- New report that Nvidia might enter consumer CPU market
- It would most likely be Arm's based
- Chips could be announced in 2025 and launch 2026
Intel and AMD currently have a stranglehold on the PC processor market, as the vast majority of consumers' PC processors come from these two manufacturer. But if this latest report is true, that duopoly could soon be challenged.
According to a new report from DigiTimes (reported on by PCGamesN), Nvidia may be planning to enter the consumer processor market by developing a new Arm-based CPU. Currently, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips have exclusive rights to Windows on Arm; however, according to Arm CEO Rene Haas, that’s set to change in 2024 with the recent news of that deal ending. There’s also the possibility stemming from Arm threatening to cancel Qualcomm’s Arm license, not to mention the rumors of Qualcomm potentially buying Intel.
While there’s no definitive answer for when this processor will launch, if ever, the report from Digitimes states that an announcement of the Nvidia chips could happen in September 2025, with a possible launch date of March 2026.
How much further can Nvidia push it?
It sounds like a smart move from Team Green, as it could use its vast reputation in the PC world to further push into the PC processor market and give Intel and AMD some much needed competition.
However, the lack of an x86 license might pose an issue for Nvidia. There’s a chance that it could be acquired through Qualcomm, if the two manufacturers join up and the rumors about the latter purchasing Intel become a reality.
Then there’s also the possibility that Team Green could be heading into the gaming processor market, which would pair nicely with its already dominant graphics cards. Of course, such an endeavor would take quite a bit of investment as Nvidia would have to dedicate a lot of resources to porting games to the Arm architecture.
And though the performance has proven to be well-optimized and impressive in its own right, Windows on Arm is still unsupported natively by most PC software and games, a hurdle that also holds back gaming on Macs. But if Valve could get a host of PC games to support Linux through SteamOS for the Steam Deck, then there’s definitely a chance that Nvidia could push for the same for Arm.
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