NVIDIA’s first consumer APU is said to have gaming performance that hits levels of the GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, using just 65W, aiming directly at AMD’s new Strix Halo APU arriving in 2025.
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In a new video from Moore’s Law is Dead, his source teased that “behind the scenes, NVIDIA is comparing their new APU to an RTX 4070 Laptop GPU running at ~65W in gaming performance“. NVIDIA is working with MediaTek on its new AI PC processor, which will be an Arm-based processor so these new NVIDIA APU-powered laptops will be running Arm on Windows, an issue for Qualcomm and Copilot+ AI PCs right now.
MLID talked to a couple of sources that said NVIDIA is preparing to launch its new Arm-based APU to thin-and-light laptops within a “couple of years”. The company is aiming at up to 80W of power, with NVIDIA reportedly partnering with Dell under its Alienware brand for its new AI PC processor.
Source 1: “I (NVIDIA partner) can tell you first-hand that NVIDIA is planning to launch an Arm-based APU to thin and light laptops within a couple of years. Preliminary info is that it’s targeting up to 80W, and NVIDIA is at least partnering with Dell under the Alienware brand for it“.
Source 2: “Yes, I (NVIDIA) can confirm that we’re working on a consumer APU, and I can also confirm that this is a VERY serious project… not some throwaway experiment or something. In fact, we’re trying to rush this thing out by late 2025 or 2026 at the latest since we want to beat AMD Sound Wave to market. You should expect us to heavily market it both for gaming, but then also for creators as a direct competitor to AMD’s Halo APUs as well. Oh, and yes it will have a powerful NPU, and while there are concerns about Arm on Windows — there’s a HUGE effort underway to make it work“.
Arm-based AI PC processors are limited to Qualcomm and its new Snapdragon X platform, which for most users absolutely sucks, and so does Windows on Arm for that matter. But, it’s getting better and better… and with more hardware players joining the fray — NVIDIA and MediaTek in this case — hopefully we see things continue to improve.
MLID’s sources touched on the fact that Arm on Windows isn’t great right now, but NVIDIA is working on that as we speak: “Oh, and yes it will have a powerful NPU, and while there are concerns about Arm on Windows — there’s a HUGE effort underway to make it work“.
NVIDIA has also previously said that RTX is the “Premium” AI PC platform, and that CPUs and SoCs launching with new NPUs (Neural Processing Units for AI workloads) are for “Basic” AI PCs. The company is right, as a decent discrete GeForce RTX GPU can blow away any NPU inside of any CPU now, and for years to come.
The new silicon will support advanced technologies, and will be mass-produced on TSMC’s new 3nm process node, and will compete against Apple’s new M4 chip, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors.
