Nvidia RTX Spark comes to Windows PC with Arm CPU, RTX GPU, and compatible memory

These days, Nvidia mainly sells AI data products, and its traditional consumer hardware feels like a side project. But sometimes the company still releases something designed for consumers. After years of rumors, Nvidia has announced an Arm-based chip designed to power Windows PCs. Called RTX Spark, the new chip combines a 20-core Nvidia Grace CPU developed by MediaTek, up to 6,144 Blackwell-based GPU cores (the same architecture as the RTX 50-series GPUs), and supports up to 128GB of LPDDR5x memory.

Nvidia and its partners did not provide anything about expected prices, but both “miniature Windows laptops with all-day battery life and premium displays” and “dedicated desktop computers” are expected to be “available this fall” from partners including Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, MSI, Acer, and Gigabyte.

This isn’t Nvidia’s first product for Windows PC; Many chips in the Tegra series supported multiple a temporary Windows RT tablets. But Tegra chips stopped appearing on consumer devices following the Tegra X1 in the late 2010s (a variant that powered the original Nintendo Switch and apparently the Nvidia Shield TV box is indestructible). Modern Arm-based PCs in the Windows 10 and Windows 11 eras all used processors from Qualcomm.

Nvidia should benefit years of progress it was developed on the Arm version of Windows from the days of Windows RT. Microsoft’s x86-to-Arm code translation layer, codenamed Prism, just got better and faster. Many major programs are now shipping Arm-native versions that can work without the audio penalties that still occur in native programs. Most of them of that time, at least for production work and general computers, the Arm-based PC and the Intel or AMD-based PC look and feel.

And Nvidia’s entry into the market could help improve the game, one area where the Arm version of Windows is on the wane. Translated games are often played, but they can show problems or problems that can occur even when running at the right level; many games that require kernel-level anti-cheat software to be installed do not run at all. Nvidia and Microsoft he told The Verge that they were working with Riot Games to help League of Legends and Appreciation on Arm PC; and Krafton for support PUBG wallpapers; they are also the makers of Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, and Denuvo.