile levels of performance

[midian182]

Rumor mill: There have been several reports about Nvidia making an Arm-based processor for PCs since last year, so another one isn't too much of a surprise. However, this rumor focuses on the chip's gaming prowess, and it sounds pretty impressive. It's also claimed the APU will appear in a gaming laptop made by Alienware.

The long-running rumor is that Nvidia will be working with MediaTek to produce these Arm-based chips. The latter's rival, Qualcomm, has been busy in the PC space with its Snapdragon X-series processors. They've not really set the world on fire, especially when it comes to gaming performance, though they are praised for their battery life.

Nvidia's chip, however, sounds like it could be a great choice for gamers. According to YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead (MLID), Nvidia is comparing the APU to an RTX 4070 laptop GPU running at around 65 W in gaming performance. The chip is also said to be "targeting up to 80W."

Further illustrating that this is a gaming-first chip, Nvidia is rumored to be "at least" partnering with Dell under the Alienware brand for the new APU.

Alienware, of course, is known for its powerful and usually expensive gaming laptops. We picked the m18 as the joint Best Desktop Replacement in our Best Gaming Laptops feature.

A low-powered, all-Nvidia, Alienware-branded laptop with the performance of a RTX 4070 mobile GPU sounds like a pretty exciting prospect, especially as it would likely be thin, light, and offer excellent battery life. According to MLID's source, Nvidia is hoping to launch the product by late 2025 or 2026 at the latest. That aligns with other reports claiming Nvidia's Arm-based chip will land in 2025.

Another APU launching next year is AMD's Strix Halo series, or AMD Ryzen AI Max 300, one of the many exciting new products expected to be unveiled at CES. The most powerful of these chips, the 120W Ryzen AI Max+ 395, is said to have some serious gaming credentials, offering 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units alongside 16 Zen 5 cores.

Being Arm-based means the Nvidia/Alienware laptop will run Windows on Arm, which still has problems such as compatibility and performance issues with some games, something AMD's x86 Strix Halo chips won't encounter. But MLID's source says "there's a HUGE effort underway to make it work," meaning Windows on Arm may undergo more improvements before Nvidia's chip arrives.

MLID's reputation is hit and miss when it comes to rumors, so take this one with a dose of salt. But plenty of other reports have pointed to Nvidia's Arm-based APU, so it's only the channel's details that might be questionable.

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Nvidia's upcoming CPU could offer RTX 4070 mobile levels of performance

 

[yRaz]

I have a feeling these will take a long time to catch on if they ever do at all. First off, they're going to be considerably more expensive than x86 offerings. Second, ARM PCs have never had a good implementation. The new copilot arm PC was the best we've seen so far, but that had some major issues.

It's going to be a hard sell getting ARM gaming laptops off shelves even if the implementation is spot on.

 

[Burty117]

Is there any rumours on another Nvidial Shield? That to me is more exciting, with the Switch 2 around the corner, similar to the first switch, I kinda assume Nvidia will release a Shield using similar tech.

 

[dipique]

I have a feeling these will take a long time to catch on if they ever do at all. First off, they're going to be considerably more expensive than x86 offerings. Second, ARM PCs have never had a good implementation. The new copilot arm PC was the best we've seen so far, but that had some major issues.

It's going to be a hard sell getting ARM gaming laptops off shelves even if the implementation is spot on.

Why would they be more expensive?

 

[yRaz]

Why would they be more expensive?

Because nVidia.

 

[redgarl]

When it comes to CPU, makes sense, but an APU of this magnitude... no chance in hell they are doing that on their first attempt.

Not to mention all their GPU are for x86 support.

 

[Billybobjoey]

Better have a pretty darn good compatibility layer for x86 games or else this thing is dead in the water on release.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Better have a pretty darn good compatibility layer for x86 games or else this thing is dead in the water on release.

Thata on MS to implement. That being said, chalk up another twin for Linux, we already have a built in ARM translator.

When it comes to CPU, makes sense, but an APU of this magnitude... no chance in hell they are doing that on their first attempt.

Not to mention all their GPU are for x86 support.

Their GPUs don't care about x86. That can run in anything that supports the PCIe spec.

ARM, otoh, has mostly been implemented in a way that requires drivers to be compiled b fore boot, hence the swarm of android ROMs. If that gets opened dup there is no reason they could not be used as x86 is used currently.

Is there any rumours on another Nvidial Shield? That to me is more exciting, with the Switch 2 around the corner, similar to the first switch, I kinda assume Nvidia will release a Shield using similar tech.

I'd love a new shield tablet. Or handheld. Even a new shield TV would be neat.

I miss my k1 tablet.

 

[maxxcool7421]

A gaming laptop .. that doesnt run x86 games .. should go.. poorly, even with emulation ala wine/proton

 

[yRaz]

A gaming laptop .. that doesnt run x86 games .. should go.. poorly, even with emulation ala wine/proton

Wine and Proton work significantly better than the compatibility layer to translate ARM to X86 on windows. With Linux/windows compatibility you are only translating the software the hardware still run natively. With ARM compaitility layers you doing a sudo emulation of X86 hardware on ARM chips.

 

[Axeia]

I've been saying for years that AMD should make a powerful SOC or APU for gaming. They always seem to hold back for whatever reason.

The pandemic/mining bubble would have been the perfect timing for it imo. It would be ironic if NVIDIA beats them to it

 

[Burty117]

I've been saying for years that AMD should make a powerful SOC or APU for gaming. They always seem to hold back for whatever reason.

The pandemic/mining bubble would have been the perfect timing for it imo. It would be ironic if NVIDIA beats them to it

They do, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X.

I assume they have some kind of agreement not to produce generic PC compatible versions of said chips.

 

[zamroni111]

I guess the mediatek partnership is about the sound, bluetooth, wifi for the soc
mediatek wifi isnt as good as intel or qualcomm.
nvidia should just let laptop manufacturers select those components by themselves as laptop is much less space constrained than smartphone.

 

[maxxcool7421]

Wine and Proton work significantly better than the compatibility layer to translate ARM to X86 on windows. With Linux/windows compatibility you are only translating the software the hardware still run natively. With ARM compaitility layers you doing a sudo emulation of X86 hardware on ARM chips.

SRC this article >> "Being Arm-based means the Nvidia/Alienware laptop will run Windows on Arm, which still has problems such as compatibility and performance issues with some games"

Sure they will try to make it better .. but people who are very good at this already have been trying for 15+ years unsuccessfully.

 

[yRaz]

SRC this article >> "Being Arm-based means the Nvidia/Alienware laptop will run Windows on Arm, which still has problems such as compatibility and performance issues with some games"

Sure they will try to make it better .. but people who are very good at this already have been trying for 15+ years unsuccessfully.

Let me be more specific, the way wine and Proton work doesn't apply to how the compatibility layer for windows in ARM works and is therefore unable to be referred to in this context.

Better?

 

[yannus]

Whatever happens, buying ngreedya cpu is in the long term, sacrificing the whole cpu industry. As a reminder when they entered the gpu market, there were plenty of gpu brands in the market and a fierce competition. Now the prices have inflated, there are only two valid options left (intel doesn't count yet, will it ever ?) and AMD just abandonned the high end market.