Nvidia has just presented the definitive chip against Intel and AMD. There is a problem: Windows

The Nvidia processor for PC is the “coming of the wolf” of consumer technology. The company has been the reference for years in GPU for gamers and flirted with SoCs thanks to the Tegra chips (which are what give life to both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2), but for computers they still could not find the way to get equipment with 100% Nvidia guts.

That just changed with the introduction of the RTX Spark chips. It is an SoC that directly attacks the PC binomial Windows = CPU from Intel or AMD, one that is positioned as the alternative to those traditional options and that is specifically designed to compete for the heart of the consumer PC. Specifically, for laptops.

Now, although Microsoft and Nvidia have been generating excitement for a few days and pointing out that it is the new era of the PC, there is a problem.

Windows.

The brake is no longer silicon, it could be Windows

The theory is very interesting. RTX Spark combines a Grace CPU with up to 20 cores that it has developed together with MediaTek (this is curious) with an RTX Blackwell GPU with 6,144 cores. TSMC (as it could not be otherwise) has brought the chip to life in a 3 nanometer lithography. Not only is it powerful, but it has up to 128 GB of unified memory (the same design that we see in the Apple Silicon) and an NVLink interface that allows communication between RAM, CPU and GPU to be very, very fast.

Nvidia talks about rendering heavy 3D scenes on laptops, running 120 billion parameter models, and at the same time running games at 1,440p above 100 FPS with DLSS and ray tracing. The best? That Jensen Huang stood out at the Computex conference showing this in very thin and light laptops. It is the same strategy that Qualcomm follows.

Microsoft itself has already presented a Surface with RTX Spark and it is an architecture that makes a lot of sense in the universe of current light but powerful laptops... and also in desktop computers like a Mac mini or a Mac Studio. And, compared to the more traditional PC industry, the GPU is estimated to be in the range of an RTX 5070 for laptops.

In the absence of testing it, it is undeniable that it looks good and that, although there are data that are not so favorable (such as bandwidth when compared against the most powerful Apple), it is a good addition to a segment in which, if we left the Intel/AMD duo, the only one that was trying was Qualcomm with devices like the Snapdragon X Elite.

And therein lies the key: RTX Spark, like Qualcomm chips, is focused on being the heart of a Windows that is at its brightest. Because RTX Spark is a chip with ARM architecture and, although Windows ARM performs well in office tasks, under more demanding tasks is when it begins to fall short.

Microsoft's system, which they themselves know is not at its best level of popularity due to the whole issue of AI features, has many shortcomings in its ARM version when it comes to gaming, precisely what Nvidia is promoting. It is also not the best optimized on laptops, something that is being seen with Steam Deck type machines.

We are seeing it in recent years with console PCs from Asus, MSI or Lenovo: the hardware is there, but Windows drags down the experience significantly. The paradox is that the Steam Deck, being the least capable on paper, is usually more recommended precisely because it avoids Windows and relies on a system much more fine-tuned for that format.

With RTX Spark, the two companies say they have been working for a long time to solve those problems and make this time, Windows on an ARM chip feel different with support for anti-cheat and native gaming for personal agents. We will see in practice what ends up arriving, but two things are clear here.

The first is that Microsoft gains aggressive hardware to compete face to face against Apple in the field of very powerful laptops with long battery life. The second is that Qualcomm is no longer alone in that corral and now it will be very interesting to see what hardware it responds with.

Because Nvidia already has the chip, the CUDA ecosystem and agreements with all manufacturers, as well as the support of the giant TSMC. The "weak" link, therefore, is not silicon, it is Windows on ARM that has improved a lot in recent years, but which is the element that will have the most to prove.