Nvidia wants to reinvent computers: it launched a new superchip with AI that threatens Intel and AMD

The announcement was made by Jensen Huangfounder and CEO of Nvidiawho did not hide his ambitions by stating that the new development seeks “reinvent the PC” next to Microsoft.

“Microsoft and Nvidia are going to reinvent the computer. This is going to be the new PC“said the executive during the presentation.

To understand the magnitude of Nvidia’s announcement you have to look how the market currently works.

For more than three decades, laptops and desktop computers were primarily powered by processors made by Intel. Since the nineties, the family Pentium first and then the lines Core They became the industry standard.

In parallel, AMD was gaining more and more ground with its processors Ryzen and EPYCespecially in gaming, where it is a leader. In this way, it managed to generate competition that benefited users and manufacturers.

The scenario began to change in 2020 when Apple abandoned Intel processors in its Mac computers and introduced its own family chips. Apple Silicon. Its models such as the M1, M2, M3 and more recently the M4 demonstrated that it was possible to combine high performance, integrated artificial intelligence and autonomy much greater than that of many traditional notebooks.

But beyond the emergence of the apple in the segment, the battle for the brain of PCs is fought almost exclusively between the two giants.

NvidiaInstead, he built his leadership in another area: the graphics cards. Sus GPU GeForce They became a reference for video games, professional design and, more recently, artificial intelligence.

That success allowed him to become the most valuable technology company in the world thanks to the generative AI boom.

Now the company wants to go one step further and compete directly for the most important component of a computer.

Unlike traditional PCs, where the central processor (CPU) and graphics card (GPU) operate as separate parts, RTX Spark is committed to a much deeper integration.

The chip was developed in conjunction with MediaTekwho stands out in the segment mobileand combine a 20 core CPU with a GPU based on the Blackwell architecture that, according to Nvidia, offers performance equivalent to that of a graphics card GeForce RTX 5070.

In addition, it incorporates specific capabilities for accelerate artificial intelligence tasksone of the segments where the company dominates the global market.

According to Nvidia, it is a platform designed from the ground up to run traditional Windows applications and, at the same time, power new experiences based on artificial intelligence.

“This is the most incredible chip the world has ever built”Huang said during his presentation.

The proposal aligns with an increasingly strong trend in the industry: moving some AI functions from the cloud to local devicesreducing dependence on remote servers and improving response speed.

Another of the most striking aspects of this “superchip” promises to eliminate one of the main limitations of high-performance notebooks: the loss of power when disconnecting them from the charger.

According to the company, computers equipped with this new processor will practically maintain the same level of performance running on battery, something unusual in laptops for gaming or content creation.

During the demo, Nvidia showed off the chip’s gaming performance Forza Horizon 6 y 007 First Light. Both ran at 100 frames per second (FPS) in 1440p resolution, a figure that until recently was reserved for high-end PCs. desk and high end.

RTX Spark will not be limited to notebooks. Nvidia confirmed that the chip will come to both laptops and desktops, expanding its reach within the PC market.

The most striking fact is that the computer will be able to run advanced artificial intelligence tools without the need to connect to external servers. In other words, the assistant will work directly on the device, with greater privacy and without depending on a monthly subscription.

Due to its characteristics, this processor is oriented for the execution of historical Windows applications and also new tools capable of using intelligent agents, advanced virtual assistants and artificial intelligence models on the computer, since can run AI models with 120 billion parameters no cloud

In other words, The PC would cease to be simply a tool to execute programs and would become a platform prepared to permanently interact with AI systems.

It is a vision similar to that currently promoted by Microsoft, Apple and Qualcomm, which seek to integrate intelligent functions into the hardware itself.

Although Nvidia has been developing processors for data centers, supercomputers and specialized devices for years, RTX Spark represents one of its more ambitious movements within the mass market of personal computers.

The company had previously experimented with ARM architectures and embedded solutions, but never had a proposal with the explicit goal of challenge Intel and AMD in the main PC segment with the Windows operating system. For this reason, several analysts consider this launch as the beginning of a ““new stage for the industry”.

In this spirit, they also consider that the arrival of a third major competitor could accelerate innovation and open the door to more powerful computersefficient and prepared for the era of artificial intelligence.

So far, the first computers equipped with RTX Spark will be available between September and Novemberalthough without a confirmed date or prices. Among the manufacturers there are ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and MSIwhile later they will also be added Acer y Gigabyte.

But the one who took advantage of the advertisement was Microsoft with the Surface Laptop Ultraits brand new laptop that boasts an overwhelming configuration: 15″ touch screen with Mini-LED, a petaflop of AI computing, up to 128 GB of unified memory, large haptic touchpad, Nvidia RTX Spark (20-core ARM CPU) and Blackwell GPU (6144 CUDA cores).

Nvidia’s commitment is focused on taking advantage of its leadership in artificial intelligence to transfer that experience to the personal computer market. If it manages to convince manufacturers and consumers, it could break a balance that has been in place for decades and open a new chapter in the history of PCs.