Nvidia's Arm-based N1X-equipped gaming laptops are reportedly set to debut this quarter, with N2 series chips planned for 2027 — new roadmap leak finally hints at consumer release Windows-on-ARM machines
Posted by Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 122 comments
SeaFuel2@reddit
A new Nvidia shield with this chipset, thank you.
SPACEXDG@reddit
this is over kill for that lol
No_Investigator668@reddit
No it is not overkill. It will have lots more options. It could replace your ps5 or xbox...
Navhkrin@reddit
Amen, original Shield is still the best and fastest Android box.
Jofzar_@reddit
Maybe the only thing I want, every android since has kinda sucked
sankao@reddit
Key question that's never asked : does it support UEFI ? Until ARM vendors consistently support UEFI, any ARM device is a downgrade for me the customer.
I don't want to have to rely on the vendor's custom patches, I want to install any OS I want, like we've been able to on x86 for decades.
Haunting-Public-23@reddit
It's Nvidia... do they pay nice with Linux?
Ok-Web-7451@reddit
Since it is supposed to run Windows 11 it is going to support UEFI for 100%
the_dude_that_faps@reddit
Agreed, I don't want to go back to weird custom closed systems.
Internal-Agent4865@reddit
You are the minority. 99.9% of people don’t care about this. Cool you want it but it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
psydroid@reddit
Even when ARM vendors support some UEFI as in the case of Qualcomm Snapdragon X it's an incomplete implementation that requires the OS to fill in the gaps. That's why Linux needs DTBs on devices coming with these chips
On server platforms such as those by Ampere the UEFI implementation is much better and you can boot any compliant install media.
randomkidlol@reddit
if its anything like the last time nvidia tried to do arm consumer devices (tegra mobile chips), its gonna be overpriced, underperforms, and have awful battery life. then somehow they will piss off all their hardware partners who will never put an nvidia soc in their device ever again.
SPACEXDG@reddit
Lol you are using outdated info yes tegra failed in the android device space but it ultimately proved itself in automotive vehicles and the nintnendo switch systems and thats not even on nvidias recent architectures they will be damn fine as they actually got game devs on t here side unlike apple😅
jenny_905@reddit
Will Windows-on-ARM really be any better of it's Nvidia doing it?
I thought the issue was basically performance due to the translation layer and a lack of native apps.
hitsujiTMO@reddit
Valve have been working heavily on ARM lately since the Frame will be running it. In all likelihood, we might have good proton support if anything if we can get SteamOS onto the devices.
DYMAXIONman@reddit
The only way we get better windows on arm is if people start switching over to arm, which forces amd or Intel to release ARM chips with hardware x86 compatibility.
Internal-Agent4865@reddit
It’s already really good. Just not for gaming.
R-ten-K@reddit
We have a bunch of SD Thinkpads. WoA works just fine for productivity use cases, much better battery performance than the intel/amd SKUs of the same model we have in our fleet. Overall they seem snappier too.
theregoesmyfutur@reddit
no compatibility issues?
Strazdas1@reddit
The main issue with current windows on ARM offerings is graphics performance. Nvidia is the best at graphics performance.
DerpSenpai@reddit
yep, because QC Adreno drivers stink big time on Windows
The X2 uses a better Vulkan driver AFAIK so let's see how it goes
26295@reddit
they stink big time everywhere tbh. The best android SoC for emulation is the snapdragon 8 gen 3 despite its age, because its the last one with support for the turnip custom drivers. Which is the SoC thats coincidentally inside Valve's Steam Frame.
Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit (OP)
that's the last 8 series SoC with an Adreno 7xx GPU.
Raikaru@reddit
The biggest problem right now is GPU drivers/GPU power.
https://www.worksonwoa.com/en/applications/ You can see here most programs run. Gamers are the big problem for ARM. You can run most work software just fine. It's more of a problem on Apple where certain Windows programs straight up won't work without a VM.
Quatro_Leches@reddit
almost none of the mainstream stuff is native.
Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit (OP)
'mainstream stuff?
AbrocomaRegular3529@reddit
ARM is fine except gaming. If you stick to big apps there will be no issue. If you want to edit videos, premiere pro or davinci resolve is the same as on windows, but if you try something like shotcut or kdlive etc they will crash in 5 seconds.
LargeSinkholesInNYC@reddit
AMD is never going to catch up.
Merbil2000@reddit
Qualcomm is in for a rude awakening.
Neon_Bunny_@reddit
im betting that Qualcomms CPUs will be better, but Nvidia will destroyed them in GPU performance
DYMAXIONman@reddit
Nvidia isn't really a new player in the ARM scene. I figure they will have a competitive product right away.
SPACEXDG@reddit
sounds about right apple and qualcomm strengths has always been cpu compared to nvidia
LastChancellor@reddit
bet they didnr expect to see Mediatek again in the laptop space
riklaunim@reddit
I'm not sure... they had the exclusive rights for WoA and likely MS payed them to make it happen. They already got paid for chips in devices of two generations.
Then it depends on Nvidia price and performance, including game emulation, productivity. Day one Linux support could be a big one allowing power users to actually start using such devices and promoting in a way.
26295@reddit
Linux suport along with a cheapish low power (\~20W) variant would be huge for the handheld scene. I know I know, not a large userbase but I'm interested in it :)
SPACEXDG@reddit
no aaa game is compiled for arm on handhelds so i dont think it would work that well
DerpSenpai@reddit
Nvidia will only do Strix Halo level laptops AFAIK for now
riklaunim@reddit
hm... leaks mentioned low power one (as in handheld as well). so do they have two mobile variants - big and small?
Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit (OP)
WoA has earned an ill repute, partly thanks to Qualcomm's mediocre graphics. N1X will hopefully address that, and I am curious to see how games and professional software run on it.
SPACEXDG@reddit
huh? the gpu is the qualcomm device is anything but small its actually on par with amd gpu and shipped with 4.6tflops the problem is drivers
nithrean@reddit
Before we count our chickens, we might want to see how this performs in the real world. Making chips is hard. Even the best companies in the world struggle with it. New entrants into the field tend to have growing pains. that being said, Nvidia already does some server chips so they have to know something about what is going on.
wtallis@reddit
This is most likely using the same silicon as the GB10 SoC in the DGX Spark, which has been out for months. It's a known quantity at this point; the main questions are how they'll fix power management before shipping it in laptops and how the Windows support will differ from the Linux support it currently ships with.
SPACEXDG@reddit
I dont think so in efficiency and cpu performance qualcomm will prob win thats why these are going in gaming devices because of the more power hungry gpu
Vb_33@reddit
I wonder if N2 will be a big uplift. 2027 huh that may mean Rubin GPU instead of Blackwell.
DerpSenpai@reddit
N2 might be CPU update only considering how late this is. This is using 2024 ARM cores, the X925
Navhkrin@reddit
Pretty confident N2 will have same Vera Rubin setup as their data center versions, those are designed to be used together and it is much easier to have a massively scaled down version instead of comboing Vera with Blackwell
DerpSenpai@reddit
The CPU in this is much weaker than the X2 Elite
From-UoM@reddit
Maybe on paper, but Nvidia works extremely close with app developes, so actual performance might not be that different.
Exist50@reddit
It's a CPU. What do you expect them to do?
From-UoM@reddit
Dont be surprised if a bunch of native arm games and apps are revealed that are optimized to take advantage of the N1 chip when its announced
Exist50@reddit
It doesn't even use a custom core. Again, what do you expect specifically on the CPU side?
From-UoM@reddit
Well its structure is a bit unique. Especially in its memort subsystem.
Did you know that that the two clusters despite having the same 5 A725 and 5 x925 cores, have different amounts of L3 cache?
Cluster 0 has double the L3 chace of cluster 1
Chip and and cheese did a good breakdown of its strengths and weaknesses compared to a strix halo
https://chipsandcheese.com/p/inside-nvidia-gb10s-memory-subsystem
This is where i think optimizations specific to the N1 can be made.
jocnews@reddit
Sounds more like it's simply bad, so your "optimizations" would just be attempts from prevent performance drops.
Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit (OP)
that really doesn't make much sense. You could say the same for any other cpu
From-UoM@reddit
Could have said the same for app/games optimised Games and GPU drivers before Nvidia became the first one to actually do it.
Exist50@reddit
Maybe it's theoretically possible, but this probably isn't the kind of arrangement that would be consistent gen to gen (so unlikely to have long term reuse), and seems like a lot of additional hassle on top of the baseline "get native ARM apps" requirement.
From-UoM@reddit
Its Nvidia. If anyone can devs do it, its them
IPreferBagels2@reddit
Nvidia ARM handhelds soon please
DYMAXIONman@reddit
Need a Steamdeck pocket with an ARM chip.
Sorry_Soup_6558@reddit
Please, we see what Nvidia can do on a shittty 8n Samsung junk node from 2018 on switch 2, it's seriously impressive, now imagine that with 2.5x the battery, much beefer cooling a 3-4x more efficient Samsung 3lpp or SF2 node and at a higher power envelope, bigger too with a better CPU.
Sounds like a monster N2X. Would make AMD and Intel handhelds look old and inefficient.
Marv18GOAT@reddit
Yep especially because amd handhelds still use rdna 3
ThankGodImBipolar@reddit
None of the RDNA 3/3.5 handhelds have better perf/W than the Steam Deck (RDNA 2) at the Switch 2's TDP, which is between 8-12W. As someone who likes my Steam Deck because of its performance in that power range (where I can get 4-6 hours of battery life), it feels like AMD has made literally no progress in that category since then.
exomachina@reddit
Handhelds and Steamdeck run desktop class games. Switch 2 runs Switch games that were built from the ground up for <20W.
Sorry_Soup_6558@reddit
Yep, but also even at 1.7tf the switch 2s GPU is 2x faster at RT than the deck.
exomachina@reddit
nobody cares about rt on mobile.
SPACEXDG@reddit
And the correction is nobody cares about rt on mobile "phones" and do you know why? Thats Because Qualcomm and apple aren't anywhere near as competent of a gpu maker as nvidia let alone amd and they should be glad nvidia couldn't care less about phones anymore
exomachina@reddit
When I say mobile I'm talking about <20watts, so yea that includes mobile phones too but Qualcomm and Apple are A LOT closer than you think, especially at that power level, the problem is there are no "built for mobile" AAA games yet because people don't buy phones to play games, it's just an additional perk of having a faster phone.
Let me re-iterate what I said:
Nobody is buying any of these devices for games with RT.
Not a single person in 2025-26 has swiped their card to buy a portable gaming device because of it's RT performance.
There are 4 games right now that REQUIRE RT, and nobody is buying a portable device to just to play them.
SPACEXDG@reddit
Oh but they do and rdna 2 is the biggest let down in that area to the point its the main bottleneck of this gen of consoles and if you want anything above you have to go with the ps5 pro
Sorry_Soup_6558@reddit
I mean games require it to boot now and games like Star wars outlaws are heavily boosted in performance by RT cores.
But, okay.
exomachina@reddit
Nobody bought a Switch 2 to play Starwars Outlaws.
I could count on 2 hands how many people bought a Switch 2 to play RT enabled games.
As of right now, the only game that requires RT on PC (Indiana Jones: TGC), doesn't even have an official release date on Switch 2.
Strazdas1@reddit
There are many more games on PC that have RT as requirement. Here is an inexhaustive list: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_games_that_support_ray_tracing
Sort by supported column to see always on requirements (lock icon).
exomachina@reddit
None of those games are selling hardware that can barely run them.
Strazdas1@reddit
I was not the poster that claimed it did, however i know personally people who bought a new GPU for Doom.
exomachina@reddit
We're talking about Switch 2 & PC Handhelds.
Sorry_Soup_6558@reddit
Wrong and many games likely including Nintendos own will use RTGI in the future, we are just 9 months in.
Many people did many people bought it to play AAA games from Nintendo and their partners that have or later will include RT even RTGI
Also Indiana Jones is coming to switch 2 as well this year, it not having a date issa moot point. Also it's not the only RT required game, Doom the Dark Ages needs it too, and many others run faster on GPUs with RT hardware like Star wars outlaws and ACS and Avatar. Many more in the future will be faster and use RT hardware vs running the RT code in software on the GPUs standard shader cores, the deck does technically have RT hardware but it's baked into the shaded cores and thus is very slow.
Idk why you are trying so hard to prove Lord gabens deck is the Jesus of game consoles, it's great but it has flaws like the switch 2. Neither of perfect consoles.
exomachina@reddit
My original point was that you can't compare PC based handhelds (including the Steamdeck) to Switch 2 ports because the versions of the games running on PC based portables are developed for hardware with multiple times the compute and power requirements.
I replied to your comment because you seem to assume that there's a large overlap in the markets for PC handhelds and Switch 2. If there is, then it's miniscule, because Switch 2 and Nintendo 1st party games have outsold PC handhelds 10 fold. There is no comparison. People buy Nintendo for Nintendo and nothing else. 8 year olds don't know what the fuck ray tracing is and neither do their parents who are buying the consoles.
Sorry_Soup_6558@reddit
8 year olds aren't buying $450 consoles you dweeb.
exomachina@reddit
Try leaving your brain on for the entire sentence.
Sorry_Soup_6558@reddit
Again I don't think many 8 years olds are getting a $450 console rn, when a switch 2 lite with a 60hz non vrr screen on 4lpp comes out and it's $329 or whatever than maybe, but at $450 it's actually older people buying it, Nintendo demographic the last generation has been older than ever.
Do you even do research or do you just piss and shit out your biases into sentences and click post?
-WingsForLife-@reddit
One of the problems with most AMD handhelds is that there's simply too many cores, useful for dockable SFF computing, but as a gaming device it simply eats too much power.
Lunar Lake at 15w is like 1.5-2x than the Deck at least, which makes it pretty competitive with the Switch 2. Although considering how old that Ampere tegra is, it's definitely impressive.
SoTOP@reddit
RDNA 3 is barely an improvement over RDNA2, and basically all that improvement is eaten by more cores that are detriment for max efficiency, since newer Z series "handheld" APUs are just renamed regular mobile APUs.
SPACEXDG@reddit
Exactly 💯
SPACEXDG@reddit
Yup I kepf thinking that nvidia chip in the switch 2 is so impressive for its age Im actually shocked nvidia is that far ahead tech even 4 years ago
SPACEXDG@reddit
yup
SPACEXDG@reddit
yup
LockingSlide@reddit
Switch 2 releasing with measly 20Wh battery is still so bad considering the size and price, there are regular sized phones shipping with north of 30Wh now.
Sorry_Soup_6558@reddit
Absolutely, but a tear down shows it's because they were saving money on the battery because of both it's cheap battyer and anything above 20wh is dual cell required, and needs special paperwork, they sell this thing at $350 in Japan and BOM is already $380 or so. But in America we are getting ripped off they sell it at $410 to Walmart who sells it to us at $450, hey at least it's way smaller margins than smartphones, in America companies sell phones at around 1.7-2x BOM and shipping.
SPACEXDG@reddit
switch ;lol
Kamimashita@reddit
I wonder what OS such a handheld would use.
IPreferBagels2@reddit
Ideally it would be Steam OS, but we'll see. I've heard some rumors of Valve developing a translation layer to play Steam games on ARM so fingers crossed
DerpSenpai@reddit
It's not rumours, its called FEX and it's out there
abbzug@reddit
Nvidia still has issues with dx12 performance on Linux so I wouldn't count on it.
Is it really a rumor? They announced it with the Steam Frame, it's called FEX.
Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit (OP)
The full N1X SoC is a Strix Halo competitor. You want a $2000 handheld?
mrheosuper@reddit
Already exist. It's called nintendo switch
boomstickah@reddit
Wouldn't/shouldn't they have said something at CES? Seems unlikely that it's coming so soon if at all
ResponsibleJudge3172@reddit
Jensen doing a second launch after the huge delays? Too bad for his ego, especially when Pantherlake would kill interest in these
DYMAXIONman@reddit
Panther will never completely kill interest because Apple ARM chips perform better than x86 chips due to the inherent increased IPC that ARM chips have. If they can release a chip with comparable CPU performance as apple, but with superior graphics it would become a very viable product.
DerpSenpai@reddit
Why would PantherLake kill interest in these when the CPU and GPU is much better?
IBM296@reddit
Yeah kinda' surprising that Nvidia didn't atleast reveal this at CES (meant for consumers).
Oh well if it launches, let's see how it compares to X2-Elite. And then 2027 is going to be very interesting with Nvidia's N2X and Qualcomm's X3-Elite.
Navhkrin@reddit
Honestly, given how good DLSS 4.5 Preset L is, even if X2 beats it on Native it doesn't matter. Being capable of running 4.5 Preset L alone is as meaningful as 30% perf difference to me.
Valterri_lts_James@reddit
I can't believe it. We have an all out war between Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia. It's beautiful.
Ar0ndight@reddit
Yea seems weird, they would stole the show with this news and say a nice demo laptop
DYMAXIONman@reddit
If Nvidia is able to deliver Apple-like CPU performance with dominate GPU performance, we could actually see the end of x86. We shall see though.
sicarii-13@reddit
Would this actually be a gaming machine? And if so even so, on Windows? Windows-On-Arm made steps but it still not that great. A costume linux on arm machine for gaming works with the exception of some DRM and anti-cheat.
And in all reality if NVIDIA produces an ARM business laptop for AI production that makes much more sense. Since a point I saw here earlier why wouldn't nvidia show this at CES.
7silverlights@reddit
Say whay you want about league but the fact that its not supported on WoA is one of the reasons I went with cheap lunar lake vs a cheap travel arm laptop.
Quatro_Leches@reddit
terrible time to launch any hardware
MrGunny94@reddit
Give us handhelds with this and DLSS
ResponsibleJudge3172@reddit
I guess N2 is launching at CES 2027 together with Rubin laptops for their first all Nvidia laptops?
Forsaken_Arm5698@reddit (OP)
What are these '3 other versions' ?
Looks like there will much confusion in future discussions. N2X the Nvidia chip, or N2X the TSMC node?
Afraid-District-6321@reddit
Nobody (except some people in this sub) cares about the node name, especially in consumers segment. Most don't even care about the "nm" marketing.
Strazdas1@reddit
Since most people still call TSMC nodes with nm, we could easily adop the "TSMC 2nm node" for clarity.
From-UoM@reddit
N2 could use Nvidia's custom Olympus cores found in Vera CPU
riklaunim@reddit
Allegedly Nvidia has two chips N1 and N1X. It confused in leaks which is which but one is a laptop chip and the other is sort of workstation desktop chip.
siazdghw@reddit
I don't believe this timeframe at all unless it's a paper launch.
Dell was still tinkering with an engineering sample in December, so unless this is a paper launch there's no way it's shipping to consumers this quarter.
Also if it was ready, why did Nvidia only really show off software at CES? This is the event that Intel, AMD and Qualcomm choose to debut their laptop solutions. Even if they didn't want to share the stage, they could've scheduled it for the day after and done a whole event. Yet there was absolutely nothing. There isn't even a scheduled date for an upcoming Nvidia event.
There also hasn't even been any solid leaks yet or people with connections vague posting besides the DGX Spark relation, which if true, will make this a monster both good and bad. This will completely erase Strix Halo(which hasn't sold well..), and absolutely won't be a SoC viable for 99% of consumers due to price and power consumption.
greggm2000@reddit
I don’t believe it, except perhaps as a paper launch, since nvidia will surely prefer putting expensive RAM in expensive “AI” stuff, rather than a consumer laptop. The above might have been the plan before the RAMapocalypse, however.
-WingsForLife-@reddit
I will be looking forward to this, nvidia's software stack for video conferencing is personally useful.
sascharobi@reddit
Too bad the laptops will ship without RAM...
Gummyrabbit@reddit
They’ll all come with 4GB of RAM.
PrizeWarning5433@reddit
Checks out. I’m guessing they release Rubin desktop and integrated laptop end of 27. From what we’re hearing about nvidia’s memory situation maybe even longer. Crazy.
Working_Sundae@reddit
I hope it's not super expensive
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