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Nvidia RTX Spark

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Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#321

Post by kristianp »

BoggleOhYeah wrote: post #250

Kinda underwhelming. I was hoping to see that they improved their memory bandwidth to move toward competing with the M5 Max. But this is more akin to the Strix Halo.

From what I'm reading it's probably the same chip that's used in the DGX Spark, the memory bandwidth at 300MB/s is equivalent to an M5 Pro, however you can't get an M5 Pro with 128GB of RAM. Apple pushes you to the biggest M5 Max chip, which at the 14 inch form factor, costs you $5099. You can get an ASUS GB10 machine with 2TB storage for $4000, so I guess the RTX Spark laptops will be more than that due to battery and screen, etc.

Perhaps the next generation of the spark will improve on the bandwidth and RAM size numbers. Yes it's a lot like a Strix Halo, but this has CUDA, which will be of interest to developers who want that.

I was looking for AMD AI Max+ 395 laptops recently, and the only ones I've found were 13 inch models, which seems odd from a heat dumping standpoint. I'm looking for 16 inches, I guess the 13 inch form factor would make it easy for commutes where you're taking it to dock to a large monitor at work or home, but no 14 inch screens?

Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#322

Post by Shitty-kitty »

stingraycharles wrote: post #318
Shitty-kitty wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Press releases are easy. Delivering on promises, not so much.

This thread is almost 1:1 identical to when Apple released their own silicon. This has the potential to be a worthy competitor for the Windows ecosystem, precisely because of NVidia’s moat as the grandparent pointed out. Microsoft pulls in their weight as well, so this seems like it has a decent chance of getting industry support.

Yes, there is a chance but it could also turn into another Itanium. Just because it is a superior product and backed by giants, doesn't necessarily guarantee success.

Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#323

Post by ilia-a »

Looks like just rebranded DGX in laptop form, the biggest miss is the weak memory speed, 1/2 of the M5 laptop memory speed, and 1/3 of the M3 ultra that is now years old...

Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#324

Post by deadbabe »

porphyra wrote: post #305

Lots of comments are expressing skepticism about compatibility but it's pretty cool how Nvidia has the clout to convince a bunch of game publishers and creative apps to release Arm versions. Popular games like League of Legends as well as stuff like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere are getting native Arm ports. > Over 100 Windows software providers such as Adobe, Blackmagic Design, Blender, CapCut, ComfyUI and OTOY, and…

Somewhere, a monkey’s paw must have curled its finger.

Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#327

Post by amazingman »

kllrnohj wrote: post #300
dijit wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> arguably sandbagging their x86 offering tbh, I always read this as Intel doing some sales magic here. Apple: "Hey, we're making a product that has a 15w thermal envelope, do you have anything?" Intel: "Yes!" (Unspoken: their products will throttle down to fit, in fact, they will try to run always at 99ºC so you always get the best performance! FEATURE!) Apple: "uhhhh..." Consumers: "HEH IS IT EVEN A PRO DEVICE IF I…

> tbh, I always read this as Intel doing some sales magic here. Possibly, but Apple choosing a new, thicker chassis the same generation that they introduce their more power efficient replacement is certainly a thing. Even if Intel failed to achieve the TDP they told Apple, Apple also seems to no longer believe the thinness they were doing was viable for that TDP anyway. Intel's product offering certainly wasn't as co…

This narrative only really fits the pro line, and only if you squint hard enough. The story falls apart immediately with the MacBook Air. I remember the late Intel years: constant fans spinning, noticeable latency between mouseclick and UI response, 1-2h battery life in scenarios that now reliably get 8-10. Those were dark times.

Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#328

Post by thewebguyd »

porphyra wrote: post #305

Lots of comments are expressing skepticism about compatibility but it's pretty cool how Nvidia has the clout to convince a bunch of game publishers and creative apps to release Arm versions. Popular games like League of Legends as well as stuff like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere are getting native Arm ports. > Over 100 Windows software providers such as Adobe, Blackmagic Design, Blender, CapCut, ComfyUI and OTOY, and…

Quite a few of those already have arm ports for windows, and have since the 1st gen Snapdragon X Elite. I have the surface laptop 7 with that chip, and I remember it being made a big deal when photoshop & lightroom were ported. I believe Blender also had an arm build for windows a while ago too as did Davinci Resolve (as of 2024 I believe).

The big news is more so on the games side, which is probably where Nvidia had some pull.

I'm curious what "rearchitect for RTS Spark" means in practice though. Sounds like its less convincing them to make an arm build for windows, but they are maybe taking advantage of some hardware specific features? If so, what does that mean for the Snapdragon X series I wonder?

Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#329

Post by internet2000 »

kllrnohj wrote: post #223
nerdjon wrote: post #190

Some competition for Apple in this space and competition for Intel and AMD is great. But I really do question how well Windows on Arm is really going to work out long term. For Apple it worked because they were able to force the issue. If you wanted a new Mac it was going to be Arm and we all knew eventually (this year or is it next year?) Intel support would drop. Over time we have seen M series exclusive features.…

For Apple it worked because they waited until they had a really, really good ARM ISA CPU (combined with arguably sandbagging their x86 offering for a few years prior but I digress). Qualcomm is also working on a really good ARM ISA CPU with their acquisition of NuVia and subsequent Oryon architecture. Meanwhile this is just using off-the-shelf ARM CPUs in a MediaTek SoC with blackwell bolted to the side of it. ARM's…

"Sandbagging their x86 offering" is a new one. There's no winning.

Re: Nvidia RTX Spark

#330

Post by BoredPositron »

porphyra wrote: post #305

Lots of comments are expressing skepticism about compatibility but it's pretty cool how Nvidia has the clout to convince a bunch of game publishers and creative apps to release Arm versions. Popular games like League of Legends as well as stuff like Adobe Photoshop and Premiere are getting native Arm ports. > Over 100 Windows software providers such as Adobe, Blackmagic Design, Blender, CapCut, ComfyUI and OTOY, and…

You know most of them already have arm versions...
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