Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced last night that Nvidia will launch the RTX Spark, its first processor chip for consumer PCs running Windows.
That Arm-based processor will put the company into direct competition with the likes of Intel, AMD, Apple and Qualcomm.
Word of the processor had leaked over months of rumors, and now it’s finally confirmed as a family of chips coming for thin-and-light Windows-based laptops. The processor will go along with Nvidia’s 3D graphics chips for consumer PCs.
The new family of chips has a version that has 20 CPU cores, 6,144 GPU cores and 128GB of LPDDR5x memory. There will be cheaper versions later.
The RTX Spark processor is based on the GB10 chip that is used in the small personal AI supercomputer, the DGX Spark, released last year. Nvidia also announced last night its DGX Station for Windows, a deskside AI supercomputer.
Qualcomm and Apple also make Arm-based processors, and Qualcomm’s chips are part of the Arm-based Windows laptops that have debuted in recent years. Those chips run through an emulation layer to make Windows software work.
Nvidia said it can render a 90GB 3D scene. It can also edit 12K resolution video, or play the graphically intensive Indiana Jones and the Great Circle at 100fps at 1440p resolution. It also has a lot of AI processing power. Microsoft is among the PC makers using the chip for future Surface laptops.