Rumor has it that Nvidia is working on a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that could power PCs and even future handheld gaming devices. The speculation comes from Dan Nystedt, who says that Nvidia is working with MediaTek to develop an AI processor that could be revealed as soon as June.
Adding further weight to the rumor is XpeaGPU, who also claims Nvidia is working on a handheld SoC. The leaker says that Nvidia thinks the chip has “good market potential.” This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Nvidia looking at the growing market of handheld gaming PCs, either. In March, leaker Moore’s Law is Dead claimed that Nvidia is “worried that it’s missing the boat here” with handheld gaming PCs.
Yep and Mediatek is also working on gaming handled SoC with Nvidia GPU as Jensen is frustrated by Nintendo and he sees a good market potential.
PS: its different than the new NV semi-custom div that tries to reenter the console market (some CN clients are already interested) https://t.co/sBuYVLJILc
— AGF (@XpeaGPU) May 15, 2024
This is just a rumor, so details are light and everything is unconfirmed. However, Nystedt claims that chipmaker TSMC will manufacture the SoC on its 3nm node in the first half of 2025. The former journalist also says that the SoC will be expensive at around $300, and that MediaTek expects it to become a big part of its business.
It makes sense for both Nvidia and MediaTek to set their sights on PCs. As it stands, AMD and Qualcomm dominate the space between the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processors and AMD’s packages like the Ryzen Z1 Extreme inside the ROG Ally. MediaTek is mainly focused on low-power Chromebooks, while Nvidia hasn’t touched handhelds since the Nintendo Switch.
Meanwhile, AMD chips are inside the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, Steam Deck, and even current-gen game consoles. There’s a big push for Qualcomm-based laptops as well, which should start rolling out this year. We’ve already seen how big of a foothold handheld gaming PCs have gained, and Qualcomm-based laptops could have similar momentum. Currently, Nvidia and MediaTek are absent from that conversation.
Nvidia would have a signficant edge here as well. We’ve already seen how efficient its most recent GPUs are, and features like DLSS Frame Generation offer a massive boost to performance, even with weak hardware. Having access to Frame Generation and better battery life in a handheld gaming PC would flip the market on its head.
For now, however, this is just a rumor. It’s possible we could see a tease of Nvidia and MediaTek’s future plans at Computex in June, but it will likely be a year or more before any of this comes to fruition — if it does at all.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.