Nvidia ARM SoC for Windows machines reportedly debuting in Q4, featuring N1X, with N1 to follow in early 2026

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Nvidia is gunning for the Windows PC ecosystem, competing with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm

Nvidia's Tegra X1 SoC prcoessor.
(Image credit: Nvdia)

Nvidia's first-ever ARM-based SoC for Windows devices is purportedly coming this year. HaYaO on X reports that Nvidia will be introducing two new chips, the N1X at the end of this year and the N1 in 2026.

Nvidia is expected to ship 3 million N1X chips in Q4 this year and 13 million vanilla N1 units next year. Nvidia will be partnering with MediaTek to build these chips, with MediaTek receiving $2 billion in revenue from this joint venture alone, accounting for 8% of its revenue next year.

Originally, it was expected that Nvidia would unveil its new ARM-based SoCs at CES 2025, but that didn't happen. Nvidia used CES 2025 to advertise its all-new RTX 50 series Blackwell gaming GPU lineup and its new Project Digits AI super mini PC. However, it is expected that Nvidia will show off its upcoming ARM-based SoCs in Computex in May, where we'll hopefully get details on the SoC's architecture, core specs, and some performance figures before the chips go mainstream in ARM-based Windows PCs later this year.

Nvidia has been developing its upcoming ARM-based since at least late 2023. Multiple reports have confirmed that the chipmaking giant wants to get into the Windows PC eco-system, building its own chips to compete with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, the latter of which will be its primary competitor on the ARM side.

The N1 and N1X seem to be first model names of the SoCs Nvidia is making from this new joint venture with MediaTek. All we have to go on is the name, with the N1X most likely being Nvidia's flagship model and the N1 being a more mainstream option, similar to how Qualcomm has its X Elite flagship and X Plus mid-range SKUs. Any other details, including the architecture the SoC's will be based on, remain a mystery.

We can expect Nvidia to provide competitive SoCs to the Windows ecosystem when they arrive. Nvidia is no stranger to ARM-based products, having used them extensively in the server market with its Grace CPUs and multimedia/gaming-focused products with its Tegra lineup of processors.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    The article said:
    ... its new Project Digits AI super mini PC
    Thank you kindly for not calling it any type of "supercomputer"!
    : )
    The article said:
    The N1 and N1X seem to be first model names of the SoCs Nvidia is making from this new joint venture with MediaTek. All we have to go on is the name, ... Any other details, including the architecture the SoC's will be based on, remain a mystery.
    My bet is that they're going to use the latest cores licensed from ARM, like they did in the Digits SoC. So far, MediaTek hasn't designed its own cores and I can't imagine them just coming out of nowhere with a core capable of rivaling all the other big players.

    Nvidia has designed their own ARM cores, but not for a while and the ones they did design weren't great at general-purpose workloads. However, if Nvidia were designing the cores, then I'm not really sure what they'd need Mediatek for, as they're quite competent at SoC design. I think the way the arrangement was originally reported, it sounded like MediaTek was running the show and merely licensing the iGPU IP (and probably also the "DLA" NPU) from Nvidia.

    I found some benchmark comparison data of all the leading ARM cores (note that Cortex-X925 is ARM's latest and greatest; the X4 and A720 are both 1 year older):
    https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/1gvo28c/latest_arm_cpu_cores_compared_performanceperarea/
    Given when this thing is allegedly launching, I think it's a decent chance it'll use even newer cores than Digits (which used X925 and A725 cores). I sort of wonder whether Digits' GB10 was originally intended to be their inaugural entry into the ARM/Windows market, but they decided against it, for whatever reason.
    https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidias-project-digits-desktop-ai-supercomputer-fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand-usd3-000-to-bring-1-pflops-of-performance-home
    Reply
  • thestryker
    I would love to know where the shipping figures come from because the 3 million in Q4 puts it at probably double Qualcomm's current shipments and the 13 million is over a quarter of AMD's yearly. Unless these are being sold near cost I can't imagine those numbers being more than best case wishful thinking.

    MediaTek hasn't built a custom SoC core and as is pointed out above if nvidia was there would be no reason to make this a joint effort. This leads me to believe it will likely be an Arm design and there's virtually no chance of that competing with the X Elite Gen 2 on the CPU side (depending on the memory bus situation it could be competitive GPU wise). That leaves the only likely advantage being nvidia's driver stack. This isn't insignificant, but unless inherent problems with Windows on Arm are solved by launch I can't imagine it making much of a difference with regard to actual sales.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    UHULLLLLLL !!! finaly nvidia will eat another 80% market share! AMD/INTEL are so F!
    Reply
  • bit_user
    thestryker said:
    MediaTek hasn't built a custom SoC
    I think you mean custom core?

    thestryker said:
    This leads me to believe it will likely be an Arm design and there's virtually no chance of that competing with the X Elite Gen 2 on the CPU side (depending on the memory bus situation it could be competitive GPU wise).
    If you check my link, it seems the Cortex-X925 is actually quite competitive against the large Oryon and actually delivers significantly better IPC (labelled as "PPC", in that table). That said, the test vehicle for the X925 is MediaTek's Dimensity 9400, which is made on TSMC N3E. Snapdragon X is made on N4P. So, how it'll fare against a 3rd gen Oryon that's made on a similar or better node is quite a fair question.

    Furthermore, the Cortex-X925 has SVE2, which probably helped it in those scores (depending on how they were compiled). We don't yet know whether the 3rd gen Oryon cores will feature any version of SVE, but that could be making the the X925 look a little better than it would if they were running the exact same binary & codepaths.

    Basically, I wouldn't count them out, but I also wouldn't bet on them surpassing the CPU performance of the next gen Snapdragon X Elite. However, if they're prepared to compete on price or target some market where the Nvidia GPU/NPU would be regarded as a big value-add, then they might do pretty well.
    Reply
  • cpkennit83
    My guess is the sole reason for the partnership is Mediatek will be using their TSMC fab allocation for this wafers. I have trouble believing nvidia would use their already constrained allocation for this low margin parts.
    Reply
  • edzieba
    Nvidia's first-ever ARM-based SoC for Windows devices
    Second. The Tegra 4 powered the 2013 Surface 2.
    Reply
  • ekio
    Any powerful platform that let me go away from x86 will be highly considered.

    If this goes to market at the end of the year, I think my AMD 7950x is my last x86 CPU.

    And I'll go RISC-V in a few years when serious chips are available.
    Reply
  • OneMoreUser
    Resistance will be futile when it comes to the Nvidia ARM cpu's they are bound use the same future prediction as the GPU's.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    bit_user said:
    I think you mean custom core?
    Absolutely, the power of late night writing and not double checking before posting!
    Reply
  • hush now
    it'll need to be something special because Lunar Lake and Ryzen 300-series rendered X Elite (and WoA) useless overnight. this site, notebookcheck, and many others already have battery life reviews of real-world, ready to buy x86 laptops that show some upwards of 21-hr battery life with performance near or similar to X Elite (like NBC's review of the LL XPS 13, 20h 36min on real world wifi web surfing test). Panther Lake is only going to prove it more on how ARM isn't really inherently more energy efficient by its architecture alone. the manufacturing node plays a much more important role and x86 has full access to the latest nodes, especially with Intel's 18A around the corner.a/0CQQuX1
    Reply